– by Steve Sheppard –
Being heavily involved in the coffee scene, I often get phone calls from local roasters to come over and sample a new exotic roast they want to share, or see some new piece of technology they think nobody else has … yet. You can imagine my intrigue when I got an email from my roaster friends at Fresh Cup Roastery Café with the heading “cask conditioned roasted coffee has been born here on Vancouver Island!” Aside from coffee, I enjoy craft beer, boutique spirits, and full-bodied red wine – bottom line: I love new flavour experiences. We’re entering the realm where coffee, beer and spirits collide.
Before getting too excited, I researched casks and barrels and their role in the coffee industry before the burlap bag was introduced. Casks and barrels were often used to transport the green coffee and a host of other items on ships back in the day. Occasionally something would spill on the green coffee, or someone would mistakenly put green coffee into a barrel that was used for an intense spice or wine. These accidents caused the green coffee to be ruined (or so they thought) and thrown out, as the bean would take on the liquid or aroma of the previous contents of the barrel. Fast forward 300 or 400 years and with the specialty coffee industry moving at warp speed in terms of flavour expectations, we seem to be entering new territory.
I met with Jim and Larry at the Roastery in Saanichton to taste their newest creation and was pleasantly surprised. They shared the backstory on barrel-aged coffee and how it’s been slowly coming onto the scene in the U.S. with mixed success. Rather than dumping green coffee into a barrel and waiting, the duo took a more scientific approach with their infusion process. They devised a technique to infuse naturally-occurring flavour of the various spirits, beer and wines into the beans, to yield a whole new category of coffee. Also, conditioning the green coffee in smaller casks sped up the infusion process. “We wanted to elevate our already great coffee with something that would bring it together with the craft beer, spirits and wine worlds,” noted Jim. In discussion with Larry, Lead Roaster at Fresh Cup, he pointed out that craft brewers have been putting coffee into beer and espresso into vodka for some time, but no one has considered taking things the other way. Larry explains: “By introducing the flavour elements that make up bourbon, scotch, rum, gin, mead wines and craft root beer to the green coffee and then roasting the beans, it leaves behind something that you wouldn’t expect.”
I sampled three of their cask-conditioned roasted coffees scheduled for release at the end of November: Bourbon, Rum and Honey Mead Wine. Each of the different types had something uniquely interesting to offer the coffee experience. “These are not going to be morning coffees; they will be afternoon or evening coffees you serve with dessert or when company comes over,” noted Jim. We shared a couple more samples and chatted about where things are going in the coffee world and Jim passionately stated: “People’s taste expectations always go up, and to remain at the head of pack you have to be a coffee innovator now, not just a roaster or exceptional barista.”
In light of the fact that people are willing to pay a premium price for coffee that has passed through the stomach of a cat, I believe that Fresh Cup’s Cask-Conditioned Roasted Coffee will appeal to those looking for a spirited coffee without the alcohol. I can’t wait to try the rum-infused coffee with a bit of egg nog at Christmas … Steve out.
