The St. Petersburg coffee museum invented an official St. Petersburg coffee recipe based on old recipes and historic materials upon request by city authorities. From now on, this kind of coffee will be served at official events sponsored and organized by the city government. The government also wants to get it marketed so you could have a good chance to taste what’s maybe the first city’s coffee in the world.
Saint Petersburg is experiencing a real coffee boom with kiosks and shops selling cappuccinos, lattes and espressos to go popping up on every corner and spot near every subway station, universities, railway stations and other location with big human traffic. Even newspaper kiosks started to sell coffee, and it’s not rare to be seen when a coffee machine takes as much space as those given to Forbes’ and Esquire’s.
Business meetings, dating and work at coffee shops have become locals’ habit in the early 2000s when first Russian and international chains offering nice atmosphere and not expensive cappuccino started showing up in the city center and then spread to sleeping districts. For example, all St. Petersburg Travel Guide’s successful negotiations about cooperation were (and are) conducted at coffee shops as well as the project itself was invented when another cup of cappuccino was being made by a barista somewhere near the Peter and Paul square on a cloudy winter day.
Not surprisingly that first city’s official coffee recipe in Russia (or in the world?) appeared in St. Petersburg, the city where coffee was drunk in Russia for the first time after Peter the Great had brought it from abroad and where first coffee shop in the country was established.
The St. Petersburg coffee is not very strong, but its taste is bright and full. Milk froth is also added as a symbol of the white nights St. Petersburg is famous for.
The recipe looks rather simple.
— 18 g of freshly roasted Arabic;
— 80 ml of hot water;
— 1-2 spoons of milk froth;
At first, double espresso is being made, then hot water and milk froth produced by cappuccinatore are being added. Coffee is served with glass of water.
You can taste it at a coffee shop of the Coffee museum right now and maybe at city coffee shop a bit later if the government succeeds in its efforts to persuade owners to sell it. We think it will as the authorities want to spend some money to advertise it and any well marketed product is likely to be loved by vendors and other business structures.
And, of course, this news was written at a coffee shop for 15 minutes needed to drink a 200 ml cappuccino.
By Ivan Stupachenko