Specialty coffee in Michelin-starred gastronomy: Acclaimed chef Tanja Grandits brews our Espresso
Specialty coffee in Michelin-starred gastronomy is unfortunately still far too rare. Yet a gourmet temple would be exactly the place where you would expect to find delicious coffee. Exceptions are rare, which is why we are all the more delighted about our new project with Restaurant Stucki in Basel.
Since March 2022, Tanja Grandits and her team have been serving our Dreispitz espresso. This partnership delights us greatly, because specialty coffee is still underrepresented even in top gastronomy.
Our Espresso at Restaurant Stucki, Basel
Tanja Grandits has earned herself two Michelin stars and has been running Restaurant Stucki on the Bruderholz in Basel since 2008. In 2014 and 2020 she was "Chef of the Year" and published her sixth book in 2018. SRF produced a wonderful and entertaining portrait in December 2021 that takes a behind-the-scenes look at Stucki.
Restaurant Stucki has been one of Switzerland's gourmet temples for years and far beyond. We repeatedly thought how wonderful it would be if our two philosophies would meet - Tanja Grandits, who places aromas and balance at the center of her work, and us, who seek exactly that in coffee.
In early 2022, a team of three led by Tanja Grandits visited us at the roastery. We tasted extreme filter coffees, somewhat milder ones, and everything from classic espresso to fruity bombs was represented. We found our match with the Dreispitz Espresso - named after our first roastery location in Dreispitz Basel.
What's in the Dreispitz Espresso?
The Dreispitz is a blend and is meant to bridge different flavor worlds. It's no coincidence that we often refer to it as a "bridge coffee with ambition".
The coffee blend consists of three equal parts: coffee from Brazil, India, and Nicaragua. And there's a reason for this: each coffee contributes a component to the Dreispitz that it wouldn't have on its own.
The Dreispitz espresso is full-bodied and chocolatey. It's carried by a creamy texture and structured by a fine acidity. This acidity continues pleasantly into the aftertaste and pairs there with strong Robusta notes.
Where do the individual coffees come from?
Brazil: APAS Cooperative
A dry-processed coffee from local varieties gives the blend its foundation. The coffee tastes nutty, of milk chocolate, and is low in acidity.
Nicaragua: Finca Santa Rita, Kaffeemacher Farm
A washed coffee from our own and neighboring farms in the Dipilto region in northern Nicaragua. The coffee is heavy, dark chocolate-like, with a fresh, citric acidity.
India: Kanana Specialities
The semi-washed Robusta (honey processed) from Kanana Specialities is extremely velvety, heavy, and has a long, robust aftertaste of cedarwood.
No Half Measures
Shortly after we agreed to collaborate, Stucki sent its entire service team to our academy. We worked intensively for a full day at the machines and grinders, discussing complex aromas, brewing ratios, and roasting profiles.
The team equipped itself with new grinders and machines from Dä Kafimaa and has since been brewing espresso of a quality in the Michelin restaurant that we wish for. We are very pleased about this collaboration and equally look forward to further taste experiments together with the Stucki team.
Not the Rule
In October 2020, I recorded a podcast with Michelin-starred chef Andreas Caminada from Schloss Schauenstein. Caminada, together with Claude Stahel from roastery Black & Blaze, built a mini roastery on the grounds of Schloss Schauenstein. There, Caminada and his team roast specialty coffees in such a way that the coffees retain their character. With the right equipment and understanding of preparation, they bring exactly this experience into the cup.
"Of course," one might think. Rather not - in Michelin kitchens, where fresh, high-quality, and precisely selected ingredients create new flavor combinations, coffee is often a compromise.
And this compromise simply needs to be easy to handle. So the choice often falls on Nespresso.
Meanwhile, "chefs act as ambassadors" and gladly promote capsule coffee.
Michelin restaurants in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria that also serve specialty coffee remain few and far between. But when big names redirect their coffee offering and devote the same culinary precision to coffee as well, then that's extremely consistent and perhaps also a new experience for guests.
