Coffee Session with a coffologist!

As an avid black coffee lover stuck in a tea drinking society, I have gotten somewhat used to being the odd one out whenever I visit a local café. Sure, one may suggest that I should try out one of the many coffee houses that have opened up all over the place in Pakistan, but trust me things aren’t any different there either. Instead of ordering tea, people just order lattes or mochas. So you can pretty much understand my dismay when I was invited to Coffee Planet to meet the resident coffee expert (as well as the CEO) Mr. Kashif.
Don’t get me wrong but I have met many pseudo coffee experts over the years, and after a while you just don’t feel that much excited anymore. However, this time I was glad that to be wrong. Not only was Mr. Kashif truly an expert, he was one of those people who actually knew the difference between the textures, aromas and taste of different coffee beans and could identify beans just from their aroma. Before I went ahead and dubbed that as a neat party trick, he took me to cloud 9 of coffee heaven by offering us various coffee shots made by different brewing techniques.
For those of you who are aware of the different brewing methods as well as the beans, it should come as no surprise that I couldn’t help but fall in love with the shots made from the aeropress method. Though to be honest I would have loved it more if they were prepared from the south Indian or Brazilian beans but I guess the soft aroma and sweet taste of velvet infinity was a nice way to compliment the shot as well.
The various other methods used to brew the coffee included the standard mocha master (electronic coffee machine), Mr. Clever (manual, single cup making coffee machine) and the unusual siphon technique which quite frankly made Mr. Kashif look somewhat like Heisenberg (Breaking Bad) as he brewed the coffee via a complex apparatus of flasks and infrared heater.
Of course, each technique gave a whole new spin to the aroma and the taste of the coffee that was brewed, making the whole experience unique and frankly just amazing. Now, I know that black coffee is an acquired taste but if you ever consider its health benefits, it’s a taste I would urge that everyone should think about procuring. In any case, even if coffee isn’t your thing, which was the case with some people in the group, they were quite entertained with the other knick knacks such as brownies, pastas, lasagna, chillers etc. Which according to them were just supreme and even though I didn’t get a chance to taste the rest of the stuff, you know being busy with the coffee and all, I must say that even if the rest of their stuff tasted half as good as the coffee, they beat coffee houses like Gloria Jeans etc. by a mile.
So, if you’re ever in a mood for a good cup of coffee, or a café in which to just hang out, I suggest that you do consider trying out Coffee Planet.