Chocolate Mocha Mousse
Recipe written and developed by Fidalgo Bay’s Sales VP, Darryl Miller
I used to be a chef in this little French restaurant in Woodinville, Washington. I used to make the chocolate mousse every morning—along with the dinner rolls and other prep. I used to like to add different flavors to the mousse like cognac and port, but my favorite flavor to add was fresh brewed coffee. I’ve tried other chocolates, but Callebaut is the brand that I, and most chefs, prefer. They have it at PCC Fremont and in the bulk foods department Central Market Shoreline. PCC also has our Fidalgo Bay Organic French Roast. That is the coffee that I highly recommend for this recipe.
Here’s my recipe paired down and tested at home-user quantity.
Ingredients:
½ cup of fresh coarse ground coffee
½ cup, plus 2 tablespoons of boiling water
4-oz, plus a nice 2-oz chunk for garnish, of Callebaut Belgian Bittersweet Chocolate
½ cup cream
1 plus 2 tablespoons of sugar
2 egg whites
Equipment:
Kitchen scale
Measuring cup and a tablespoon
Tea kettle
2 mixing bowls (preferably a copper mixing bowl for the egg whites)
Small heavy wire whisk
Medium light whip/whisk
Medium rubber food scraper/spatula
Medium sauce pan for double boiler set up to melt chocolate
Process:
- COFFEE EXTRACT: Grind ½ cup of fresh coarse ground coffee, boil water and then make French press coffee concentrate using 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water. Allow the coffee to steep for 6 minutes before pressing. This will just be a very small amount of coffee extract that you are making.
- CHOCOLATE MOCHA SAUCE: Set up a double boiler with a copper or stainless mixing bowl over medium low heat. Add the chocolate and the coffee extract to the bowl and allow to melt slightly before stirring with the heavy sauce whisk. Stir until completely melted and as it becomes thick remove the bowl from the heat and then add 2 tablespoons of cold filtered water and whisk until smooth and glossy. You may need to add a few drops of water if the sauce is too thick. Keep stirring, as this process “tempers” the chocolate into a smooth gorgeous sauce that is a perfect ice cream topping as is. Set aside—not on the double boiler, but do not chill either. Just keep slightly warm about 100 degrees (body temperature).
- WHIPPED CREAM: In chilled copper bowl, using your medium fat sauce whip, whip your ½ cup of cream with 1 tablespoon of sugar until it is soft and peaky. Do not over whip or it will be chunky. Do not use an electric mixer. Do this my hand—you are making a classical French dessert and you are not allowed to cheat. Transfer the whipped cream to a small bowl and refrigerate. Clean the copper bowl, rinse with cold water and dry.
- WHIPPED EGG WHITES: Add two egg whites to copper bowl with 2 tablespoons sugar. Whip until firm and peaky.
- DOUBLE FOLD TECHNIQUE: Grab your bowl of warm chocolate, if the chocolate is below 100 degrees; put it back on the double boiler for a few moments to regain glossy sheen. 100 degrees is an easy temperature to detect. You just need to feel it and if it feels warm—you are at about 100 degrees. That is because your body temperature is 98.6. Things start feeling warm at 100. Add about 2 tablespoons of egg whites to the chocolate and fold vigorously until completely mixed. Now, fold that chocolate mixture back into the bowl of egg whites and then fold gently—does not need to be completely mixed. Now, add the chilled whipped cream to the mousse and fold gently until it is mixed well.
- PORTIONING: Using a #1 scoop (or a spoon) dose three scoops into 4 large martini glasses. Garnish with shaved chocolate and 1 little coffee bean. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. It is best served after 2-hours of refrigeration and is good for 2 days in the refrigerator.
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Coffee House Tips & Trends 9/17/09
3 Strategies to Attract More Customers
Most every retail business is looking for new ways to attract and keep customers. To do that, you need to be creative and use all the tools at your disposal. Here are three proven strategies you can use to increase the sales at your cafe.
1. The first strategy you can use to increase sales is to give a gift with each purchase. The gift does not have to be expensive. In fact, you do not want to give anything that can be perceived as more valuable than what is being purchased. Try to pick out something not readily available but highly desirable. For example, you might try giving out a free sample packet of coffee as a surprise. In New Orleans they call this type of gift a Lagniappe. *
2. A second strategy you might want to use is similar to the first but this time you give out free brewed samples of one of the pre-packaged coffees you sell. Grocery stores, and most famously Costco, have been doing this for decades and it is not uncommon to see many bakeries and cafés do the same. The good news is that you can do this with little or no cost to your operation. Your partnership with Fidalgo Bay Coffee makes allowance for promotional samples and even small 4-oz sample cups. No matter what type of coffee business you are doing, you can figure out a way to let people try out what you offer on a limited basis at no charge.
3. A third strategy to increase sales is the use of punch cards (either old school or credit card style) for repeat shoppers. You might even want to give a free punch or two when giving out the card to make it more likely they will return to fill it up. As it fills up, the customer assigns more value to the card and treats it more like cash. You can offer small plastic cards to be attached to a person’s key ring or a larger credit card size to keep in their wallet.
There are many ways to bring people into your business and many more to keep them coming back. Just keep trying and you will hit the sweet spot. Remember, people are always trying to get something for nothing or to at least feel they have received more value than they paid for. You will both benefit if you offer your customers a way to do so.
*Lagniappe (pronounced Lan-yap)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Lagniappe (disambiguation).
Lagniappe refers to a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase (such as a 13th donut when buying a dozen), or more broadly, “something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure.”[1] The word is used in Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, Louisiana, Eastern Oklahoma, Southern Arkansas, Charleston in South Carolina, southern and western Mississippi, the gulf coast of Alabama, and parts of eastern Texas. The word entered English from Louisiana French, in turn derived from the American Spanish phrase la ñapa (’something that is added’ ). The term has been traced back to the Quechua word yapay (‘to increase; to add’). In Andean markets it is still customary to ask for a yapa when making a purchase. The seller usually responds by throwing in a little extra. Although this is an old custom, it is still widely practiced today in Louisiana. This custom is also widely practiced in southeast Asia. Street vendors, especially vegetable vendors, are expected to throw in a few green chillies or a small bunch of cilantro with a decent purchase. The Punjabi term for this is “choonga”.
Earlier this year, Nathan, our Roaster Extraordinaire visited El Salvador on his first trip to origin. Here are some of his thoughts about the trip…
When I first stepped off the plane into the El Salvador airport it was 90 degrees (not the 50 degrees and rainy Seattle coffee territory of home) and glancing around the terminal the first thing I noticed were the uniforms. They were everywhere. The second thing I noticed was the guns. Never before had I seen so many. It was like how I imagined an NRA convention to be. The third thing I quickly realized was the unavoidable fact that I didn’t speak a lick of Spanish. The combination of these three revelations resulted in a nervous and uneasy Nathan.
Even the mountains in Central America are different than the Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier of my backyard. Walking on a volcano in this country is no big deal for there are so many of them. I know we have them in the Northwest too but these were different. The ground was black and every step had a crunch to it, similar to the sound of walking on rice crispys. As we were led through the coffee orchard with the ground crunching underfoot, our leader spoke of “stumping.” We all sort of looked around and said,”Stumping, what’s that?” As quick as that our host grabbed for his machete and removed it from it’s sheath. It was long and menacing. This caused everyone to around him to immediately step back in unison. He reached for the closest coffee tree and pulled it down against his side and with two full swings of the machete the tree was finished. He then reached out and handed me the remains of what was a tree about five feet tall with a base four inches thick. I was surprised at how heavy it was and how the bark was so thin, like paper. A section of this coffee tree now sits on my mantel as well as the machete that liberated it from it’s life giving roots.
At another coffee farm, peering through a doorway, I saw some women preparing what looked like papusas (the food that we had been enjoying everyday). Just then a flash of reddish orange skimmed past my head. Still on edge with the abundance of weapons I cautiously approached the doorway. Prepared to fight (or run) I took a better look in the kitchen where the women continued going about their work, apparently unfazed by the attempt on my life. As I stood there I heard a cluck cluck cluck and squinting to see better I suddenly came to the realization that my assailant was a chicken. There were many of them just wandering about the kitchen. I looked to the women who were now watching me and I said “pollo” in my most Spanish inquisitive voice and they smiled at me and motioned for me to come in and learn about Papusa.
El Salvador was, as a whole, not what I expected, but full of new experiences for this Northwestern coffee roaster.
Steve Lipschutz, the Food and Beverage Manager at Marco Island Marriott, was recently featured in Marco Is. local newspaper. Steve has been a long-time Fidalgo Bay fan and we are proud to call him one of our friends. Keep of the good work, Steve.
Read about his endevours in the Marco Eagle
Here is a picture of Steve.
Steve is rarely found at his desk, he's usually actively in the trenches.
Check this slide show of some pictures taken around Fidalgo Bay
Problem/Solution
Pre-Ground Decaf Espresso
By Darryl Miller
We have a client that called with a problem they have been experiencing with inconsistent shot times for their decaf espresso. They only sell a few decaf espresso drinks per day—so it’s not financially worth it to them to buy a dedicated grinder. And the problem with us pre-grinding their decaf at the roastery is that they are at the mercy of our grinder for their shot times. I told the client that it is never a good idea to buy pre-ground espresso ground decaf from your roaster—but to grind it at your shop instead. I told him that I have a process that will help him do this by using his existing espresso grinder. I decided to post this solution on our blog.
Grinding Decaf in Your Existing Espresso Grinder
1. Close the hatch on the bean hopper.
2. Run grinder until all coffee is ground out of the burrs
3. Unplug grinder (safety first).
4. Empty the doser hopper of all ground “reg” coffee—use a brush to get all of the grounds out so that you do not mix any regular with your decaf.
5. With hatch closed on bean hopper, grinder unplugged, remove the hopper and empty beans into a tub, cover and set aside.
6. Replace empty bean hopper onto the grinder.
7. Add fresh decaf beans to the bean hopper hopper–only enough for the day plus a little for waste 15-20%.
8. Plug in the grinder
9. Grind about 4 shots worth and then discard—that is because it is mixed with regular coffee.
8. Grind enough to pull a couple of shots and adjust grind to desired time—I like double 1-oz shots @ 22-25 seconds.
9. Once your grind is where you want it, grind enough decaf espresso for the day at your shop.
10. Put ground espresso decaf into a small air-tight food container.
11. Re-fill the bean hopper with “regular” coffee/espresso beans
12. Re-adjust the grind for the regular coffee.
13. Repeat every morning.
Remember that changes in the weather totally affect your grind. The most important coffee skill for a professional barista is to master the operation of the espresso grinder.
As with regular beans, store whole bean decaf in air-tight container and remember that decaf goes stale twice as fast as regular roasted coffee. An air-tight container is an absolute must.
Every year across the country the American Cancer Society sponsors the Relay for Life in communities across the country. It is a true community event, where teams are formed from individuals and groups committing to walking through the day and night. They are sponsored by others and raise money through the process. At Fidalgo Bay, we have been participating the past three years by providing espresso drinks at the event, free of charge. We collect donations of course. This year we raised $907. The booth is staffed for the whole event, yes through the night, by our staff who graciously volunteer their time.
Check out the full gallery of images from the Anacortes Relay 2009
Pictures of our team below.
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- A crowd gathers around the Booth
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- Darla, Pat & Rich cut down the long lines
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- Lisa Steams Milk
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- Derek & Pat Relax after setting up the booth
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We decided to try a new method of roasting. While certainly not our preferred method for developing the flavors in the beans, it gives a great visual of the changes occuring during roasting. The downfall of pan roasting is that you are primarily using conduction instead of all 3 forms of heat.
Wow! I just read a fascinating article on the relationship between global weather patterns and coffee. Things such as sunspot and volcanic activity can dramatically affect the world-wide price of coffee. Check it all out here
