Torrefacto Roasts or Good Old Kopi Tiam Coffee

This coffee concierge has been getting very curious about roasts ever since a visit to the Food and Hotel Asia 2008 show in Singapore. This is because a casual conversation with a coffee vendor who shall remain unnamed for this post claimed that coffee beans/instant mixes etc and generally coffee sold in kopi tiams in Malaysia generally were 80% caramel and only 20% coffee beans with the exception of course of his particular brand. At which point the coffee concierge went, "oooohhhhh, now that's why my relatives can drink it late at night and still go to sleep." All this time we're really been drinking coffee *flavoured* drinks rather than coffee. A bit like eating milk chocolate rather than pure cocoa powder.

Now even if some exaggeration for a sales pitch is allowed for and say the number is more like 50-60%, that's still a distinctly lower coffee content. So I decided to go hunting around to see if I could dig up what "recipes" for roasting were actuall used in practice in SE Asia generally.

Guess what the coffee concierge found: the torrefacto roast. This is a method that's been used in parts of the world other than SE Asia from at least the 19th century from Spain. Torrados as they call such roasts can certainly be found in places like South America and Central America to this day. In general the main additive is sugar which carmalises and coats the bean. This can be as much as 50% (unless of course you take the FHA exhibitor's word for it at 80%). So it's not actually uncommon, just that it's not that well known by the consumer although it's sure a well known fact by the roasters and the retail owners.

So think about that the next time you take your usual cuppa at the kopi tiam: that rich mouthfeel is all caramel and that extra sugar you lump in only adds to the considerable quantity of sugar already in your coffee. Diabetics among you beware. No wonder a lot of the local taste buds can no longer adapt to purer blends as they would tend to be more watery by comparison and caffeine sensitive folk like me find taking even one cup sends me bouncing off the walls.

More anon on this subject in future posts as this is clearly a subject that merits further digging among the beans. And if any of my readers have anything to add to this, I'd dearly love to know so comment away dear reader.