John McCrone
We know what we like when it comes to what we eat. But for food producers, delivering flavour is a far more psychologically complex business than many of us realise. reports.
New Zealand has come a long way in a short time in the international foodie stakes. I remember the 1970s when one of my mother’s friend’s idea of a bolognese sauce was a block of mince tipped into a frying pan – simply that, not even a sprinkle of salt for seasoning.
Now of course New Zealand is fantastic at producing great taste experiences. We can teach the French and Italians a culinary thing or two. And so we should if food and drink is how we expect to make much of our living for the foreseeable future.
Which makes one wonder about the secrets of taste. What is the psychology behind flavour?
Coffee seems an obvious place to start. We grow no beans and yet for some reason New Zealand has developed a proud and passionate national obsession.
Check the supermarket shelves and beyond the blends are the single origin grindings with lovely names like Brazilian Fazenda Nossa, East Timor Maubesse or Guatemalan Guaya’b. People have their furious debates about which method of brewing is better – Aeropress or Chemex.
So to speak to some experts I call in on Nick Cowper, who runs Christchurch’s Hummingbird Coffee with his brother Tim.
The pair began almost as schoolboys when their dad bought the business in 2000. Now they have grown it to be one of the country’s largest specialty producers, joining Bell Tea’s BrewGroup this year to continue its expansion.
First I confess to Cowper my own personal coffee brewing method might seem heathen.
After years of mucking about with plungers and paper filters, now I simply spoon espresso mix into a cup, add boiling water, and stir – just like instant. The sludge sinks to the bottom and the thick froth left at the top is the best bit.
Cowper tells me the technical term for this is steeping. And the froth is the crust. Immediately I feel rather more sophisticated.
However soon I discover that I hadn’t really been thinking about flavour creation from a food manufacturer’s perspective.
It is a little disappointing when Cowper says there are no shortcut sensory tricks to producing a taste experience. Much of his and his brother’s job involves travelling the world to source the best possible beans. ‘‘It is the basic quality of the bean that you taste.’’
On the counter in Hummingbird’s cupping room are a row of moisture readers and other lab instruments. Tim is about to check the beans for the day’s batch of roasting with scientific care.
Cowper says it starts with a visual inspection of bean quality – no weevils or deterioration. But you want ‘‘gingers’’, the surface flecks that show the crop has been naturally sun dried and so developed some taste-complexity.
And then of course there must be quality control right through the whole process. Freshness is everything, so soon as the beans have been roasted, ground and bagged, the boxes are on their way to the supermarket or cafe.
‘‘We deliver six days a week to the stores. And it’s there overnight. So while we’ve really
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