A little known roaster out of Hong Kong, Ideaology makes it a point to ensure that each of their single-origin coffee offerings are unique in flavor notes. You have ones that are high in acidity, others that are very chocolatey, and some that taste funky (in a good way). Located in the fancy Tsim Sha Tsui neighborhood, we’re interested to see how their story develops in the years to come and hope for them to actively join competitions and push their own style of coffee. In a very competitive market like Hong Kong, it’s hard to stand out. But they’ve already managed to cross borders and pop up in different cafes around Asia—like Pregio in Malaysia, home to the Barista Guild Asia, which is where we first discovered them. It’s a taste that travels far.
Tucked away on a quiet Taipei side street is this beautiful cafe with a very simple concept: we serve coffee. No bells or whistles and barely a chair to be found, the barista and owner made very consistently delicious drinks in either their La Marzocco Linea or via hand-brewed pour overs. An interesting observation we made is that the barista was not using a scale for the pour overs. “I know this coffee,” she said when asked why. “I will make 40 more cups just like this this afternoon.” The brews were indeed perfect. This is a great place to come to even if you are alone. People who visit this cafe are as friendly as the staff is, so have a chat with them!
Sandwiched between city buildings, you’ll find Congrats Cafe on the second floor of a brick building that looks like it’s almost falling apart but it’s so much of the charm of what makes Congrats Cafe a truck hidden gem. The hand painted gold signage on the glass and vintage furniture that’s seemingly piled up all around the shop send a very clear message. It’s offbeat but it’s welcoming and warm — which is unusual. Often times, eccentric concepts just come across as strange, but the way that they pull the experience together by embracing the vintage nature of their surrounding architecture and expanding on it into the food and beverage service makes for a comfortable vibe.
We really like how the interiors connect seemlessly with the culture of the baristas. How they make their coffee, and how they talk to all sorts of people.You’ll also end up meeting all sorts of people too. When you go in and out of this door, you’ll feel like you can spend the whole day here. And that’s something really special.
The only thing missing from this photo is the immensely comforting aroma of freshly ground and brewed coffee. In Congrats, every cup is made individually, adding that extra personal touch to an already very personal — though still very welcoming — space. Striking an excellent balance between inconsistent furniture and seating sets, the cafe feels both like a home and like a coffee shop. It’s the sitting room you always dreamed of, with the cup of coffee you always crave.
It’s almost a pilgrimage. How can you do a coffee crawl in Hong Kong and not visit The Cupping Room in Sheung Wan – which is the newest location for their brand serving as their roastery and — of course — a cupping room. That cupping room is behind a glass window that extends behind the entire coffee bar where you can watch coffee being roasted and tested all day long while you’re enjoying your own cup of coffee.
Up front, there’s a heavy emphasis on the brew bar for their single origin coffee. HK Champion, Kapo Chiu is back there working all day as a barista and as a roaster, often serving his own championship coffee. It’s clear how passionate Kapo is about his craft and it’s a good example of an owner being directly involved in the day to day operations of the cafe.
Such a big part of the pedigree of the Cupping Room is their pour over brew bar, which takes front and center in their main roastery cafe. There’s an observation counter right in front of it where you can sit down and watch the baristas making pour overs. This coffee was the Bambito Geisha. Pricey, but well worth the cost – it’s a very sweet and delicate coffee with floral notes and malic acidity.
We really appreciate that the approach to brewing pour overs they have here is so simple. They use a big v-shape cone with a flat bottom and a single hole, we don’t believe it’s from any of the popular brands for making pour overs like the Hario or Kalita, but we think it was elegant nonetheless as it produced great and memorable coffee.
Entering the Glasshouse, you are immediately taken by the intelligent use and selection of furniture pieces and indoor plants. It is indeed beautiful, managing to have a thematic concept without being at all gimmicky. The beverages were excellent. As a multi-roaster concept, they are able to serve coffees from some of Singapore’s finest roasters such as Nylon and Common Man Coffee Roasters. Have two or three espressos, or maybe a longer drink that you can enjoy with a book and the beautiful, natural sunlight streaming in and reflecting off of the clean wooden floorboards.
Immediately after walking into this cafe, at the Chijmes complex in Singapore, its beauty strikes you as Instagram worthy. (It’s 2019 after all, we all think this way now.) The natural light that floods through their large windows speaks to the coffee being served, which also has a bright and fruity flavor. All of it combines to lighten your mood. Their multi-roaster concept, where they source coffee from different roasters across the country, frees up their focus, allowing the team to focus on serving high quality food and drinks. Their food is mostly snacks that pair with coffee, like open face toasts and pastries. And they offer dairy alternatives like oat milk, which are important to lactose intolerant folks and vegans alike. All in all, Glasshouse gives you a holistic experience and is a great place to start your day right.
It was once said by a Vietnamese champion barista that Bosgaurus Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City is the country’s only true specialty coffee cafe. Strong words, and we went to a lot of other great places in Vietnam, so we will have to disagree. That said, this cafe is indeed extraordinary and is not only a contender for best in the country, but definitely one of the gems of the entire region of South East Asia. Our experience in Bosgaurus was pretty close to perfect.
When you think about specialty coffee on a world scale, Bosgaurus checks all the boxes. They roast everything on one of their three roasters which also serves as a centerpiece for their shop. This particular latte they served us is an heirloom coffee, which happened to be their standard single origin espresso with milk on that day. It was definitely a delicious cup of coffee where you really see the attention paid to each step and each ingredient; In terms of milk selection, coffee selection, and the barista’s process involved in making it. Clean doesn’t even begin to describe the aesthetic of Bosgaurus, sunlight streams in through all of the windows and it makes for great photos.
Calibrated pour overs? Bosgaurus Coffee in Vietnam is certainly dedicated to consistency. Baristas have a form to fill out each time they calibrate the grind size, extraction time, water temperature, and pressure for their pour overs. This is very common with espressos but Bosgaurus takes it even further. For pour overs, they note which method is used, the grind size, how they stir the water while pouring it from the kettle (a process called agitation), which direction they agitate and for how many seconds, what time they pour the water, what temperature it is, and how many pauses they make. It’s an exhaustive list, but it makes for an exacting cup. And if you’re the type of person to order a pour over, you’re already used to taking a little extra time to get a great cup. Bosgaurus does serve espresso-based drinks too, and if we’re not mistaken, they use the same precise calibrations for them as well. Because it’s consistency across the board here.
Best in Asia! Congratulations to The Old Man in Hong Kong for topping the charts of Asia’s 50 Best Bars. This award is well deserved. What struck us when we visited this bar is that every cocktail tasted unlike anything we had tasted before. On top of that, another thing we thought set them apart is their incredible single bartender system where the bartender basically stands in a spotlight at the end of the room and makes every single drink for the night — all while engaging with and entertaining guests. They have managed to create an experience that is both classically inspired and on the cutting edge of creativity. Can’t wait to share with you more about the drinks we had here. Bravo.
It tastes like a fresh oyster. When the staff of The Old Man insisted that we try A Movable Feast # 1964, little did we know that we were about to partake of what is perhaps the best drink we’ve had all year. The garnish is the aptly named oyster plant leaf infused in cheese wax. As you sip the cocktail, bite the leaf to complete the experience. Spiced tomato, coconut, some seeds, and a house developed concoction called “rotovap sea” round out this trip to the Atlantic Oceanside. That last ingredient is built using blended fresh seafood that is extracted in the rotary evaporator — an apparatus mostly seen in scientific laboratories — until you have a distillate that is essentially the ocean’s flavor in a single droplet. Clear and sophisticated, A Movable Feast is a testament to the new standard of excellence being pushed by The Old Man.
The Bunker is a Bed and Breakfast in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City with a breakfast diner on the ground floor and driveway. The coffee itself is above average, but the real star of the Bunker is the breakfast menu. Featured here is an attempt to bring California greasy griddle goodness filled comfort food dishes to the suburban streets of Saigon. Many cafes go heavy on coffee and have food as an afterthought, Bunker takes a more balanced approach. Come early and have breakfast.
“All good.” That’s the theme at The Bunker’s little outdoor diner, a great place to get a solid morning latte. One of the things that surprised us about Ho Chi Minh City’s coffee culture is that there is so much respect for their own crop. Vietnam, a major coffee producing nation has massive love for coffee and it shows. Sure, as in any market, quality will vary. But as a whole, it’s very difficult to go wrong when the person who is making your drink really does care. It’s all good.
There are only a few specialty coffee shops in Vietnam, but people generally understand and appreciate coffee since it’s a coffee producing nation. Usually when you come across non-specialty coffee shops, they don’t mention the varietal of the coffee beans. Sometimes shops will make a big deal about it being 100 percent Arabica, which doesn’t explain much about the roast style and quality of the coffee. Even though Bunker isn’t a specialty coffee shop either, they stand out for identifying a blend that includes Typica. Throughout Ho Chi Minh City, people identify Typica as a different variety of coffee, which is rare since it’s considered a sub-variety of Arabica. This speaks to the amount of respect Vietnam gives its own crop, so salute to Bunker and many of the coffee shops in the country for that.
Coming from one of the most successful microbreweries in the Philippines, this Compadre stout by The Brewery At The Palace is particularly refreshing. There’s a nice sizzle in your mouth before the more expected flavors of chocolate, dark brown sugar, and hints of coffee flood your tastebuds. At Draft Restaurant And Brewery Rockwell, we only paid 150 pesos for the 330ml glass, so it’s hard to go wrong. This is a solid, locally brewed craft beer that’s served in many places.
At 22 Martin Street in Singapore is where you’ll find the headquarters of Common Man Coffee Roasters. Here’s also where you find their roastery and barista academy, a trusted source for coffee education. However, one needs only to order from the regular menu to start learning more about coffee. Where to start? A good first step is the signature espresso blend, which shares a name with the cafe’s street address, “22 Martin.” It has dark chocolate and hazelnut flavor notes, opening up into a toffee taste when served as a latte.
The coffee bar at Common Man is arguably the best spot you could choose to sit at. Their baristas make and serve coffee after coffee directly in front of you, but are never too busy chat with customers.
The Ardi roasted here can be found across Asia, including in the Philippines and Malaysia. It’s a very fruity Ethiopian heirloom with notes of orange and berries. Ardi was named after a 4.4 million old human fossil discovered in the same African nation in 2009, but the coffee obviously tastes better.
There’s a lot about specialty coffee that can be confusing. It takes an understanding of different tools, origins, and the identity of flavor notes. What we like about Klasik Coffee is that the baristas are super open and friendly, offering a deeper relationship with the cafe. For them, it isn’t just about serving a cup of coffee. It’s about helping us to understand the preparation process, where the coffees come from, and ultimately why they taste so good; that final point being a key detail too often left out.
