There's a neat little coffee shop in Reims France that I visited the other day called Moklair. I tagged along with a friend who works in the coffee industry while he dropped off samples to the shop owner. We had a cup of coffee and chatted with one of the shop owners for a bit, getting to know their story and their shops philosophy.
The shop is run by a young couple who recently opened the doors to their new café. They specialize in selling and serving high quality coffees which they have basically made into their philosophy.
From the website:
Moklair was born from the desire to return to a qualitative and responsible coffee model. When you also opt for the return of traceability, quality and the development of micro-terroirs, you promote the preservation of agricultural heritage, fair redistribution for coffee growers and the promotion of their know-how. We are looking for talented men and women, unusual terroirs or processes and farms that care about the environment and the little hands that work their coffee trees.
The owners are clearly passionate about what they are doing. We could see that in how they prepared their coffees and through talking about their journey to open their shop. I watched as the owner spinkled dried flower petals onto the foam of a cappuccino she had just prepared for another one of their patrons. Super fancy!
Being a new and young business owner and selling a high quality product is not without its challenges though. High quality generally means a higher price point and many people just aren't willing to pay more for a cup of coffee. It's understandable, money will always be a limiting factor.
The Cafe itself was quite small and was set up in a lounge / bar like fashion. Trendy looking artwork was hanging on the walls, created by a local French artist that goes by the name Elbi. He is also the one who designed Moklairs packaging as well as the sign out front of the shop.
The owner served us a cup of coffee each while we shot the shit for a while. We both tried something different and the owner gave us two small shot glasses so we could try the other persons coffee. My friends was super interesting and like nothing I had ever tried before. It was fermented which was really unique to me - I didn't even know that fermented coffee was a thing to be honest.
She did a pour over for us and used scales to measure the exact quantity of coffee to water ratios. Then she served it in special glasses specifically designed to be used in coffee tasting competitions, which she enters regularly. The glasses themselves cost 40.00 euros!?!
Its probably needless to say, but the coffee was quite good there in the store and the experience was very unique for me.
I ended up buying a box to take home, a blend from Comumbia that was different then what I had in the shop. I will admit that the package was quite expensive for me personally and not something I would purchase on a regular bases.
Since the coffee was a better quality then what im used to I wanted to get the most out of the experience so I did a pour over even though I don't have the proper equipment to do it right. I really don't know if it made a difference either???
I used my French press and my drip machine filter to hole the paper one. I even researched online to get the correct water to coffee ratios. Apparently from what I read the ratio is 15-16 parts water to 1 part coffee grounds.
I made two cups. One for me and one for my wife.
This Gets a bit Technical
Note: I start to ramble on here about the technical side of coffee so feel free to skip this if you are not interested.
You are probably wondering how the coffee tasted. Well firstly, the aroma was actually incredible and I'm not even exaggerating here. It was roasted of course but also very floral. I actually did a bunch of research on coffee a while back on learned that coffee beans have different flavors based on where they are produced. These are called origin flavors. They can be fruity or floral or nutty...etc and so on. The coffee I bought was definitely on the floral and fruity side.
Coffee is actually similar to grapes and wine when you think about it. Different regions with different soil and water produce differet flavor profiles in the grapes. Similar grapes can taste different if they come from different regions in the world.
Something that is really interesting though is that the origin flavors in coffee dissipate during the roasting process. Basically roasting removes the origin flavors and replaces them with generic roasted notes, such as the general flavors that you associate with coffee like toasted caramel and chocolate...etc. There is a trend in most coffee shops and facilities, especially the big names like Starbucks and Tim Hortons, which is to sell high roasted coffees. This isn't because high roasted coffee tastes better, it's actually for consistency purposes. Since roasting the coffee at higher levels creates a generic coffee flavor, a company can buy beans from multiple suppliers around the world and roast away their origin flavors to create a generic "signature" blend that always tastes the same. In mass production and branding, consistency is key.
Going back to wine now - this same process is similar to barrel aging. When a wine is aged in the barrel for extended periods of time the flavor of the grapes tends to dissipate as the wine takes on more flavors from the oak. Basically the oak flavor masks the taste of the grapes themselves. Generally a high quality wine will want to showcase the grapes not the barrels, so they will age their wine less than say a low quality product. Similarly a lower quality coffee bean will generally have a higher roast.
So basically, this high quality coffee I bought likely had a lower roast in order to allow those fruity and floral aromas to be maintained.
Now that that was all said I'll get back to this particular coffee. Again the aroma was amazing but the taste....
It was a bit too acidic for me. whomp whomp.
I generally don't like acidic coffees and the package that I grabbed ended up being a coffee with high levels of acidity. Damn. It was a good quality coffee with an amazing aroma but it was nonetheless disappointing to me because I happened to grab a style that didn't match my taste preferences. I really should have asked the owner to make a suggestion based on what I like in coffee because I really enjoyed the one she served in the shop and they had all sorts of different options for sale on the shelf.
I'll have to remember that for next time.