Pilgrim Coffee – Cool New Selections

Pilgrim Coffee – Introduction

Pilgrim Coffee is back! The last two years have seen a major hole in the Hobart coffee scene with Pilgrim being taken out by a major fire which tore through the premises one night.

Now they are back in action with some major changes. For a start, the entrance is now round the corner in Liverpool Street. The coffee making stations have been re-imagined and there is now a dedicated espresso bar for crafting espresso shots. The pastries are still made at the Queens kitchens in Harrington St and there is an expanded array of food including delicious sandwiches for the lunch trade.

However the coffee is our major reason for our repeated visits here. There is always something interesting to try here. It may be a new producer of coffee beans from Honduras or Colombia or Ethiopia or a new roaster from Melbourne or Sydney or beans of a new (to us) variety of coffee such as the Parainema that we tried recently which is a bean derived from crossing the Timor Hybrid variety with the Villa Sarchi variety.

We are also pleased to see an increasing number of naturally processed coffee beans becoming available here. There are many different ways of processing the ripe coffee “cherries” to extract the inner beans from the pulp that surrounds them.

One method is called the washed method and involves using lots of water to soak off the pulp and reveal the inner beans. This is quite effective but does use a lot of water, making it difficult for some areas in Africa such as Ethiopia where water is at a premium.

An alternative is to use the natural method which involves drying out the pulp in the sun on large “beds” that are raised off the ground. The beans must be carefully tended during the drying process to ensure that none go mouldy and insert “off” flavours into the beans. This can be overcome by careful attention and the flavour off the resulting beans can be much more complex than with the washed method.

These are just two methods out of many with the coffee industry taking up lessons from the wine industry and experimenting with processes such as honey processing, extended fermentation and carbonic maceration to name but a few.

We are enjoying trying a variety of these methods and the different varieties of beans to appreciate the differences. We should also add that the staff are very helpful if you don’t know which coffee you would like. Just ask.

You can see more about about Pilgrim Coffee on their Facebook site:

Pilgrim Coffee

We have included Pilgrim Coffee in our story about coffee in Tasmania.

Tasmania’s Vibrant Coffee Scene