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New beans, brews and roasts at the Mumbai Coffee Festival 2024
Summary
Liberica beans, wine barrel-aged coffee and elevated home brewing equipment kept caffeine levels high at the recently concluded Mumbai Coffee Festival
On Saturday, Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant were at Mumbai Coffee Festival (MCF) 2024 sampling coffee from Toise Coffee Roastery + Brewstudio, a month-old café located in Worli. The event, now in its third edition, is an annual gathering of coffee lovers in the city to sample the best of specialty offerings from across the country. Here’s a round-up of five interesting finds:
1. Liberica coffee launch
If you want a break from the regular Arabica or Robusta, then Liberica is the perfect new bean to try. Although it has around 25% less caffeine compared to Arabica, its stronger smoky taste is much appreciated. At MCF, Dope Coffee Roasters launched its first Liberica beans with an exclusive festival branded packaging that saw a small but curious group of connoisseurs enjoy it. Made using the pour over method, it will make an impression with strong caffeine notes in the beginning, then release flavours of raisins, citrus and sweet spices as it starts to cool.
2. Roast your own beans
Toise Coffee Roastery + Brewstudio didn’t just bring the youngest Ambani couple to their stall, but also welcomed a steady stream of people who love to roast. While roasting is usually associated with massive commercial machines, the Toise team had brought a mini roastery where guests could add about 150 grams of green beans, hear it crack as the beans came into their own before dropping into a tray with the weight reducing to about 120 grams. It’s an experience that they offer at their café as well and wanted to showcase it at the festival, co-founder Mrinalini Shah said. The team took turns to explain how coffee roasting works to a steady stream of coffee lovers.
3. Two big drops by Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters
Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters introduced two new options. The first was their long-anticipated Gesha coffee made with India’s Riverdale Estate and the other was a wine barrel-aged coffee in collaboration with Fratelli Wines. While Gesha was the bigger star at the event and even saw Blue Tokai’s co-founder Matt Chittaranjan and Prakashan Balaraman from Riverdale Estate at the festival brewing the delicate beans, it was the wine barrel-aged coffee that deserved its own spotlight. “We kept coffees in three different barrels from Fratelli for almost seven weeks that added a lot of complexity. We also rinsed the barrel with the same wine before adding in the beans and rotated the barrel every five to six days to evenly spread the characteristics of the barrel on to the beans. This one is interesting because we didn’t want a super wine-y coffee, we aimed to balance the wine with the coffee and I think the result is good," says Asif Salim, Senior Roaster of Blue Tokai. This unique packet will go live on their website in a couple of weeks. The Gesha, on the other hand, is only available via pre-booking.
Also read: The champagne of coffees: Gesha's rise in India
4. Elevated home brewing equipment
“More than a manual brewers’ market, India is a cappuccino and espresso market (for equipment)," shares Abhinav Mathur, CEO of Something’s Brewing, an online marketplace for all things coffee. His statement was borne out as I saw another consumer placing an order for the company’s latest home brewing equipment called Budan One Touch that allows consumers to use pod capsules such as Nespresso for fuss-free brewing, as well as a compartment where one can add ground coffee from any roaster and enjoy their espresso the way they like.
Mathur said that MCF sees coffee lovers over home brewers who are constantly thinking how to recreate the café experience at home and the Budan One Touch, launched six months ago, provides the perfect platform to do just that. Something’s Brewing also showcased other equipment at MCF that will soon be on sale. These include equipment from Australia-based Breville, considered the world’s biggest home coffee brand; Fellow Aiden, a coffee machine made in California that promises multiple coffee brewing styles at the touch of a button; and launched the Italian coffee equipment brand’s La Marzocco’s Micra home espresso machine in new colours.
5. The Pallonji kick
Lower Parel-based Zane’s Café’s Cold Brew with Pallonji Ice Cream Soda was a big hit at the festival. Pallonji Ice Cream Soda is an iconic soft drink served in age-old Parsi restaurants in Mumbai. Zane made a drink using a 20-hour cold brew mixed with it. The combination was an unusual play on the palate with the cold brew staying in the background for a refreshing experience with just a soft coffee hit. Perhaps it’s fitting that a drink made with a beloved Mumbai brand was the most popular at MCF 2024.
Priyanko Sarkar is a Mumbai-based writer covering the F&B industry.
