The latest trend to swarm the nation is coffee caviar. Before you ask, no it’s not a caffeinated variation of the fish eggs delicacy (thank goodness). It has inherited the name due it appearance and likeness to caviar. With summer in full swing you may well see this on the menu at trendy fine dining restaurants and dessert bars.

It is essentially small balls of coffee, served with drinks, desserts and even some savoury dishes. It’s said to create lots of tiny explosions on the palate, providing a much different tasting experience than cooking with coffee. Whist this may have started in fine dining establishments, it can also be made at home.

How to make it

Whist there are a few different processes you can follow, here are two most common and simplest methods to make this right in your kitchen. 

The first is a mixture of coffee and alginate, then using a syringe/pipette to deposit into dilute calcium chloride, drain and rinse and there you have it!

 The second is to mix gelatine with cold water, then you add your hot espresso. Again, using a syringe/pipette to drip the mixture into very cold vegetable oil, drain and rinse and you’re good to go.

 The resulting chemical reaction from both these methods creates a membrane around the drops of coffee, giving you amazing caviar-like spheres that burst in the mouth. This process can also be used for other liquids too, but surely nothing is better than coffee!

What to have coffee caviar with?

It is being debated online around whether this is a drink or food, we going to sit solidly on the fence and just say its best enjoyed as an addition to food or drink. There are so many possibilities open to the restaurant industry here. Recently, we looked into how best to cook with coffee but using coffee caviar means this could be an added topping instead.

Ideal for a topping for desserts, check these out:

Crumble dessert topped with coffee caviar

 

A post shared by Carla M (@madeiralita) on Jan 10, 2017 at 6:43pm PST

Coffee caviar to compliment a creamy coffee shooter

 

A post shared by fyeloh (@fyeloh) on Jun 27, 2015 at 12:04am PDT

Simple one, coffee caviar with ice cream

 

A post shared by team@coff-fefe (@coff_fefe) on Jul 2, 2017 at 4:07pm PDT

Enjoyed simply with freshly whipped cream

 

A post shared by The Urban List Melbourne (@urbanlistmelb) on Mar 8, 2016 at 6:32pm PST

Saved the best until last, Tiramisu with coffee caviar to finish

 

A post shared by Sindhura Reddy (@sindhuraw) on Apr 6, 2017 at 1:56am PDT

Have you tried coffee caviar? Know somewhere that has it on the menu? We would like to hear from you, drop us a tweet here.