A Bandra boy brews a 20-hour storm in his kitchen to create cold-pressed, naturally extracted coffee that has now made it into silk smooth cocktails at a neighbourhood pub
Coffee cocktails Brew Marley and Roast And Toast
ADVERTISEMENT
In the ancient Greek theatre, deus ex machina (pronounced as ma-ki-na) was used as a plot device, where a hopeless situation was saved by the intervention of a character, similar to the hand of God. "For me, that was coffee. It saved me from the boredom of working in a family business," smiles 33-year-old Vishal Sainani when we meet him at The Daily Bar & Kitchen in Bandra. While he continues to hold that job, he moonlights as a brewer with a home-run cold brew venture, Brew Ex Machina, launched last year. His concoction has made it to a coffee cocktail menu launched last week by the Bandra pub.
Bartender Joyal D'Souza makes Expresso Noir infused with vodka, vanilla and cold-pressed coffee
Enter the lab
For a hot brew, coffee powder is boiled with water for 20 seconds, but Sainani brews coffee for 18 to 20 hours at room temperature to derive a concentrated version. "It's rarely found in India. Here, even cold coffee is made with hot brew, and then cooled down with ice. It's weaker, bitter and more acidic. A cold brew doesn't involve heat. It's 60 per cent less acidic, smoother and sweeter."
Vishal Sainani demonstrates the filtration process. Pics/Datta Kumbhar
A part of the kitchen at Sainani's Bandra home is stocked with weighing scales, stainless steel tanks and filters. With no machines available in India, he uses home-brewing techniques. The process begins by grinding a small batch of coffee beans (stored in airtight containers to reduce contact with oxygen), mixing this with filtered water, letting it brew for over 18 hours, and then extracting the caffeine using a double filter process.
Coffee experiments
Sainani researched for three years before deriving the perfect formula for the brew. He attended coffee-roasting seminars, experimented with roast profiles and imported beans too. Finally, a roaster in Bengaluru created a blend using 100 per cent Arabica beans of Plantation A (first size in flat beans) variety with a mix of pea berry (oval shaped beans). "Coffee making is a science. I have tried to brew it at various temperatures for different periods of time and even used ice. Brewing it at room temperature works because coffee dissolves better to help obtain a complex flavour with a chocolate-y aftertaste," he says.
We know what he means when we try the Brew Marley ('425), where the toasty flavour from the coffee blends into white rum, cranberry juice and passion fruit. It's easy on the throat, sans any coffee grains bruising our palate. Roast And Toast ('425) offers cosy breakfast feels with a smoothie-like texture due to the infusion of banana and orange juice. "We also tried to add apple, mint and cucumber, but that didn't work as they don't have a distinct taste," shares pub owner Dishant Pritamani.
Cold coffee as it should be
"It takes more beans to brew cold-pressed coffee. One kilo would extract two litres of caffeine," says Sainani, who offers it in sealed bottles ('300/180 ml), and delivers across Mumbai. It lasts for 10 days.
He also plans to launch ready-to-drink coffee. We follow the instructions on the bottle to make a glass of cold coffee using packaged milk. It's creamy and the brew is naturally sweet. So, with the caffeine kick, we also get to enjoy a less sugary concoction. A win-win.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
