Photo of Food & Wine Magazine
Coffee
caviar has been popping up on Instagram, largely as a decoration for desserts.
The process of spherification is actually fairly simple: you add a small amount
of sodium alginate to the liquid you wish to manipulate and then drop it into
water containing a similarly small amount of calcium chloride. The resulting
chemical reaction creates a membrane around the drops of liquid, giving you
amazing caviar-like spheres that burst in the mouth.
The
video below from molecularrecipes.com shows you exactly how to do it. For sure,
this might take a few goes to get right, but imagine how impressed everyone
will be when you serve these little liquid centred flavour bombs to them – not
just coffee, you could use this for anything.
This
piece of kit called the Imperial Sphericator, is also another great way to get
started with spherification at home.
Take
a look at how people have been using coffee caviar to liven up desserts and
savoury dishes below. Also, further down is a video from ChefSteps showing you
how to make chocolate caviar. The possibilities, seemingly, are endless.
By FDL