Clarifying Coffee

Clarified Coffee.

While out last night at Les Halles, I mentioned to Philip that I've been interested in clarifying coffee. Truth is, I think coffee is a very unfortunate ingredient. It's so brown. So very dark brown that the color interferes or destroys anything and everything mixed with it. It's God-awfully ugly and a real challenge to utilize and create into a color that's actually appealing.

I've tried using a gelatin suspension to create a clear coffee but all it did was clarify the brown liquid. James Hoffmann has attempted to clarify coffee using a centrifuge with mixed results. Philip suggested we give it a go utilizing the rotary distiller.

The next day, an Americano goes into the chamber and starts spinning. The idea behind the device is to distill liquids by using a vacuum to lower the boiling point. Our first results were less than appealing but that was more due to not having the proper facilities to clean the apparatus at the conference than anything else.


The rotary evaporator distiller makes its' move.

The day before, they had been distilling Meyer Lemons and the lemon residue remained resulting in a clear coffee liquid with a strong and definitive lemon character.

More testing will ensue in the coming months but the initial test looks promising. I'll report more once the distiller is installed at The Spro.