Happy halloween 🎃 everybody !
Last year I missed out on a halloween drink so this year I new I had to put something on the menu to celebrate it. Majority of South Africans don’t celebrate it as it is more of an American thing. Though we do have a few that enjoy the concept of dressing up and going out late at night for drinks ! Instead of letting kids go out to trick or treat . Here it is mostly a party vibe theme . There are places that host halloween parties like in Parkhurts where there is a pub that decorated their owl bar halloween themed they even had a mirror in the bathroom that looked like a picture and when you moved to the side of it the image of te person turned in to a zombie . The bar was called The Station and it was actually a British themed pub. Which was pretty cool, their drinks menu was crazy long though I swear they had every gin available “not my cup of tea” but they literally needed an accounting file to store all those pages .. luckily their menu was downloadable but any way enough about pubs
How could I not introduce a pumpkin spice specialty drink !! On my menus for halloween 👻. This is actually a new flavour that my suppliers had released so I had to get it and try it out in all different kinds of ways..
I tried it as a hot beverage and cold beverage. The pumpkin spice flavour with coffee reminds me of a dirty chai actually , which is a chai tea and an espresso shot. It is really beautiful and the spice notes of cinnamon stand out. The coffee gives it that extra kick. I definitely did not make a wrong movie buying this flavour actually. Do you want to know where I did go wrong though ! It was when I was writing the name and promoting it on my board. I actually wrote “ Pumkin Spice” and no one noticed it but a school teacher ! An English school teacher.
This is my first time trying out this flavour and so far I’m, impressed . I made it as a coffee shake and aswell as a milkshake. My other big mistake was trying it as a coffee shake cause the flavour had boosted and then I tried it as a milkshake..the problem was it tasted like it was missing something and that was the coffee, it is like drinking chocolate with coffee all the time then just drinking chocolate by itself. I should of tried the milkshake first ..
The ice coffee sets of a good spring time drink, so I’m definitely keeping it in the menu. Kindly note my test trials are in 650ml cups cause who wouldn’t want to drink 650mls of coffee. It is bad to try it in big cups because sometimes you have taste a lot of flavours but on that day I just needed to try the pumpkin spice ice latte. I knew I was not going to dislike it and have to throw it away . As an ice coffee though it isn’t sweet sweet as you would expect syrups to br. I think it is really balanced with the flavours and you can taste the spices and not just over powering sweetness.
Filter Coffee or pour over !
Which type of way would you prefer to brew your coffee? As a pour over or a filter machine.
The way I feel about filter machines is it is a chore ! As you need to clean the machine after every use. The pot the filter mesh after every cup and then cleaning out the filtration device once a month
Where as pour over for me is the most satisfying and aswell interesting way to make coffee. The cleaning is phenomenal and literally easy . This is not about laziness though for me though this is more of effectiveness and consistency.
My favourite part about a pour over is the cupcake that the coffee forms!! The freshness and the distinctive aroma. Pot overs do have ratios aswell and brew time . Though I’m not going to get in to that now. Maybe when I get a specialty type coffee I will do a walk through.
I would say when you pour the coffee from the pot, or i your using your mug it literally looks like liquid honey, abit darker .. the aroma does travel through out the coffee shop which I love. Apart of me had also been persuading people to get a V60 pour over instead of a filter machine . That is if they want to explore coffee on a deeper level.
You are able to control the temperature of the water as well which is a big pro . Having the correct temperature helps a lot with the flavour of the coffee as you don’t want too much of a boiling hot coffee and you well end of with a slight caramelised taste.. filter machines though maybe the news have water temperature control but what I do know and what was suggested was to place hot boiling water in to the filter machines so the temperature is consistent.
I must say I do enjo the bubbles 🫧 and making the bubbles on top of the coffee, It is not soap my cups do get rinsed really well. You can actually make it super bubble when you pour the coffee from abit of a height and it smack the coffee in the cup while pouring it is pretty cool!!
Be sure to tell me what type of brew method do you prefer though and how you feel about the different type of brewing method. For some reason even though I enjoy pour overs my heart will always reside with espresso shots. That is actually how I taste all my coffee. But with the knowledge of pour overs I know some coffees are best kept to a distinctive brewing method. Well who says you can’t push abit if the boundaries and try thinking out the box at times . You will never know what you get if you do not try them out !
Stay caffeinated every one and thank you for reading my blog!