At Artemis, there’s plenty of work which takes place behind our cold-brewery doors in order to create the great cold brew coffee that you know and love.
The initial phase is the coffee selection for each of the products. As you may know already, our products really vary in flavour profiles and service style. However, in order to select the coffees for these products we go through roughly the same initial process. Let’s delve into it!
What do we look for when selecting coffees?
At the moment, each of our products have a point of focus, which we take into account when sampling and tasting within our cold-brewery. We mostly look for specific flavour profiles in the coffees we taste, however we are always open to tasting new and exciting coffees, especially experimental lots and new crops from under-appreciated origins.
At the moment, our focus for the ready-to-drink is African coffees and the first new coffee of 2019 will be a syrupy sweet Burundi from North Star. Last year, we were really impressed with what we tried from the African country of Burundi. With this in mind, it was a no-brainer to taste and sample what they had on offer this year, and as expected it’s better than ever.
What coffees do we use at the moment?
Concentrate:
Origin: Brazil Fazenda Chapadao Single Estate
Process: Natural
Varietal: Mundo Novo, Catuai
Tasting notes: Dark Chocolate Plum and Nuts with a Creamy body
Nitro:
Origin: Colombia Los Monjes, Huila
Process: Washed
Varietal: Caturra, Castillo, Colombia, Typica
Tasting notes: Toffee Apple, Cream, Caramel sweetness.
Ready-to-Drink Cold Brew:
Origin: Burundi Benga, Kayanza
Process: Washed
Varietal: Bourbon
Tasting Notes: Blood Orange, Mango, Peach.
How do we select our coffees?
Our first port of call is the standard cupping method. This is to taste the coffees hot and establish what they could be like served cold. We use this method because it’s the most simple and accessible way to get an insight into the coffee’s characteristics. Once we’ve cupped and got a feel for the coffees, it is then time to take the stand-outs forward to the next round.
Now comes the cold-brewery trials…
Each of the chosen coffees from the cupping get brewed in super small batches so we can get an idea of its potential when brewed cold. From this, we can analyse data of how the coffees extracts, and taste when it comes to full batch cold brewing. Once we’ve played around with ratios, water and all the other variables we can control to ensure we’re happy with the flavour profile, we select our favourite to be put into production.
But, it’s not over yet. In order to upscale the brews it takes a little more experimenting to get the strength and flavour profile just right. All of the factors of brewing are monitored and recorded time passes. Every single brew is strength-tested and tasted to keep it in-line with our key value of quality. Once it’s passed Quality Control and we’re satisfied with the products, they’re finally ready to be bottled and labelled by hand before it’s shipped to your very hands.
