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| Steampunk is retro cool--an amalgamation of sci-fi images influenced by Victorian-era antique machinery; paintings by Escher and movies like Blade Runner and Mad Max. |
It’s a bold coffee
house that bills itself as the world’s best.
But in an era of “who can shout the loudest” bravado seems to be
working, especially in Cape Town, South Africa, where Truth Coffee’s eclectic
brand is a hit.
For
the record, Truth Coffee is a coffee roaster, coffee house, café and coffee
realm of its own. The “world’s best”
title was bestowed on the establishment by an exuberant UK media outlet. Nonetheless, owner/founder David Donde was
thrilled with the kudos and has run with it ever since. The world’s best title overshadows his
previous claim to fame as the one who brought flat white to South Africa in
2005. No one argues when it’s billed as
the truth. And, anyone bringing truth to
the world is a hero, especially when it comes to creating the world’s best
coffee.
When
asked what is his best selling coffee, David recently told the media “The
Resurrection blend is by far our best seller, and it makes a chocolaty, nutty
flat white with a long, lingering caramel finish.”
When
it comes to state of the art marketing, Truth Coffee is in elite company with
the likes of Sweden’s Drop Coffee, New York’s Death Wish Coffee and
Chicago/LA’s Intelligencia Coffee.
If
décor is added to the mix in judging the world’s best coffee experience then
Truth Coffee gets more votes for its allegiance to steampunk interior
design. Steampunk is retro cool being an
amalgamation of sci-fi images influenced by Victoria-era industrial technology,
metal piping and quirky antique machinery; paintings by Escher and movies like Blade
Runner, The Matrix and, of course, Mad Max.
Speaking
of bravado, Truth Coffee has a wonderful blog.
It is well written, creative, great fun to read and one might learn a
thing or two about running a successful wholesale and retail coffee empire.
 |
| Purveyor of The Truth |
The
following is an example from David Donde’s blog:
HAVE WE GOT STYLE OR
WHAT? FLEEK OFF!
I
frequently get asked:
“WHAT IS YOUR
ROASTING STYLE?”
After
the mental pain subsides, I begin to construct an answer.
What
causes the pain? The certainty that what is really being asked is “do you roast
dark, or light or medium?” Terms that are for the caffeine enlightened among
us, inane, or at least should be.
You
see by dark roast they are really asking, “do you have overdeveloped, bitter,
burnt flavours in your coffee?” “Can I get perceived flavour through
overwhelming & one-dimensional bitterness in order to meet my pre-conceived
expectations, of what I feel coffee should be like?”
For
light roast, I feel I am being asked, “are you on trend” or more precisely “Can
I get weird acidity and grassy notes to reinforce my idea of what is currently
On Fleek in coffee” (their term, not mine, for the record)
By
medium, the underlying question is “do you play it safe” or “will you leave me
to stew in my perceived happiness as I float in the warm pool of mediocrity”
Damn
it! no. NO. No, Always, just no.
You
see extracting flavour from coffee is a matter of a few simple yet seemingly
hard to achieve things.
Start
with a green, unroasted coffee that has flavour, is interesting, and is fresh.
Completely
develop those flavours by careful roasting
find
a way to make a solution with water that exhibits only those good flavours from
the coffee beans.
Today,
I am ranting about that middle task. Fully developing those flavours.
You
see, if you roast the coffee too slowly, or too light, not all of the flavours
will develop, at all. The coffee will be to some extent, astringent, grassy
tasting, with weird acidity and even taste baked, or mealy.
Roast
too fast or dark and the opposite will occur, those flavours will overdevelop.
Not a good thing. Not more flavour. Just burnt. Just like sugar that gets
burnt, because that is exactly what happened. Bitterness is the result, and a
loss of flavour. And a loss of body. Just bad.
So
our goal is to have even development of the coffee bean. Thorough flavour
development from the outside of the bean to the core, not an easy or linear
feat.
It
takes a relentless process, of roasting, graphing the development of the roast,
cupping those coffees to look for flavour and to avoid both astringency and
bitterness. To examine cutting edge techniques in roasting methodology and see
how that relates to each origin roasted, and to develop a set of profiles (not
a single profile) in order to constantly improve our coffee.
Not
too slow, not too fast, not too dark, not too light, each a subtle difference
between exquisite and ok, between mediocre and shit.
We
are in the business of the extraordinary. No less will ever do. And it needs to
bring Joy to be Truth.
That
is our roasting style—By David Donde.
Interview with Truth
Coffee founder David Donde
What the hell is
steampunk?
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/william-higham/steampunk-what-the-hell-is-it_b_1015192.html
Truth Coffee
36
Buitenkant Street
Cape
Town
Email:
info@truthcoffee.com
www.truthcoffee.com
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