The art of coffee (talk) comes to Taste of Cavan

Friday’s Taste of Cavan (ToC) will feature an in-depth discussion on coffee, but if you’re wondering which is the best brew, coffee connoisseur Andy Pierce insists that beauty’s in the taste buds of the beholder.

To help people discover their personal favourite, the J&B Hope proprietor has invited experts from renowned German company JJ Darboven along to provide some helpful tips.
Key to flavour is choice of bean, Andy explains in his Bridge Street shop, as customers filter in for a brew. There are two types of bean; Arabica and Robusta.
“The Arabica are considered by most to be the higher quality bean, and they tend to grow at the higher altitudes and are fruitier, crisper and have a more acidic taste off them. You will see a lot of coffee that says 100% Arabica, and people feel that if they have 100% Arabica that’s where they are going to get the best coffee bean and the best flavour.
“On the other end of the scale you have the Robusta - it’s a much more bitter taste, however a lot of people think that coffee has to have a crema, right? And to get good crema you need Robusta - the robusta actually develops the crema better than the Arabica. So the key to good coffee to my mind, is knowing how to blend your coffee.”
Andy enthusiastically compares coffee blends to whiskeys, equating one blend with Jack Daniels and another with Johnny Walker.
“You can get a single malt, but the best whiskeys in the world are always going to be blends, where some craftsman has got in there and taken the time to taste it and blend it to come up with the richest, fullest flavour. Really the art of coffee is blending.”
Unlatching the hopper from his coffee maker, he shows the various rich tones in the JJ Darboven blend they use.
“Their coffees are absolutely the best,” Andy claims. “See the different colours - they are the different roasts, they’ve been fired at different temperatures for different lengths of time.
“Then you’ll see the oval bean with a straight line, that’s your Robusta, and the oval one with the crooked line, a kind of 'S' in it, that’s your Arabica.”
His view on Nespresso pod machines?
“It is good coffee, however it does limit you. If you have a mocha or a plunger and a grinder you can enjoy any coffee in the world. If you have a Nespresso, you’re limited to the pods.”
Andy tries not to drink coffee after 5pm, but admits he drinks tea adding, 'and they say tea has more caffeine than coffee'.
The Celt wonders at the changing advice on whether coffee is good or bad for you.
'It’s kind of like eggs - it depends on the week and the study. I would say that coffee brings a lot of joy to people. And most of the studies would say, like everything, drunk in moderation there’s a benefit.'
As part of Friday’s ToC event in the limited capacity Pod venue, they plan to show people how to use a French press, or cafetière and how to get the most out of their coffee.
'We’ll talk about different ways to make it so that at home you’ll get the best coffee experience and then afterwards we’ll have a machine set up over on our stand and have two baristas to show people how to do the frothing and a bit of the latte art.'