Marriage made in Heaven – Coffee and Single Malt:
After dinner is the ideal time to enjoy malt whisky and up till now there has been no coffee specifically blended to complement and enhance the unique pleasure of single malt. However, due to the hard work of The Cuillin Hills Hotel, on the Isle of Skye and the Edinburgh Tea and Coffee Company such a coffee has now been blended and is enjoying rave reviews from visitors and guests at the Cuillin Hills Hotel.
The coffee is the brainchild of Mr. Peter Sim, General Manager at the Cuillin Hills Hotel and Mr. John Thompson, of the Edinburgh Tea and Coffee Company. The coffee blend which is a secret mixture of Indonesian and South American beans, gives a coffee that is a medium dark roast. It is full-bodied, rich and complex, complementing whisky flavours whilst adding further flavours of its own. The main characteristics of this blend are dark chocolate and a rich nuttiness. Balancing these tastes and adding an underlying sweetness are caramel and toffee notes, the finish is long and luxuriant with hints of liquorice and cinnamon.
"It is made up of some of the world’s finest gourmet coffees, and if there was a ‘Grand Cru Classe" for coffee then this blend would surely be in it"John Thompson, Edinburgh Tea and Coffee Company
"We wanted to develop a coffee to complement and showcase malt whisky as the ideal after dinner drink … this coffee certainly does that. Even Islay whiskies are enhanced – and that’s saying something."Peter Sim, Cuillin Hills Hotel
The Cuillin Hills Hotel, works closely with its preferred partners – and the work done with The Edinburgh Tea and Coffee Company has certainly borne a perfect match – a Marriage made in Heaven.
Cuillin Hills Blend Background and Tasting Notes:
Background:
This 100% arabica blend of coffee has been developed as the perfect end to a meal and to perfectly complement the Cuillin Hills’s recommended Single Malt: Talisker. It is made up of some of the world’s finest gourmet coffees, and if there were a ‘Grand Cru Classe’ for coffee then this blend would surely be in it.
The major part of the Cuillin Hills blend is made up from coffees grown in the Indonesian archipelago, famous for producing some of the worlds most naturally full-bodied arabica coffees. With climate, topography and geology playing a hugely important role in how coffee tastes, the thousands of islands in Indonesia can produce wildly differing coffees. We have focused in on two of the most highly regarded, Sulawesi and Sumatra.
The central region of Tana Toraja in Sulawesi is famous for its striking beauty, and unique culture characterised by the distinctive ‘Spirit Houses.’ In the hills surrounding the town of Rantapau, grown alongside terraced rice paddies and under the shade of bamboo, arabica coffee flourishes in almost perfect growing conditions.
Sumatra is well known for its volcanic activity and the hills surrounding the remnants of the world’s last Super Volcano, Lake Toba is blanketed by rich soils. These volcanic soils are perfect on which to grow coffee and play a vital part in developing complexity and character.
Together these coffees bring smooth, delicious dark chocolate character dominates, and is complimented by an intriguing fruitiness, and long spicy aftertaste
The next key component of the blend is an El Salvadorian coffee from the La Fany Farm. Here a lower yielding gourmet subspecies of arabica called bourbon grows in the shade of the Central American rainforest. Known for its smoothness and complexity these distinctly nutty coffees are highly regarded in the coffee world. The shade trees at La Fany also form part of the network of ‘protected highways’ that make up the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor stretching through the Americas, and playing a vital role as a sanctuary for most of the 520 migratory and native bird species found is this part of the world.
Finally, handpicked coffees from farms in Brazil’s southern state of Minas Gerais ring the other components of the blend together. Whilst Brazil is the largest coffee growing country in the world, only a small percentage of coffee is processed using the innovative-pulped natural process. This keeps a small amount of the fruit of the coffee cherry on the beans. When dried in the South American sun the fruit’s natural sugars are retained in the coffee beans giving it a richer fuller body, and a smooth sweetness.
Tasting Notes:
When given a medium dark roast this blend of coffee becomes full bodied, rich and complex, complementing the whisky flavours whilst adding further flavours of its own. The predominant characteristics of the coffee are sumptuous dark chocolate and a rich nuttiness. Balancing these flavours and adding an underlying sweetness there are caramel and toffee notes coming through in the midrange. Finally, adding complexity through to a long luxuriant finish are subtle hints of liquorice and cinnamon.
