Baptiste Kreyder: a man serious about coffee
I first realise how serious Baptiste Kreyder is about coffee as he explains that it’s OK to use Volvic if you have to, rather than water purified by reverse osmosis.
But then the head barista at Caravan’s new King’s Cross coffee shop is passionate - and engaging - about coffee. So there’s also the question of water temperature (“I don’t like to be too geeky about it - 90 to 95 degrees”.) And the coffee-water ratio: under Kreyder’s instruction, I fill the filter and its 35 grammes of coffee, by hand, with exactly 520 grammes of water.
It is really very good coffee – or rather two radically different brews: the first a light, fresh Tanzanian, the second a fruity Ethiopian Yirgacheffe.
Kreyder is leading Caravan’s new coffee workshops: they include a talk on coffee and its sourcing, and practical instruction on making perfect filter coffee. He prefers filter to espresso: he thinks filter tends to bring out the coffee’s flavour better, and that darker espresso roasts can damage that. It depends on the coffee. Caravan source theirs from many different single estates, roasting in small batches of 25 kilos – so the blends vary throughout the year.
Still, the Yirgacheffe is stunning brewed either as filter or espresso, as is clear from a cappuccino and single espresso that barista Estelle Bright makes me – her “championship duo” for this year’s UK Barista Championships. The cappuccino is astonishing in flavour and consistency – possibly the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had.
It is hard work: Kreyder says baristas have to taste around 10 shots from each batch at the start of each day to get extraction and water temperature right.
“I haven’t slept for three and a half years,” he jokes – though in fact at the point in mid-afternoon when I see him, he has drunk only half a flat white and two espressos all day. With coffee this good, I’d say that takes real restraint.
The next coffee workshop runs on April 27 at Caravan King's Cross, Granary Building, 1 Granary Square (Off Goods Way), N1C 4AA; caravankingscross.co.uk, londoncoffeefestival.com
