Like bicycling and New England clam chowder or whiskey at the
carnival, certain things just seem like a poor way to treat your stomach. That
was my initial fear when I first heard of an upcoming release of a kombucha coffee hybrid — I envisioned acidic and tart
flavors clashing with dark-roasted notes into a muddled, nauseating mess.
But Imbue, a
new collaboration between Katboocha and Joe Bean
Coffee, is anything but that. It’s a subtle beverage, brimming with lush floral
notes complemented by swirls of tart, coffee cherry fruitiness, with just a
pleasant tap of roasted beans on the finish.
Joe Bean co-owner
Kathy Turiano and Katboocha
owner Katarina Schwarz first met at Living Roots Urban Winery’s Laneway Party
in August, and ever since have been working to find a way to team up.
“It was love
at first sight,” Turiano says.
Perhaps what
makes Katboocha and Joe Bean good collaborators are
their respective unique, bespoke approaches to beverages. A fermented tea drink
of mysterious national origin, Kombucha can have a
vinegary character that is intense and palate-wrecking, similar to wild ales (given
that they have a similar fermentation process).
But
Schwarz’s beverages are lightly funky, easy-drinking, and packed with floral
and fruit notes.
“I think
that now that we’re past the ‘what is it?’ phase, we can really start evolving
and challenge what [kombucha] can be,” Schwarz says.
Similarly,
Joe Bean’s coffee offerings challenge perceptions of what coffee is. Over
conversation, co-owner Ben Turiano pours glasses of
an Ethiopian coffee from a pour-over “Chemex” brewer.
The coffee carries an acidic, fruit-forward flavor with a deep, ruby red hue.
There’s as
much art as there is science in brewing the perfect cup of Joe, and Turiano aimed to bring that to Imbue.
“There’s
different types of flavor compounds that dissolve at different points in the
process,” he says. “So to get something that hits those sweet, fruity
characteristics, you have to be really specific about the percentage of content
you’re dissolving.”
Imbue is
planned to be a regular release from Katboocha, with
seasonal shifts in the recipe. The first batch will be released Saturday, March
7, at Joe Bean Coffee, with a second release the following Saturday at Katboocha’s location at the Rochester Public Market.
Gino
Fanelli is a CITY staff writer. He can be reached at gfanelli@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2020.
