What is one of the most powerful things that starts your motor in the morning? Right, a cup of freshly brewed coffee: a mug of filter coffee, a shot of espresso, a nice americano with a splash of cream, a frothy cappuccino, a caffè latte with steamed milk, or a cup of instant coffee. The possibilities are endless, the pleasure of coffee drinking is universal.
Several species of the genus Coffea produce the berries that people use to extract coffee. The most well-known and commercially important species are Coffea canephora (which is called ‘robusta’) and Coffea arabica. Plants give us coffee fruits that contain seeds which we usually call beans. This is the raw material that is then transformed into unroasted green coffee. Green seeds are to be roasted, and that is what transforms them into a consumable and loved product.
A stimulating extract
Nowadays we hear a lot about green coffee extract, the idea is gaining traction but the tradition of brewing green coffee seeds dates back to the times when people knew little about proper processing of the beans.
In Africa aborigines would simply crush the green seeds and boil them to make a simple stimulating extract. This, hand on heart, does not taste good at all. Descriptions on the internet are like “old peas”, “herby chamomile”, or “unusual flavour” being the most positive. Of course, some people compare the green coffee flavour to that of a green tea, but that’s kind of a stretch.
Prepare something interesting
But it doesn’t mean that you can’t have a nice drink with green coffee extract. Prepare it first by combining 300 g of water with 100 g of green beans in a pot and bring water to a simmer. Hold the beans in the water for ten minutes, strain the liquid and reserve for future consumption.
You can try the infusion right away to form your own opinion on the matter of flavour of the green beans. But don’t go too hard on it, remember, you are going to prepare something interesting.
To balance the acidity and sharpness of the extract, you’ll need a spiced syrup. Take 200 g of brown sugar and combine with the same amount of water in a pot. Add 1 tsp of star anise, cloves, cardamom seeds each and bring everything to a boil. Let the sugar dissolve, keep it for 5 minutes on the stove and then strain the syrup.
Now you can combine the green bean extract with the spiced syrup in 2:1 ratio. And now start creating your own crazy summer caffeinated drinks. Mix that spiced bean mixture with carbonated soda and ginger beer, orange juice and angostura bitter, cherry-ade and ice cream. Imagine how cool (in all sense of the word) this might be!
What do you think?