São Tomé coffee

Ingredients

The coffee

• 60 gSão Tomé arabica
• or another small-batch arabica
• whole beans if possible
• freshly roasted

The water

• 700 mlwater
• filtered if your tap water is hard
• just off the boil

The equipment

• a grinder
• a filter or cafetière
• or a small pot, for boiled coffee
• a scale, if you have one

To serve

• small cups
• sugar, to taste
• usually black

Directions

1. Let it sit thirty seconds off the boil. That drops it to about the right point. Adjust it once you have tried it. Grind the beans just before brewing. Grind only what you need right now. Whole beans keep for several weeks. Shake it between pulses to even it.
2. Bring the water to a full boil. Then take it off the heat entirely. Let it stand for thirty seconds. Rinse the cafetiere with hot water. A cold vessel drops the brew temperature.
3. Rinse it and pour that water away. Put the ground coffee in the pot. Use a coarse grind for a cafetiere. Pour the hot water over the grounds.
4. Pour a little first to wet them all. Wait thirty seconds for the bloom. Let it steep for four full minutes. Four minutes is the standard time.
5. Stir the crust down after a minute. Press the plunger down slowly. Press it down slowly and steadily. Pour it all out of the pot immediately. Coffee left on the grounds keeps extracting.
6. Pour it into cups or into a jug. Do not leave it sitting in the pot. Bring it up and take it off the heat. Let the grounds settle for a minute. Stop before the grounds start coming.
7. Leave the last mouthful behind. Serving it is done in small cups. Pour it out into small warm cups. Small cups keep it hot as you drink. Keep them somewhere cool and dark. Do not refrigerate them at all. Use them within a month of roasting. It is drunk hot from small cups.

Technique

• The roça plantation system that produced this coffee relied on forced and contract labour drawn largely from mainland Africa. Slavery was formally abolished in the colony and a contract labour system replaced it, with workers recruited from Angola and elsewhere who often could not leave once they arrived. That system drew international criticism and became a public scandal in the early 1900s, drawing in British chocolate firms — a well documented history. The plantations produced real wealth and that wealth rested on coerced labour; the atlas records both facts without softening either. The present trade is a different and much smaller thing, often cooperative, but the history remains what it was.
• Grind only what you are about to brew: grinding exposes an enormous surface area that oxidises within days and lets the aromatic compounds escape, where whole beans keep for weeks. Match the grind to the method — coarse for a cafetière, medium for a filter — since too fine over-extracts into bitterness and too coarse under-extracts into thin sourness.
• Let boiled water stand thirty seconds off the boil before it touches the coffee, since boiling water scalds the grounds and gives a bitter burnt taste. Pour it all out of the pot immediately once brewed, since coffee left sitting on the grounds keeps extracting and goes bitter within minutes.

Substitutions

• A blade grinder works acceptably if pulsed and shaken between pulses to even it out; a burr grinder gives a genuinely more even grind, and uneven grounds extract unevenly.
• Boiling the grounds in a small pot, letting them settle a minute and pouring off carefully is a genuinely common household method — some sediment in the cup is expected rather than a fault, so leave the last mouthful behind.

Variations

• Wet the grounds with a little water first and wait thirty seconds for the bloom before pouring the rest: fresh coffee releases carbon dioxide that pushes water away from the grounds, and letting it escape improves extraction. A vigorous bloom also means fresh coffee, where stale coffee barely blooms at all — a genuinely useful test.
• Press a cafetière plunger down slowly, since fast plunging stirs the grounds and pushes fines into the cup; steep four minutes, since longer turns bitter and shorter comes out thin and sour.
• Store beans airtight somewhere cool and dark rather than in a refrigerator, which introduces moisture and odours — coffee absorbs surrounding smells readily. Coffee reached São Tomé from Brazil in 1800 and preceded cocoa as the island’s export crop, centred on the Monte Café roça.

History

Coffee reached São Tomé from Brazil in 1800 and preceded cocoa as the island’s export crop, centred on the Monte Café roça.

Frequently asked questions

What is São Tomé coffee?

São Tomé coffee is a drink from São Tomé and Príncipe: small-batch arabica grown on old plantation slopes at Monte Café. Coffee reached São Tomé from Brazil in 1800 and preceded cocoa as the island’s export crop, centred on the Monte Café roça.

How long does São Tomé coffee take to make?

São Tomé coffee takes 10 minutes of preparation and 5 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in São Tomé coffee?

Yes, within limits. A blade grinder works acceptably if pulsed and shaken between pulses to even it out; a burr grinder gives a genuinely more even grind, and uneven grounds extract unevenly. Boiling the grounds in a small pot, letting them settle a minute and pouring off carefully is a genuinely common household method — some sediment in the cup is expected rather than a fault, so leave the last mouthful behind.

What is the most important thing to get right in São Tomé coffee?

Pour it into cups or into a jug. Do not leave it sitting in the pot. Bring it up and take it off the heat. Let the grounds settle for a minute. Stop before the grounds start coming.