Fruity coffees are having a bit of a moment – not just beans with a hint of cherry or blackcurrant brought out by careful roasting, but coffee with actual fruit added in some way. One particularly interesting example I tried recently was a double-fermented coffee, where the coffee cherries (the fruit that contains the coffee bean) have been allowed to mature along with passionfruit before being processed.
The flavor of the passionfruit is infused into the beans, and the result is delicious – particularly when brewed cold overnight and served over ice. Some people call it cheating, but I call it tasty.
Nespresso has also got in on the act with a new Vertuo pod packed full of ground arabica beans, with added flavors of strawberry and white chocolate. I'd typically think of coffee as fruity (lending itself well to being drunk black) or chocolatey (which tends to work well with milk), so I was very curious to see how this unusual mix would work.
The launch follows Nespresso's debut of energy-boosting 'functional' coffees, with extras like added caffeine (derived from coffee beans that have been decaffeinated) and B-vitamins. Those turned out to be quite delicious, and I'm a particular fan of the caramel-scented Ginseng Delight, so I was hoping for another pleasant surprise.
I've also been turned onto sweetened coffee by the Jura J10 espresso machine, which has an attachment that infuses syrup into milk as it's dispensed, and has earned itself a place in our guide to the best coffee makers.
Strawberries and cream... and coffee
With that in mind, I dropped one of the candy-striped strawberry and white chocolate pods into my trusty Nespresso Vertuo Pop (which ranks highly in our roundup of the best Nespresso machines thanks to its compact design and budget-friendly price) and hit the button to start brewing.
The resulting coffee – a blend of arabica beans from Brazil and Colombia with extra flavors added after roasting – was a surprise, but a pleasant one. The added aromas don't overpower the taste of the coffee, but complement it.
I found that the strawberry was the more noticeable of the two, and it adds a freshness to the drink's flavor before the creamier base notes of sweet vanilla become apparent.
These capsules are Nespresso's 'mug' size, which means they create 230ml of coffee – enough to completely fill my glass cups – so I had to take a few sips before I could experiment with stirring in a little milk. I was a bit worried that the fruit might clash with dairy, but if anything it was even better.
Next time I'll use a larger mug and add some steamed milk to make a giant strawberry latte. I think, like my dual-fermented passionfruit coffee, it will also work well chilled over ice. I've got some experimenting to do.
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