i’m lucie fink. i’m a video producer at refinery29 but every so often, i like to try other people’s jobs. so i flew down to costa rica and i’m gonna see if i have what it takes to be a gourmet
difference between medium and dark roast coffee, coffee roaster. this is lucie for hire. it’s no secret that costa rica is known for its coffee and caf㩠britt, or britt coffee,
was costa rica’s first-ever gourmet coffee roasting company. i visited their plantation and roastery to learn how a bean on a bush becomes a beverage. your first challenge is picking coffee beans. so what are you holding? ah, this is high technology. so let me show you. you see the harvest in costa rica is in the dry season from december up to february.
but in the same bush, not all the coffee berries are ripe at the same time. the red ones are the ones ready. this is the best outfit ever! lucie, you can go shopping like this. yeah! and you have hands free. this is what they need at grocery stores. first, we walked through the nursery
to gather our beans. alright, here i go. this is for small people, i know. and then you should pick the red ones only and they will fall immediately in the basket. you see? there we go. you have to pay very close attention and really squat down there to find the best beans.
it’s like a full body workout. you see the good selection of the red beans is one of the most basic things to make a gourmet coffee cup. right. this one is very juicy. wow. that is good. oh, those coffee beans are gorgeous.
woohoo! ahh! there's a spider web! we should go the other way. well, this way! and since there might only be a few ripe ones per bush, we had to really get ourselves immersed into the nursery. we are just foraging for coffee beans right now.
you’re doing a very good selection here. thank you. alright, i’ve got a basket full of beans. yes you did. so, now, once you have your coffee, it’s time to roast it. let’s roast it. let’s roast it! your second challenge is roasting the coffee.
so these are ready for roasting. those are ready for roasting, exactly. let’s roast! very good. we could do a light roast, a medium, a dark, or an espresso roast. i’m really tired so i’m gonna go with espresso. very good, very good.
so that’s what we’re going to do right here. the roasting process takes between eight to twelve minutes, depending on the type of roast. move it a little bit. we closely monitored the beans by checking, and checking… not ready. and checking again. and finally, there were about 10 seconds left.
diez, nueve, ocho, siete, seis, cinco, cuatro, tres, dos,
uno! alright, take these out. finito! open, yes. we’re gonna let the coffee right here repose for at least eight hours, alright? and then we can try the coffee. so i’ll see you in eight hours. i’ll see you in eight hours.
bye. i didn’t actually leave for eight hours. he had some espresso beans that were already reposed and ready to go. and then it was time for my third challenge: coffee cupping. first, we took beans from each type of roast and ground them and then we poured hot
water directly onto the grounds to brew them. i thought it was weird at first, that we weren’t using a filter, but he explained to me why we do this. if you use a filter with paper or something like that, that's gonna absorb every flavor of the coffee so this is the right way to make the cupping of the coffee.
of course you cannot drink this, right? so we’re gonna do this process. oh, so we remove the grounds? exactly. coffee cupping is the process of deeply sniffing— smells good. —and then loudly slurping coffee to measure the different aspects of its taste. this allowed me to pull out all the different
flavor notes in each type of roast. and after slurping, you spit it into a spittoon. very dark. my first cupping experience. so your final challenge is gonna be making the cappuccino, the three layer cappuccino. and we’re gonna make it with this roast. alright?
alright. let’s do it! just add the flavor. first, i chose to flavor my coffee with hazelnut. there you go. wait, wait! what are you doing? oh, i thought you meant… no, no.
that’s gonna affect- oh, no! so should we get a new cup? yeah. and then, i blew it. there you go, perfect. perfect. and then we steamed the milk to get foam and added the foam as our first layer,
followed by the liquid milk. i’m not a very clean barista. next, we turned our espresso beans into grounds. that’s silky smooth. pressed the coffee. one! and brewed an espresso. and after carefully pouring it in...
there you go, keep going, keep going. i touched the edge. no worries, just don’t stop. okay...not that carefully. i had my brew-tiful, three layer cappuccino. wow, i did not know what to expect. this is beautiful. damn! would you hire me?
i would hire you, yes. it’s official. official, very good. the newest employee of britt. as they say in the coffee business, smell ya later! okay, they don’t actually say that. hey youtube! thanks for watching my video at britt coffee.
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