When I first arrived in London, all these years ago, ask for a cup of coffee instead of tea and you may as well have had two heads. People would whisper, “she is French, you know.” Sadly, the tea/coffee swap was not always possible. Later on, when coffee became a more familiar brew, I made do with mugs of coffee. I have to say, at times it was difficult to discern what I had been handed over, was it a mug of tea or coffee?
Enter coffee capsules, a charismatic actor, a series of brilliantly managed ad campaigns and Expresso got the wind in its sails, it becomes “The” coffee to be seen sipping. Suddenly, new machines allow cappuccino, macchiato without too much effort. The UK gets it own “Coffee Week”. Every April coffee lovers flock to their favourite haunts to enjoy what is by now a staple of modern British culture.
The fact is that coffee is so popular that it is replacing tea in many UK households. Millenials are by far the least passionate about tea and the coffee-shop culture seems here to stay. According to a commercial survey, people aged 50-64 are the biggest coffee lovers, spending £52 on coffee each year. I can tell you that at Pebble Soup HQ, we spend 3 times that much. The growth of coffee culture in the UK goes further than just the drink as we like to treat ourselves to a slice of cake too. Tiramisu anyone.
It’s great to see an industry grow so fast and not showing signs of abating but there is another side to the coin: Coffee jargon can make you feel like a bit of a jerk. Can you, hand on heart, differentiate between a Cubano, a Cortado and a Babyccino. How do you decide which coffee is best for your machine(s)? A friend of mine buys samples at the time or a different type of capsule every now and then, he tries them, notes them in a little book, marks them out of 10 before moving to the next one. That seems like a lot of work to me.
But don’t get me wrong I am not complaining, nobody looks at me like if I was from another planet anymore when I ask for a cup of coffee so, I thought this could be a good time to step it up and introduce Coffee Cuisine starting with Coffee Mousse if you want to play coffee-snob at their own games “Mousse au café”.
Coffee Mousse – Mousse au café
Ingredients
- 60 g caster sugar with a couple of gelatine leaves or a mix of 50g sugar 10g pectin sugar if you prefer
- 1 small cup of coffee brewed with Gourmesso coffee capsule any of the 28 varieties.
- 3 eggs
- 150 g cream (double or whipping)
Method
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the mix looks whitish. Prepare the gelatine leaves if using
Add the cream and transfer to a saucepan. Cook on low heat until the mix thickens, don’t let it boil
In the meantime beat the egg whites to a soft peak
When the cream is thick, cool it for a little while, add the gelatine leaves and add the egg whites, a spoon at the time.
Pour in your chosen serving glass or return a large bowl. Keep in the fridge for 4 hours before serving
Disclaimer : This post is sponsored by Gourmesso -the recipe is my own and as usual, so are the words
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