insideKENT Magazine Issue 35 - February 2015 | Page 91

FOOD+DRINK Some coffee makers and producers go one step further than purchasing and blending coffees, choosing the strangest ingredients to add to their beans, ensuring a unique taste and a high price tag. There is a coffee producer called Sweet Maria’s that offers beans that have already been consumed, for example. The Brazilian Jacu bird is particularly fond of eating coffee berries, but is unable to digest them properly…so they are passed whole. The bird poo is then searched, the beans are found, and the coffee which results from them is said to have no bitterness at all! If you don’t like the idea of drinking already ingested coffee, what about trying some that has already been tasted? Formosan rock monkeys don’t eat coffee. But they do like to suck the beans. After they are done, they spit them out, and the remains are collected. Apparently, the coffee made from these discarded beans tastes like vanilla… If you enjoy drinking coffee but don’t like the stimulating effect it has, you could try the decaffeinated version. Or you could try Counting Sheep Coffee which, despite the caffeine content, promises to get you a good night’s sleep. That’s because it is blended with valerian root, which is a natural sedative. Kent has its fair share of artisan coffee producers, with many turning out some delicious blends that put most instant jars of coffee to shame. Bean Smitten www.beansmitten.co.uk Located in Lamberhurst on the Kent/East Sussex border, Bean Smitten is all about the taste, and works on using only ethically traded beans to get it. It produces a number of different blends including the Contemporary Blend (notes of caramel and chocolate combined with a strong espresso) and the Classic Blend, which is fullbodied and sweet. origin and blended coffees, there are flavoured coffees (including vanilla, brandy, chocolate orange, and Amaretto!), and chocolate-flavoured coffee beans too, which make a delicious (and utterly moreish) treat. Ther e are 55 different varieties of coffee in stock, and if you can’t choose your favourite that’s fine – just join the Coffee Club, and a new taste will be delivered to your door every month!about coffee, learn about it, and taste it too. If you want to sample a cup of Bean Smitten’s coffee, Daily Bread Café in Tunbridge Wells serves it exclusively. The Coffee Bean Shop www.coffeebeanshop.co.uk If you want to try something completely different when it comes to coffee, this could well be your cup of…coffee. As they themselves proclaim, these beans are “for serious coffee drinkers” so expect something that the coffee connoisseur would love. The Coffee Bean Shop offers a weekly promo, so you can sample all sorts of different varieties including beans from the Tarrazu Valley in Costa Rica, Indian Tiger Stripes espresso blend, and the world’s most expensive coffee, Kopi Luwak (otherwise known as civet coffee), which has passed through the digestive tract of the Asian palm civet. Real Deal Roasters www.realdealroasters.co.uk Real Deal Roasters (located, as you may have guessed, in Deal) understands just how popular coffee has become in recent years, calling the change from wanting a simple jar of instant coffee to demanding something a little more delicate and delicious a ‘revolution’. All of its beans are hand roasted in small batches to ensure freshness and the ultimate taste sensation. Real Deal Roasters offers a number of superb blends, including their own invention called Morning Glory, which has a high caffeine content. This, and all the other blends, can be found at Deal market every Saturday or ordered online. The Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company www.tea-and-coffee.com Once two companies (The Kent Tea & Trading Company and the Sussex Tea Company), the Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company is now a force to be reckoned with. In addition to its single 91 Micro Roastery www.microroastery.co.uk If you want an espresso that will really do the job, this artisan coffee shop in Canterbury will give it to you – its standard espresso shot contains 90 coffee beans, rather than the 42 beans that are found in most other coffee shops. Try the Finca el Triangulo from Guatemala with its banana after tones, or maybe the honey sweetness of the Kenya AA variety.