Kasey and Karena: Full of beans (+recipes)

Herald on Sunday·

18 Aug, 2015 09:35 PM3 mins to read

Coffee cake. Photo / Doug Sherring

Coffee can be more than just your daily morning fix.

Coffee. The great elixir of life. To state how many cups of coffee we have each day may change the way you think about us, but let's just say we are coffee fanatics. In fact, our whole family is. These days when we are together you will most likely see us all sitting around at Mum's house sipping on the good stuff.

New Zealand has an amazing coffee culture and it is growing. Boutique coffee houses and roasters have sprung up everywhere and we have some pretty amazing baristas who know their beans and produce everything from long blacks to flat whites and Americanos and everything in between.

We've gone from only having one variety of instant available at the local supermarket to having a plethora of brands and preparations.

Coffee is beginning to be similar to wine, with beans from different regions highlighted and different ways of preparing and roasting them to enhance their different flavours.

Altezano Brothers in Auckland is an excellent example. The boutique roaster was started in 1999 by three brothers. We visited their roast house in Mt Eden where they source their coffee directly from the growers and choose varieties based on their unique flavour and quality.

The beans are all roasted on site in micro-batches to maintain quality. We tried a number of different varieties and were impressed by the different flavours available and the passion for what they are doing, evident in the final product.

Whether your preference is for a more fruity and acidic-tasting coffee or something slightly more smoky or earthy, you now have a choice.

As lovers of all things coffee we thought the best way to celebrate this was to share some of our favourite recipes which incorporate coffee.

Coffee is interesting to cook with as it is strong and can add delicious flavour to dishes.

First, we have something a bit funky and different that you wouldn't usually associate with coffee - a Mexican Coffee Burger.

In Mexican cooking, it is not uncommon for coffee to be used in a number of savoury dishes.

For this burger, the meat patty is mixed with Mexican spices and the patty is then coated with freshly ground coffee to add a rich, smoky flavour to the meat when cooked. It matches well with the creamy avocado and spicy salsa.

Our dad has a weakness for anything sweet and anything coffee, so this is one of his favourite desserts: a delicious coffee trifle which includes almond biscuits soaked in coffee layered with custard and whipped cream.

The last recipe is a rich chocolate and coffee cake, perfect with hot cup of coffee for an afternoon treat and just as nice heated with a scoop of icecream.