Drink News
When Rupert Holloway, the man behind Conker Spirit’s Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur, visited his coffee farmers in Ethiopia, he was blown away by the care and attention that goes into every bean. Here, he describes his trip and explains why it’s so important he does the coffee justice.
For Dorset distillery, Conker Spirit, there’s no such thing as compromise or shortcuts – simply the most exceptional ingredients and processes to produce the best tasting products.
Their latest creation, Conker Cold Brew coffee liqueur, is no exception, boasting just four simple ingredients; Conker Spirit’s distilled wheat spirit, New Forest Spring Water, demerara sugar and an inordinate amount of Grade 1 speciality coffees from Brazil and Ethiopia.
Conker have sourced naturally processed coffees from the Ethiopian Guji Highlands, in combination with FAF Agua Limpa coffees from Brazil. With no rolling coffee fields in site, both coffees are grown within the canopy their country’s native forests to achieve the perfect growing conditions, whilst promoting biodiversity and minimising the impact of commercial coffee farming on the environment.
To truly understand these beautiful ingredients, earlier this year Rupert and his fellow Conkerer, Fred Gamper, headed for the Guji Highlands Coffee Plantation in the Shakiso district of Southern Ethiopia.
“The work that goes into producing one bag of coffee is eye watering,” Rupert says. “These guys have chosen the
CONKER SPIRIT LIMITED
most labour-intensive way of cultivating their coffee beans, because of the superior flavour profile it produces. This is a true example of quality over quantity – this resonates hugely with us at Conker Spirit.”
Favouring the ‘dry’ or ‘natural’ coffee processing, ripe-coffee cherries are handpicked and spread out to dry in the Ethiopian sun for 20 days, hand-turned on the hour until the bright red fruit is dried to a dark hardened husk.
“The flavour is just incredible and not what you’d expect from a coffee. You can really taste the bright fruit and sweet citrus of the cherry, which has been infused into the bean during the natural drying process,” says Rupert.
Once these coffees reach the shores of Dorset, Conker Spirit feel a heavy responsibility to do them justice in their spirits. “Coffee is incredibly fragile,” says Rupert. “Subtle changes in the roasting and brewing process can have an enormous and sometimes devastating effect on the subtle natural flavours of the coffee that have been so carefully nurtured by the coffee farmers on the ground in Ethiopia’.
40 MAY 2018
WWW.VENUE-INSIGHT.COM
Each origin is roasted separately at a unique temperature to bring out the coffee’s individual flavour characteristics, honouring the subtle fruit and chocolate notes of each bean variety. Conker Spirit then brew their liqueur cold, so as not to extract any of the acidic, bitter elements of the bean. The result is a complex and hearty concoction that’s as wonderfully dark as it is delicious. And because the brew is so smooth with natural vanillas and caramels, just a touch of demerara sugar is needed to complete the alchemy – no flavourings, no additives, no nasty thickeners - just four simple ingredients and one perfectly precise process.
It’s time to forget everything you know about coffee liqueur - Conker Cold Brew doesn’t just taste like coffee, it is coffee.
That’s the Spirit.
www.conkerspirit.co.uk
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