Mommy me time: For the love of coffee

People who know me know that I cannot live without coffee.  It started with my grandmother who herself is a coffee lover.  Every time we slept at my their house, she would always make us a cup of coffee with a whole lot of milk.  I loved the aroma and taste of coffee.  As early as elementary days, I was hooked on coffee and enjoyed mornings with grandma who seemed to make the perfect cup every time.  Taster's choice was her brand back then and that was the only brand that I knew of.

Fast forward to the late 90's when Starbucks came into the picture and I was in college, designer coffee never tasted so good.  But there comes a point in your life when your preferences change and while I still enjoy flavored coffee with all its sugar from time to time, I found myself looking beyond Starbucks and CBTL.  With the entry of Third Wave Coffee a few years back, I could not be more happier.   

That perfect cup of Cappuccino.







My love affair with this drink has span more than twenty years.  And when I came across EDSA Beverage Design Studio's workshop offering on Coffee, I had to enroll myself to get to know my beverage of choice better. I enrolled in the Specialty Coffee Fundamentals class which covered three modules:  Intro to Specialty Coffee, Tasting & Cupping, and  Brewing 101.  The class is every Saturday and if you take all three modules, it will be for 3.5 hours.  In case you are interested, I suggest you take all three in one sitting rather than taking it one at a time.  Total cost for the class is P1900. 

Introduction to specialty coffee and Brewing 101 EDSA Design Studio.

I am no coffee expert but enrolling in this class made me a little knowledgeable of the different varieties of coffee, how it is processed and how it should be prepared.  I honestly did not know that poor water will lead to poor coffee!



My first cupping session.



I also had my first cupping session.  Similar to wine tasting, deciding on the best beans can be complicated and follow the same principle (Yes, you also have to spit it out and the noisier you slurp the better!).  There are several aspects that you have to take into consideration like fragrance, aroma, acidity, body, flavor, aftertaste and overall impression. 

After learning all the theories, we also had a hands on activity wherein we had to grind and brew our coffee ourselves.  The Baristas judged who had the best tasting coffee afterwards.  I unfortunately did not win.  How I poured the water impacted my brew. Lesson learned, just like baking and cooking you cannot hurry the process because it will affect the end product.


Preparing to Grind and Brew.




There was a contest on the perfect brew.  Everything you do affects the taste of the coffee!





With my fellow coffee enthusiasts and our teachers.  That sign we made was their advocacy on NO TO BAD COFFEE.  It is also not a coincidence that our eyes should be closed, I just was not following directions, LOL

After this class, I appreciated coffee more and I suddenly tried to stay away from 3-in-1 coffee and was more conscious in not putting too much of milk and sugar in my coffee and enjoy it as it is.