

Oslo to Brazil: Flavor of Roasted Coffee
Season 8 Episode 803 | 27m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Niklas investigates the most popular drink in Scandinavia and seeks it's origin in Brazil.
Niklas investigates the most popular drink in Scandinavia, namely coffee. He wants to know more about his morning cup of coffee and meets up with some experts for this refreshing beverage, before he travels to Brazil where most of the world’s coffee originates.
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New Scandinavian Cooking is presented by your local public television station.
Distributed nationally by American Public Television

Oslo to Brazil: Flavor of Roasted Coffee
Season 8 Episode 803 | 27m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Niklas investigates the most popular drink in Scandinavia, namely coffee. He wants to know more about his morning cup of coffee and meets up with some experts for this refreshing beverage, before he travels to Brazil where most of the world’s coffee originates.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship>> Funding for this series has been provided in part by the following... >> Up Norway, curates Norwegian travel experiences in the footsteps of "New Scandinavian Cooking."
>> ♪ No, take me home ♪ Take me home where I belong >> Vgan, the full taste of chocolate.
>> Grieg Suites.
Chocolate with apples from Norway.
♪♪ Havila Voyages.
Pure Northern.
>> Ekstedt: Hi, and welcome to "New Scandinavian Cooking."
I'm Niklas Ekstedt, and today I am in the capital of Norway, Oslo.
The summer has just arrived, and people are so happy.
They're outside, enjoying their coffee, hopefully, because that's what this show is going to be about.
So let's see if I can find a perfect brewed coffee.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> Ekstedt: You might think, "Why coffee from Oslo and Scandinavia?"
The answer is easy.
Scandinavians drink more coffee than anyone.
The reason is not only to stay awake during the winter months.
We drink it all year-round because we love it.
Today's show is all about the coffee we drink every day -- the taste and quality and where it comes from.
I will start off here in Oslo, where there is an abundance of coffee chains and independent cafes.
And I will cook for you, as well.
I'm going to make three of my favorite open-faced sandwiches -- Swedish-style, of course.
Then I'm off to Brazil where a lot of the world's coffee comes from.
It's black and it's hot.
I will brew coffee to perfection and serve it to some Brazilian coffee farmers -- rich and smooth in flavor, Norwegian-style.
I'm also going to visit a local food market in Sao Paulo... and a traditional fish restaurant in Santos.
I will learn how to prepare a traditional Portuguese stockfish from Norway with a Brazilian twist.
Mmm.
Finally, back in Norway, I'm going to make coffee-cured fresh cod served with a colorful Scandinavian strawberry summer salad.
♪♪ My first stop is Tim Wendelboe at Grunerlokka in Oslo.
Tim's goal is to be among the best in the world when it comes to coffee.
[ Machine whirring ] Hey, Tim.
>> How's it going?
>> Ekstedt: I've been looking for you... >> Oh, yes?
I travel a lot to my farm in Colombia now.
>> Ekstedt: ...and looking for the best quality of coffee.
>> Yeah, and, also, I'm growing my own coffee.
>> Ekstedt: Oh, really?
>> So that's a lot of work in the field.
>> Ekstedt: And you want it to be specifically for the Norwegian, for your coffeehouse here in Oslo?
>> Yeah, sure.
>> Ekstedt: You're looking for those flavors.
>> Yeah.
>> Ekstedt: It's very kind of light.
It's almost like tea.
>> [ Chuckles ] Well, the coffee's as strong as the other ones.
It's just very lightly roasted, so you don't have the bitterness, and the bitterness is kind of giving a perception of it being very strong.
So instead of being bitter, it's sweet and acidic.
>> Ekstedt: So the future of coffee, you think, is a lightly roasted quality coffee, drinking like this at a low temperature, and with no milk, no sugar?
>> At least that's one future, and a trend we're seeing that actually started here in Scandinavia.
You can get light-roasted coffee anywhere in the world, which I think is great because that's the way I prefer to drink it, but I think, you know, we should embrace the differences in coffee, which is much easier to get now.
It's very easy to get or find a nice coffee shop that has great coffees that, you know, can taste anything from nutty and earthy to floral and fruity and so on.
>> Ekstedt: Embrace the differences in coffee.
[ Laughs ] >> That's what I'm talking about.
[ Laughter ] ♪♪ >> Ekstedt: It's a big difference between how the Southern Europeans wake up and how the Nordic people wake up.
Up here in Scandinavia, we wake up slowly, with a big cup of coffee, brewed coffee, and a big sandwich or porridge.
So it's a heavy, big breakfast.
I'm going to show you how to do some open sandwiches -- a very traditional Nordic breakfast, three of my childhood favorites.
So this one is going to be with a soft-boiled egg and anchovies.
Sound a little weird, right, to eat anchovies for breakfast, but it's delicious with brewed coffee.
So the second sandwich is a liver pâté sandwich.
Pâté is always served with something pickled.
I've got some pickled cucumber here.
And then the third one, but the most important one, is smoked cod roe.
So this is my breakfast.
This is how I start the morning -- one sandwich with egg and anchovies, one with liver pâté and pickled cucumber, and one with smoked code roe.
!Hei.
>> !Hei!
>> Ekstedt: [ Speaking Swedish ] >> Ah.
>> Ekstedt: [ Speaking Swedish ] >> !Ja?
>> Ekstedt: [ Speaking Swedish ] >> !Takk.
[ Speaking Swedish ] >> Ekstedt: [ Speaking Swedish ] >> Ah?
>> Ekstedt: [ Speaking Swedish ] >> !Ja, ja.
>> Ekstedt: [ Speaking Swedish ] >> [ Speaking Swedish ] >> Ekstedt: [ Speaking Swedish ] !Kaffe?
>> !Takk.
>> Ekstedt: They seem to really like my sandwiches, and maybe that's because they love coffee.
!Bon mariage.
You can find all our recipes on our website... ♪♪ This is Roger Wilhelmsen.
He drinks a lot of coffee, and he imports a lot of coffee to Norway.
So this is where you test-roast the samples?
>> Yes, I do.
It's important that we roast it light, not too dark.
♪♪ >> Ekstedt: So now we're going to grind the sample.
>> Yes.
>> Ekstedt: All right.
>> One spoon is around 10 gram... >> Ekstedt: Mm.
>> ...for each cup.
>> Ekstedt: Okay.
[ Machine whirring ] >> It's very important to smell here, because if there is some kind of defect, you can smell it, also.
>> Ekstedt: So this is not the way that you would grind it for at home?
>> No.
>> Ekstedt: Okay.
And now you pour water on this?
>> Yes, hot water.
>> Ekstedt: And then sample.
>> Yeah.
>> Ekstedt: So this is where you try out the Norwegian coffee blend.
>> Yes, that is correct.
And we have our own 40% of the Norwegian market.
>> Ekstedt: Really?
Okay.
>> So there's a lot of coffee going through this house.
>> Ekstedt: [ Laughs ] That's a lot of coffee, 'cause Norwegians drink a lot of coffee.
>> Mm-hmm.
They do, yes.
>> Ekstedt: So, how do I start?
>> !Ja.
>> Ekstedt: I can help you out here, maybe.
[ Laughter ] >> You can try.
You need some air... >> Ekstedt: Yeah.
>> ...in between.
>> Ekstedt: [ Slurps ] >> More or less the same as you taste wine.
[ Slurps ] >> Ekstedt: And because it's a blend, you're looking for different characters and different coffee types.
>> Yes.
[ Slurps ] In our main brand called Evergood, we have Colombia, we have Costa Rica, we have Guatemala, Kenya, and Brazil.
>> Ekstedt: Okay.
>> Brazil is the only coffee who is natural.
It's not washed coffee.
>> Ekstedt: So it's a natural fermentation process?
>> Yes.
>> Ekstedt: Yeah.
>> So they only use the sun.
You have a nice patio.
You put the coffee.
The sun is drying it.
So you have a really nice sweetness, and no acidity at all.
>> Ekstedt: And that sweetness and full-bodied flavor you then blend into your blend.
>> Yes.
When you have four countries where you have washed coffee, and you put the Brazil unwashed, it's like a chemical process.
The Brazilian coffee combines the other one and brings out the flavor from each of the washed coffees.
So it's something very unique happen, actually.
But, of course, every component in the blend is very important, so we cannot take away either Colombia or Kenya or whatever.
>> Ekstedt: No.
>> Everything have to be there.
>> Ekstedt: And so now I'll go to Brazil and learn more about Brazilian coffee.
>> Yes.
Yeah.
Good idea.
[ Laughter ] >> Ekstedt: Can't wait.
Can't wait.
[ Slurps ] >> [ Slurps ] >> Ekstedt: [ Slurps ] Time to get a taste from the source in Brazil, where a large share of all the coffee in the world is produced.
For anyone buying coffee from Brazil, a local coffee broker is important.
Brazilians are famous for their loud cupping techniques as they search for the right taste profiles for their buyers.
At Wolthers in the city of Santos, cupping is essential.
>> How you doing?
>> Ekstedt: Good.
>> I'm Svenn Wolthers.
Welcome.
>> Ekstedt: Nice to be here.
>> Yeah, good to have you, man.
>> Ekstedt: I'm excited.
>> This is Wolthers & Associates.
It's a company my father started 30 years ago.
We do coffee brokerage for exports, and we do quality control.
So you see these guys here are doing the first step of the process.
They're doing the grading of the actual, physical green bean.
So they're going to be looking for visual defects, as you see he's separating there.
If it's got too many defects, that's going to be the first no-no in the process.
>> Ekstedt: All right.
>> And then here we have the roasting room.
We have a specific sample roaster here, so it fits 150 grams.
It's made for coffee tasting for these coffee cuppings, and we're going to do a very light roast and keep the coffees for about a day, let them rest, and then once they're ready, we're going to grind them and take them back to the table and get ready to cup them.
>> Ekstedt: So this is where the tasting...?
>> This is it.
>> Ekstedt: Cupping.
You call it cupping.
>> This is where we're cupping thousands of cups every week.
>> Ekstedt: Yeah.
>> We're going to usually cup a coffee before it's sold.
>> Ekstedt: Mm-hmm.
>> We're going to have, also, a cupping for a preshipment sample before it's shipped, make sure that it's still the quality we're expecting, and then there's an arrival sample once it arrives at the port, and then we want to make sure that the arrival sample lines up with the preshipment sample.
>> Ekstedt: Mm.
>> Each one of these tins represents a lot of coffee, like, approximately one container.
We'll keep them for about eight months after shipping, so if we have a problem later on when it reaches origin, and the guy calls us and says, "Hey, I'm going to make a claim.
The coffee that I bought is not the coffee I received," then we go and we have the lot here, and we find it and cup it again and see if we have the same issues with this sample as he had with his.
>> Ekstedt: All right.
>> [ Slurps ] >> There's so much that can go wrong every step of the way with coffee.
So when you're drinking a good coffee in the morning all the way in Oslo, it's a miracle that it's still good, you know?
♪♪ >> Ekstedt: Almost 7 million acres of land in Brazil is devoted to growing this tasty bean.
The best quality in the country is found here in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
We are, of course, only talking about the arabica bean.
It grows on an elevation of 4,000 to 5,000 feet -- not too warm and never frost.
This climate makes for a perfect slow ripening of the cherries.
Most picking of coffee bean in the country is done with these large machines.
Considering the vast areas of coffee, any other way would be difficult.
Mechanical pickers shake the trees and loosen the cherries.
This allows them to be collected.
Then the process of sorting and processing starts.
In Brazil, the cherries are unwashed and then sun-dried in the open before packaging is done.
The harvest takes place between May and July.
So all the coffee here is then sent to Norway.
These people work with the coffee every day, but they've never had the finishing product.
We're going to do 60 grams of coffee for one liter of hot water.
It's like a boomerang.
The coffee comes back from Norway.
It's going to be exciting to see if they like this coffee.
Svenn, are you ready for a break?
>> [ Speaking Portuguese ] >> Ekstedt: You want some?
Everyone drinks coffee?
>> They're used to drinking coffee with sugar, most of them, but let's see how they like this with no sugar.
>> [ Conversing in Portuguese ] >> Ekstedt: I baked the cheese bread.
There.
You have?
But it needs sugar.
>> [ Speaking Portuguese ] >> [ Speaking Portuguese ] [ Laughter ] >> It's good.
>> Ekstedt: So, can you imagine that almost everyone in Norway wakes up with this in the morning?
>> [ Speaking Portuguese ] >> [ Speaking Portuguese ] Very aromatic.
>> Ekstedt: I've done a lot of things, but I've never cooked coffee for Brazilians.
So I was a little nervous.
>> !Um pouco nervoso.
>> [ Speaking Portuguese ] [ Laughter ] >> Ekstedt: I'm approved?
>> !Aprovado?
>> !Aprovado.
>> Ekstedt: Oh, thank you.
[ Laughs ] ♪♪ I love markets.
>> Yeah, this place is great.
>> Ekstedt: Coffee broker Svenn Wolthers invited me for a cup of espresso at the oldest food market in Sao Paulo.
Here you can find a variety of exciting food.
>> This looks like a typical Brazilian cafe here.
>> Ekstedt: Yeah.
>> As normally, they're going to have some fried pastries, always the coxinha -- coxinha de frango.
>> Ekstedt: I would love to try this.
I haven't had these yet.
And then we order coffee here, or...?
>> Yeah, we can get some coffee here, as well.
>> Espresso?
>> The espresso or filter?
I didn't know they had espresso.
>> Ekstedt: Filter.
>> !Filtro.
For a long time, all the good, quality coffee is being exported, so don't expect this coffee to be the best you've had in your life.
>> Ekstedt: It's very creamy, but it's so crispy on the outside.
>> Crunchy on the outside, but dry.
You don't want it soggy, you know?
>> Ekstedt: Oh.
It's nice with chili.
It gets you back again, like.
♪♪ >> This is kind of what people are used to.
So most bakeries and small cafes will have this kind of coffee, but nowadays, you're going to find some speciality coffee cafes that have, actually, quite a good product.
♪♪ Rice and beans is like the basis of most Brazilian dishes.
So you're going to have rice and beans pretty much for every lunch... >> Ekstedt: Mm-hmm.
>> ...and then you're going to accompany that with maybe a salad and definitely some kind of animal protein.
>> Ekstedt: Okay.
>> So it could be fish, chicken.
Brazilians eat a lot of meat.
We're big carnivores here.
>> Ekstedt: Pork or beef, like, that's the main -- two main ones, right?
>> Yeah, both.
So you see a lot of bacalao around here.
>> Ekstedt: Yeah, there's a lot of bacalao.
>> Usually the Brazilians will opt for the Portuguese-style bacalao.
>> Ekstedt: Okay, with olives, and...?
>> Yeah, olives, onions, potatoes, and eggs.
>> Ekstedt: Okay.
>> That's what I'm used to, so, still, to this day, every New Year's, my dad cooks up this bacalao.
We always end up eating it on the first of January because it's even better the next day, you know?
He says it's good to start the year eating something light.
>> Ekstedt: But people do eat it all year-round, as well, here?
>> Yes, they do.
>> Ekstedt: Yeah.
>> Usually the Portuguese-style is a lot more commonly used.
>> Ekstedt: But it's interesting to see, too, that the Norwegian Skrei ends up here as bacalao.
>> Yeah.
More than 90% of the bacalao they sell is Norwegian.
>> Which piece of the fish do the clients prefer?
>> Small, but it very big.
>> They'll take just the center.
The center, which he calls, it's like a steak.
>> Ekstedt: How would you prepare it, like, the best...?
>> He said they'll de-salt it in the fridge.
>> Ekstedt: With water?
>> Yeah, cold water, and they'll change the water five, six times.
This one's a minimum of six, seven hours.
>> Ekstedt: Thank you so much.
>> Thank you.
>> [ Speaking Portuguese ] ♪♪ >> Ekstedt: There's been a lot of coffee now, so it's nice to be back in the kitchen in my own environment, and Nilson is going to teach me how to cook bacalao the Brazilian way.
Okay, let's cook.
So they fry it on the skin-side down, also.
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
And then olive oil on top.
Like this?
>> Yes, sir.
♪♪ >> Ekstedt: Bell pepper and onion straight into a hot pan.
Okay.
Olives in here.
Ooh.
[ Sizzling ] Yes.
Parsley.
In many places, you add pork fat to fish dishes to get that extra salt and fat.
Chopped bacon and chopped garlic, and that makes it really crispy when you fry it in a high temperature.
Ah, it's fried rice.
Fried rice with broccoli and garlic and bacon.
[ Sizzling ] I can already now tell what they're trying to do to make the most out of the bacalao.
They use high temperatures, a lot of olive oil, and no spices.
So this looks delicious, doesn't it?
It's onions, bell pepper, olives, and then just baked in the wood oven with a lot of parsley and olive oil.
Okay.
Okay.
And close.
♪♪ It is.
It's a lot of food -- like, a lot of rice, broccoli, the bacalao on the bottom, and then crispy onions on top and potatoes and parsley.
♪♪ And then this one straight from the really hot oven.
This fish has come all the way from Norway.
It's probably, like, a year old, and, still, it's almost better than a fresh fish.
Mmm.
Remember, you can find all our recipes on our website...
Thank you!
Bacalao Brazilian way!
First time!
[ Clapping hands ] My search for the everyday coffee took me back to Norway.
The right taste profile and quality of a bean makes for a good coffee blend.
It's all very important, but you also need equipment for brewing the coffee.
So what better place to visit than the European Coffee Brewing Centre?
Their office, by chance, is in Oslo.
Perfect.
>> Welcome to Norwegian Coffee Association and the test lab for European Coffee Brewing Centre.
And we test for not the quality of the coffee.
You have to decide that one.
>> Ekstedt: Yeah.
[ Chuckles ] >> But the temperature of the brewer, the contact time for the water and coffee.
>> Ekstedt: So you've got some different roasts here.
>> What is special about the Norwegian roast is that it's lighter than other roasts.
You would prefer it to be a light roast because then you have all the flavors.
The aromas are not hidden behind a dark roast.
>> Ekstedt: So how do you brew the Norwegian coffee?
>> Well, we prefer to brew on a brewer, an approved one... >> Ekstedt: Mm-hmm.
>> ...which means we have full control of the temperature.
The best temperature to brew coffee, regardless of brewing method, is between 92 to 96 degrees Celsius.
And the contact time for filtered coffee should be between 4 to 6 minutes.
>> Ekstedt: And filter.
>> Correct.
White paper filter.
>> Ekstedt: White paper filter, 92 Celsius, and 4 1/2 minutes.
>> Good.
Then it's strictly in the center of the ballpark.
♪♪ >> Ekstedt: Great.
I love it.
This is just like -- you know, like the coffee I'm used to -- brewed, lightly brewed, and not too hot.
I love it.
Yeah.
♪♪ Roger, it's an enormous amount of coffee in here.
>> It is, really.
Yes.
>> Ekstedt: You were not joking when you said Scandinavians drink a lot of coffee.
>> No, no.
Absolutely not.
But, I mean, what you see here is just one-sixth part of what we really need.
This is 2,500 tons.
>> Ekstedt: Yeah.
>> We need a lot of coffee.
>> Ekstedt: Yeah.
I figured out on the plane back that I probably have had, like, 10 bags.
These are 60 kilo bags, right?
>> Yes.
>> Seventy kilo bags.
>> Sixty, yeah.
>> Ekstedt: And in my life, so far, I've had 10 of these.
>> [ Laughs ] That's good.
>> Ekstedt: So I need to drink another 10 of these.
>> But then you drink a lot of coffee, actually.
>> Ekstedt: I drink a lot of coffee.
So all these bags come from all over the world?
>> Yes, but the biggest challenge we have -- I mean, if you just look for, let's say, 50 or 100 bags a year.
With this high quality, it's more easy.
>> Ekstedt: Yeah.
>> But Colombia, for example, we need 400,000 kilos each month from this particular area, and everything have to taste exactly the same each time the whole year through.
The same from Kenya.
We buy around 1,200 tons of this "A," "B" top-quality.
You can imagine.
It's more than 20,000 bags.
A huge amount of coffee.
>> Ekstedt: [ Laughs ] >> And everything should taste exactly the same.
>> Ekstedt: Yeah.
>> So it's a tough job.
There's a lot of work behind a good cup of coffee, that's for sure.
♪♪ >> Ekstedt: Now it's time to include coffee in my cooking and to invite my new friend Roger for a bite.
The Scandinavian summer is finally here, and I can't think of a better place than Oslo to enjoy this Nordic summer, and I'm happy.
I'm really happy, because, finally, I'm going to cook.
I'm going to [speaks Swedish] which basically means "buried cod."
In the older days, we used to bury things down in the ground and cure them with salt and sugar, but nowadays we use a refrigerator.
I'm going to use the back part of the cod, and then I'm going to salt and sugar it.
And the same amount of sugar.
I'm going to use brown sugar.
And then some coffee beans on top of that.
And rub this in.
And then when the sugar and the salt and the coffee beans are rubbed in, I'm going to pour on some cold, brewed coffee, and it's really important that it's cold, because if it's cooked, you're going to cook the fish too much.
The ingredients this time of year in Scandinavia are absolutely amazing, and especially the strawberries and tomatoes.
So I'm going to do a strawberry and tomato salad with some spring onions and some lime.
I start off with chopping up the onions, and then I'm going to put them into a bowl.
Lime on top of the spring onions.
And salt.
And olive oil.
You let them cure like this.
They're not going to be as raw in the salad as if you would just add the onions straight into the salad.
The taste of the strawberries in the summer up here in the Nordic countries are so good.
You know what they say.
If to be happy, you're supposed to eat food with a lot of color.
I just recently started using strawberries as an ingredient in salad because it's, like, surprisingly good, actually.
Don't put them whole into the salad, because if you slice them up like this, they will absorb the onion and the lime juice way better.
Just put that onto the plate and then tomatoes and strawberries straight into this.
Then we just lightly cover them all.
They'll taste way better if you cover them properly.
And then just garnish this with some nice leaves.
So that's the strawberry and tomato salad.
Now just grill some asparagus and chanterelles, and then we'll finish it off.
The cod is done.
It's cured for 24 hours, and it looks amazing.
It's firm.
It has beautiful color.
When you serve this, serve it at a room temperature because it will have way better flavor and taste.
Just need to slice this up and serve it with the butter-fried chanterelles, the grilled asparagus, and the tomato and strawberry salad.
>> Oh, this looks really nice.
>> Ekstedt: Thank you.
You've taught me so much about coffee, so I wanted to teach you something.
So I've done a coffee-cured cod.
>> It looks delicious.
>> Ekstedt: Thank you.
>> Let's try.
Which kind of coffee have you used here?
>> Ekstedt: Just normal brewed coffee.
>> Okay.
>> Ekstedt: Your coffee.
>> Mm-hmm.
Oh, yes.
Absolutely.
Mmm.
You can really taste the coffee.
Oh, this is delicious.
>> Ekstedt: For exact details on our recipes, just go to our website... ♪♪ ♪♪ >> For more of the "New Scandinavian Cooking" experience, visit our website or Facebook page.
♪♪ >> Funding for this series has been provided in part by the following... >> Up Norway, curates Norwegian travel experiences in the footsteps of "New Scandinavian Cooking."
>> ♪ No, take me home ♪ Take me home where I belong >> Vgan, the full taste of chocolate.
>> Grieg Suites.
Chocolate with apples from Norway.
♪♪ Havila Voyages.
Pure Northern.
♪♪
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Distributed nationally by American Public Television