Slow Coffee comes to Switzerland

Slow Coffee is a concrete application of the Slow Food philosophy to coffee. Slow Coffee promotes awareness of coffee, the effort involved in its cultivation, and its diverse flavors. Brewing methods specifically tailored to individual coffees, such as the hand filter, the AeroPress, the Chemex, or Cold Drip, can highlight the character of individual provenances. Through Slow Coffee, coffee emerges as a product from everyday "incidental consumption" and is recognized and consciously perceived as a specialty, like wine. Moving away from convenience and coffee in paper cups, Slow Coffee deliberately focuses on Direct Trade and single-origin purity. The typically light roasts, in the spirit of the Third-Wave movement, allow the unique flavors of a growing region to shine. Fruit, fine acidity, and sweetness complement the roasted aromas and bitterness.

The term Slow Coffee is inspired by the Slow Food movement. "Slow Food is an international non-profit organization founded in 1986 in response to the rapid spread of fast food and the associated loss of food culture and flavor diversity." The Slow Food movement aims to protect organic products, promotes regional consumption, addresses sustainability and biodiversity, and advocates for food as a cultural and social value. A central theme is also craftsmanship and the recognition of food production.

The preparation of high-quality coffees with sometimes simple but precise brewing tools has so far been a niche for enthusiasts and specialists. However, the transparency of production, the relatively easy accessibility of brewing equipment for home users, and a zeitgeist in which organic, transparency, and quality are increasingly playing a larger role, are the field in which Slow Coffee is gaining importance. After a coffee avant-garde successfully implemented Slow Coffee café concepts in the English-speaking world and in Scandinavian countries for several years, cafés in German-speaking major cities like Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, or Frankfurt have followed suit in the last two years. Slow Coffee, the Aeropress, the Siphon, the Chemex, or the hand filter have cult potential. Not just for coffee geeks! Hardly any major press agency in Germany missed the topic of "the comeback of filter coffee" last year (see below).

In Switzerland, there are already some cafés that implement individual "alternative brewing methods" (Café Henrici in Zurich, Pfifferling in Basel, ccino in Aarau). And now, with Café frühling in Basel, the first café is opening that consciously focuses on Slow Coffee!

We are very excited! Because frühling is located next door to our coffee academy and will henceforth form the new coffee center of Basel with Kaffeemacher. Together we will develop new content in the Slow Coffee sector.

A perfect brew is a synergy between coffee in particle form (ground), water (quality), temperature, turbulence (swirling), pressure, and contact time (between water and coffee). If the synergy is successful, the brewer extracts all the potential of the coffee that the coffee producer in the growing country and the roaster have jointly developed."
See also: AeroPress on Tour in the SBB

Press reports on Slow Coffee and the "comeback of filter coffee" in recent years: