Page 56 - #58 English

Cover Story

Pick some food
to complement and
enhance the aromas

of that particular

coffee bean and
brew style.

All for one perfect cup of coffee brunch) with coffees to make it more suitable for
consumers. What is more, nowadays consumers need
to be surprised, that is why new coffee & food com-
However, talking about organs responsible for tast- binations should be on the menu of each coffee shop,
ing and pairing food, only 20% of our flavor experience which will make the competition between them even
is due to an actual sense of taste, far more important is more interesting.
our sense of smell, according to FoodPairing.com. As To step out of comfort zone as well as comfort-food
much as 80% of what we call taste is actually aroma. zone and try new pairings you should focus on training
Once you understand this it will be much easier for you your palate and use Flavor Wheel to complement your
to pair coffee and food. Not to mention, coffee beans coffee with nice food: experts suggest that having
also have different flavors and it affects a final cup and similar or complementary flavors together helps to
the food pairing, of course. The rules are pretty simple: emphasize each flavor. If you have been wondering what
pick some food to complement and enhance the aromas to pair your coffee with, you should not stick to tradi-
of that particular coffee bean and brew style. But how tional pairings like breakfast or desserts; instead we
can you do it without good old experiment? No reason suggest you to concentrate on tasting your coffee and
to be scared, as Van Lin, founder of GABEE. coffee shop, pair it with matching flavors, for example, if you feel
told us, the worst pairing for coffee is green vegetables, strong fruit notes and acidity in your coffee try to match
as they will highlight the bitterness, and the rest of the it with some berries, fruits or even fruit pies; if your
coffee&food matches should be explored: so let your coffee has a light body then cheddar or any other type
feelings work together to discover the beauty of food of hard cheese will be perfect for the pairing. At last,
and coffee together. try your coffee with chocolate and pastries: dark
Moreover, food at coffee houses is becoming a chocolate will be perfect for dark roasted coffee as both
strong part of the menu as not every customer who flavors are strong, milk chocolate should be tried with
comes to the coffee shop is all about coffee. And in every coffee, but the best combinations are with Ke-
fact we all know that coffee is seen as a daytime prod- nyan, Ethiopian and Colombian coffees, and, finally,
uct, that is why Van Lin suggests café owners to think white chocolate goes better with coffees from South
about pairing daytime kind of food (breakfast, lunch,
America as they have mild flavors.

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