The very minute I reached Bangalore I stumbled across Lynn Mascarenhas post which mentioned that she would be taking a small interactive workshop on Coffee & Conservation and there would be Coffee Tasting as well the same evening at Somethings Brewing and right at that moment in the bus I decide that I am attending this no matter what 😂
I've been following Lynn on social media for quite a while now and she puts up some really interesting things about coffee, oh and their family owns a massive estate in Chickmagalur, Karnataka where they produce Specialty Robusta Coffee Beans 🥺 How amazing is that! (P.S at the end of the workshop she told me that if I drop by the estate she'd give me a tour and even explain in detail about Coffee Production)
Their Coffee Estate is Completely Sustainable By Reducing Weeding, Using Berry Borer Traps And Completely Stopping
The Usage Of Pesticides.
Me and 
Lynn explained quite a bit about her Coffee Estate about the flora and fauna of the region and how important they were to the production of their coffee and the diversity of birds in their estate is insane. Her parents Vimala Mascarenhas & Lionel Mascarenhas also spoke a bit about various ways Coffee Beans are processed (half Of Which Flew Over My head 💔)
Here's some random insightful facts I picked up from her 1 hour session which I found Interesting.
Can You Eat Raw Coffee Cherries ?
Can You Eat Raw Coffee Cherries ?
Yupp, you can eat raw coffee cherries, since they are essentially a fruit. But I wouldn’t advice eating too many, though.
It’s kind of sweet and refreshing, yet it still has a unique coffee cherry flavour. It also has caffeine at the same level as that of black tea.
However, if you’re curious about experiencing the flavour of the coffee cherry, you should try Cascara.
Cascara is a byproduct made from coffee that has long been popular with coffee farmers in Latin America. After the cherries have been de-pulped, the coffee skin is dried carefully and the end product is known as Cascara or sometimes as Coffee Cherry Tea.
Where Did The Idea Of Eating Coffee Cherries Come From ?
Where Did The Idea Of Eating Coffee Cherries Come From ?
Well an old legend of how coffee was discovered is that a Ethiopian herder Kaldi noticed that his goats suddenly had a lot of energy after eating coffee cherries. You have probably also heard about the notorious Kopi Luwak, which is coffee cherries eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet 😂
Yes i'm dead serious, Kopi Luwak is also The Worlds Most Expensive Coffee which can cost you anywhere between $35 to $100 a cup 😂 Luckily i've had had the pleasure of tasting this poop coffee and I can certainly say that i'll prefer Arabica or Robusta any day over this 🤣 (It's Earthy, Nutty And Really Rich But Then Again So Are Other Cheaper Coffees)
Next Up We Finally Have Coffee Tasting
Next Up We Finally Have Coffee Tasting
Some odd reason I thought there was a Cupping Session as well 🥺 I was disappointed when I got to know that it was just a coffee tasting session and there wasn't going to be any cupping whatsoever.
The coffee beans we tasted were from Lynn's farm were processed using a method known as Honey Washed Process
The Anatomy Of A Coffee Cherry
The Anatomy Of A Coffee Cherry
In Honey Washed Process the skin and pulp are completely removed and some or all of the Mucilage remains. This Mucilage layer is also referred to as Honey because the Mucilage of the coffee cherry is really sticky and slimy.
During the Honey Process, coffee is dried with some or all of the mucilage remaining on the parchment which encases the seed. Coffee cherries are then. picked, sorted and de-pulped and are then moved to drying patios or beds.
Because there is only a little bit of fermentation that takes place in this short amount of time that it takes for the mucilage to dry, coffees processed in this way feature a little more acidity than Pressure Washed Coffees, but are also significantly less acidic than Washed or Natural Coffees.
First up they started off with a French Press and I managed to capture some decent shots of the head barista preparing them
Then we had Cascara Tea also made using French Press and I took a series of burst shot sand made the following GIF, It had really light flavours and this pretty much wasn’t my choice of beverage.
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Next a personal favourite The V60 Dripper
Next a personal favourite The V60 Dripper
Just have a look at that Bloom, It's not perfect but the it's still a wonderful bloom to look at 😍
Next Up Is The Classic Espresso 🤤
Next Up Is The Classic Espresso 🤤
Now that was a fantastic shot of Espresso, I went ahead and asked for 3 more shots 🙈 uggh they were soo good.
Also this is something I forgot to mention about their Robusta beans, in general Robusta Coffee tastes quite earthy and is often said to have a bitter unpleasant esant rubbery/grain-like flavour, with a peanutty aftertaste which is something I really love 😂 but the Robusta from Lynn's estate aren’t bitter at all which kind off threw me off because i've never had a Robusta Coffee that wasn’t bitter, This was actually quite good for a change and something I really enjoyed. Hoping to taste more from their estate some day 🥺
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