Why do good restaurants and hotels serve such bad coffee? – 01/24/2024 – Café na Prensa

It’s a common scene in renowned restaurants: with each beautiful and well-prepared morsel that arrives at the table, the waiter comes, full of nine hours, to explain each ingredient and technique used. It’s vegetables from I don’t know where, foam from I don’t know what and reduction of that other. After the main dishes and dessert are over, the diner orders coffee. And then comes that dubious, boring drink, without any explanation, often extracted from a capsule and silently left at the table, sometimes garnished with sweet micro biscuits, more to disguise the taste of the drink than to harmonize with it.

The ritual of refinement accompanied by questionable coffee is an institution that does not fail in the hotel sector either.

I once went to an inn with a natureba-gourmet proposal, which claimed to value the well-being of guests and the quality of their inputs. For breakfast, a buffet with items such as kefir, artisanal granola, natural fermentation bread and so on. There at the end of the counter, after the Instagrammable dragon fruit and the tapioca and egg white omelette station (!), there was the thermos bottle. In a sad corner, as if forgotten by the establishment’s proposal, the coffee, with the color of tar and the taste of burnt rubber.

Why, after all, do these establishments that charge consumers so much and have gourmet options serve cheap and bad coffee?

There are a few reasons. The first of these is still a mistaken perception that coffee is all the same. Now, if the establishment understands that coffee is all the same, then choose the cheapest one. It makes sense.

Another commonly used argument is that the average consumer really likes regular coffee, the traditional one from the supermarket. That may be so, but if the establishment wants to offer a high-standard accommodation or food experience, then the coffee must also accompany it. You can’t serve coffee that tastes like smoke while offering exquisite food or putting guests to sleep on a bed with sheets made of infinite Egyptian threads.

But the most preponderant reason is economic. Big brands often offer not only a competitive price, but also an entire support apparatus. Cups, saucers and preparation utensils are all provided by the company.

Therefore, if the restaurant or hotel insists on having special coffee, from independent roasters, it will have to give up all the extras that large companies usually offer. And that has a cost.

Fortunately, the scenario has changed, albeit very slowly. The growth of the public looking for gourmet coffee has made companies in the sector look more closely at the drink they serve.

Especially boutique inns have started to offer special coffees, with fresh roasts and freshly ground beans.

Restaurants are also starting to see coffee no longer as a mere end to a meal, but as part of it. And, as such, it should harmonize with the menu.

The movement, however, is still slow, and very expensive restaurants and hotels that serve coffee for pennies prevail.

I’m not saying they should offer rare microlots or anything like that. But you also can’t serve that black powder that was roasted and ground months before going to the table.

It will be the end of the meal or a very bitter dawn.

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