The aroma of brewing coffee beans wafts towards you as you enter the newly-launched coffee shop, Cafemoto, at Deja Vu in Tristar Towers, Avanashi Road. The theme of the café is centred around super-bikes. Rob Forsyth, Director of Forsyth Coffee & Tea, is making an espresso in a siphon coffee maker for the coffee brewing workshop, organised as a part of the launch.
The ambience is that of an automobile workshop, with pictures of bikes on the walls. At the centre stands a slick blue super-bike that’s for sale! Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley and Che Guevara adorn the walls along with trivia about their favourite super bikes.
Rob Forsyth, who has been roasting and blending coffee for over 37 years, was a judge at the World Barista Competition. He begins the demonstration, with an anecdote about coffee’s role in human culture.
“Coffee houses in the West were even banned by many governments, at one point of time, as they turned into strong centres of political discussion.”
Rob demonstrates how to make coffee decoction in the coffee maker. Rob says maintaining the right temperature is important, while brewing an espresso. “It should be around 92 degree C.”
The decoction is circulated among the audience for tasting. It is bitter.
During the second part of the session, Rob brews the coffee in an espresso coffee machine. The difference in the quality of coffee is evident. The solution is twice as bitter! Rob adds a little milk to this solution. “You can vary the amount of milk as per your taste,” he says.“What is your take on flavoured coffees?” some one from the audience asks. “I do not like them. When coffee itself is so flavoured, why would you want to add more flavours to it?”
The idea of a café, themed on super bikes, materialised from his passion for coffee and bikes, says Naren Rajan, the owner of Tristar Towers and the coffee shop. “I am an avid traveller. I take a keen interest on coffee-making. I even go to factories and watch how coffee is brewed. So the idea came up naturally.”
He added that the casual ambience of the whole cafe was created to cater to the youngsters. “We want it to be a hang out place. We also have a patisserie section that offers pastries, doughnuts and pies at affordable rates.”Joseph Manavalan, the chef of the patisserie and also the designer of the café says they had to revamp a garage to create this cafe. “It has been designed like a workshop, with spoons being served in tool boxes. The patisserie is not fully designed yet but we are planning it to design it like a paint booth in an automobile workshop, where vehicles are painted.”
