I attended a coffee seminar at Ash Creek, Greenhills with Janice and Edge last Saturday. :)






I never knew there was so much culture behind coffee and coffee-tasting. There were rituals pala in Africa for coffee. Much like the Japanese tea ceremonies. :) And I thought the flavors of each bag were artificial. Everything was natural pala and the flavor depends on where it's grown and how it's processed.

According to the Coffee Masters, there are 2 ways to process coffee: wet and natural/dry. The beans processed manually (wet) have a "brighter" acidity than the sun-dried ones.

While coffee can be enjoyed alone, the coffee masters suggested that food pairing is a good way to bring out the coffee's flavor.



We tried 3 flavors that day.
1.) Ethiopia Sidamo
2.) Tanzania
3.) Arabian Mocha Sanani


Ethiopia Sidamo
From the birthplace of coffee, Sidamo is highly prized by coffee buyers from around the world. It features a fleeting, floral aroma with a bright yet soft finish and, like the best Sidamo coffees, a wonderful hint of lemon.

Food Pairings: The key flavor to set off this coffee's charm is lemon - lemon poppyseed muffins, lemon blueberry biscotti and lemon bars.

Trivia: Sidamo is Ethiopia's southernmost province bordering on Kenya.




Tanzania (tan-za-nee-ya) From Tanzania, a medium-bodied coffee with unmistakably East-African characteristics. It has crisp, clean flavor with refined berry and bright citrus notes.

Food pairings: Tanzania has a wonderful fruity flavor that pairs wonderfully with raisins, currants, juicy, sweet fruits like peaches and berries, and tart, tangy fruits like citrus and kiwi.

Trivia: Grown in East Africa’s fertile Rift Valley.
 Showing us how to use the coffee press and how much coffee to use when prepared with ice. We tried both hot and cold for the Tanzania. :)

And lastly, my choice among the three,


Arabian Mocha Sanani
Here's Starbucks' most exotic and unpredictable coffee, laden with flavors of deep port wine, berry fruit, warm earthen spices and cocoa.

Food pairings: A currant scone or a slice of spicy carrot cake are a good match for this coffee.

That day, I tried The Very Berry Cheesecake and it really brought out the coffee's berry flavor.

Trivia: Yemen rests on the Indian Ocean. Coffee buyers use Sanani to refer to coffee growing region around Sana'a, the capital of Yemen.


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As we started the coffee tasting, they taught us 4 coffee-tasting steps to make coffee drinking an experience rather than just a ritual.

Step 1: Cup the cup. You put your cupped hand over the cup, leaving just enough room for the vapor to come out, then you take a whiff.

Step 2: Slurp, not sip. The noisier, the better. This way, you won't burn your taste buds and the coffee spreads all throughout your tongue.

Step 3: Locate the experience. Try to loctate which part of your tongue reacts to the coffee's flavor.

Step 4: Describe the experience. Each flavor has a story. And each person experiencing it has a different story for every flavor. What's yours?

When enjoying coffee with dessert that brings out its flavor: slurp the coffee, eat a very small piece of the dessert, then slurp the coffee again. This will help bring out the coffee's flavor.

We had a bit of a quiz at the end and I won nyahaha. :) Gave my prize to Janice. :)
It was definitely different from my usual weekend activities. Now I feel so cultured. :)

Hnyurnyur. :)