Slow Coffee comes to Switzerland

Slow Coffee is a practical application of the Slow Food philosophy in the world of coffee. Slow Coffee promotes an awareness of coffee, the hard work of cultivation, and the diversity of flavor. Through brewing methods specifically tailored to individual coffees, such as the manual dripper, the AeroPress, Chemex, or Cold Drip, the character of individual origins can be showcased. Through Slow Coffee, coffee emerges from its status as an everyday, incidental beverage and is recognized as a specialty, similar to wine, and perceived more consciously. It’s a move away from convenience and paper cups. Slow Coffee specifically focuses on direct trade and single-origin beans. The generally light roasts, in the spirit of the Third Wave movement, allow the flavor characteristics of a growing region to truly shine. Fruit notes, delicate acidity, and sweetness join roasted aromas and bitterness.

The term Slow Coffee is derived from the Slow Food movement. "Slow Food is an international non-profit association founded in 1986 as a response to the rapid spread of fast food and the resulting loss of food culture and culinary diversity." The Slow Food movement seeks 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 the craftsmanship and appreciation of food production.

Preparing high-quality coffee with what are often simple but precise brewing tools has so far been a niche field 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 playing an increasingly important role, are the fields in which Slow Coffee is gaining significance. After a coffee vanguard has been successfully implementing Slow Coffee café concepts in the English-speaking world and in Scandinavian countries for some years, cafés in major German-speaking cities like Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, or Frankfurt have followed suit over the past two years. Slow Coffee, the AeroPress, the Siphon, Chemex, or the manual dripper have cult potential. And not just for coffee geeks! Hardly any major press outlet in Germany has missed the topic of the "comeback of filter coffee" in the last year (see below).

There are already several cafés in Switzerland that implement individual "alternative brewing methods" (Café Henrici in Zurich, Pfifferling in Basel, ccino in Aarau). And now, Café Frühling in Basel is opening, the first café to consciously make Slow Coffee its focus!

We are very happy about this! Because the Frühling is right next door to our Coffee Academy and, from now on, will form the new coffee center of Basel together with the Kaffeemacher. We will work together to develop new content in the area of Slow Coffee.

"A perfect brew is a synergy between coffee in particle form (ground), water (quality), temperature, turbulence, pressure, and contact time (between water and coffee). When the synergy works, the brewer extracts the full potential of the coffee that the coffee producer in the country of origin and the roaster have both created."
See also: AeroPress on Tour on the SBB

Press reports on the topic of Slow Coffee and the “comeback of filter coffee” from recent years: