The Emperor lounge, Taj Mansingh Hotel, revamped its Costa Rican coffee with new techniques learnt from the American region. Iknoor Kaur sampled the beverage
Are you the one who didn’t order Costa Rican coffee speculating the level of acidity it hasIJ Think twice, at least when you are placing the order at Emperor’s lounge of Taj Mansingh Hotel. The place has introduced new techniques of coffee-making which will reduce the acidity to a significant level. “We always faced problems with the Costa Rican coffees because they are extremely strong and cause excessive acidity. People started complaining about the coffee being too bitter and heavy. So, we went all the way to Costa Rica and learnt the exact way they served their coffee,” says Ananya, Assistant manager with E lounge.
Costa Rican coffees are generally not preferred by the health conscious due to high level of acidity. However, about 20 years ago, in order to process that acidity, the locals of the region (Costa Rica) invented a coffee maker which was originally called the chorreador de café. This maker would cut down acidity levels by 60 per cent. It consists of an unvarnished wooden frame about 33 cms tall, with a round hole at the top where a wire rimmed cloth filter or strainer is placed. Fine ground coffee is put in the filter and boiling water is poured in filtering down to the coffee pot below. Ananya says they picked up the exact process. “This particular coffee maker is not available in India. We decided not to import anything, but to create it. So we made our own equipment and copied the process,” she shares.
Unlike all other cafés that brew the coffee and then serve it on the table, this lounge prefers to brew coffee on the table, right in front of you. “It is actually a very simple process and it reduces the acidity levels of the coffee by 60 per cent. So, we like to show people how it is done. Once we pour the water through the filter, it needs only five to six seconds to brew,” the manager explains.
The coffee is served in double walled mouth blown cups along with a piece of chocolate and home-baked biscuits. They serve Costa Rican coffee in four styles — freshly brewed, cappuccino, latté and espresso. The freshly brewed coffee has a distinct flavour and would set right with a die-hard coffee lover. However for non-drinkers, the cappuccino is a good pick.
Apart from the Costa Rican coffee, E lounge’s menu is consciously designed in order to not differentiate between the coffees. They have nine kinds of coffees and all of them are priced at Rs 400. The café divides its day in three parts — tea and breakfast, high tea and cigar and cognac. They import two kinds of cigars from Cuba and Dominican Republic.