Fans of Cartel Coffee Deli, rejoice. What started as a single deli with a coffee bar in Salcedo Village now has a second location. Just across a main strip in Makati, this new Legaspi Village branch features a slightly different menu and vibe, but should still appeal to longtime customers. Salcedo is full of rough, unfinished surfaces and painted in orange and black, while Legaspi is purple and white with smooth wood finishing. Yardstick Coffee will continue to handle the coffee bar duties, and they still carry high end, specialty groceries—so you can be sure to expect the same standards of quality at both.
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. We ordered a few coffees here.
The barista was a friendly young woman who appeared to be the shop owner as well, and she did something that piqued our interest: she didn’t use a scale. Most specialty coffee shops use a scale to measure coffee and water dosage, and we thought this to be odd. So we asked her why she did it this way and she actually thought it was funny!
“I’m gonna make 40 more of these pour-overs this afternoon. This exact coffee, this exact weight. I know what it’s supposed to look like, how it’s suppose to feel, and how it’s going to taste.”
And surprisingly, she was right! We stood at the bar (there are no seats at the bar) as she served pour over after pour over. She was able to dial in that efficiency and consistency on a cup to cup basis without having to use a scale. It’s somewhat a testament to her skill as a barista. There are definitely benefits to using instruments but there are also benefits to not using tools as a crutch and knowing your craft by heart.
Keep things simple. That’s the overall vibe of Coffee Stand Up. They do away with everything unnecessary and focus their concise menu. They even dispense with seating, hence the name. Coffee Stand Up avoids gimmicks and extravagance, spending their time and money where it counts—the coffee—and that’s why people come here.
Tip of the spear for specialty coffee in Hanoi, we chanced upon Gau Coffee almost immediately after arriving in the Old Quarter. We almost missed it, but shot a double take when we saw the La Marzocco Linea MP and collection of metal V60 cones. Right in the heart of the old quarter was this fantastic little roaster, bakery, and cafe run by champion barista, Sang, who had moved up from HCMC to spearhead the concept. It’s an effort to grow the high-end coffee scene in a traditional style coffee-saturated Hanoi.
Sang himself says that the shop serves “premium coffees,” but is hesitant to refer to his own shop as Specialty Coffee. “Specialty Coffee is hard to achieve” he said, though the espresso itself was a better pulled shot than many others this writer has personally had in places claiming to be “Specialty Coffee.” I think that this form of healthy dissatisfaction will drive this shop for years to come.
The coffees we had were from their house blend that used honey processed coffees from Ethiopia, Panama, and their own farm in Vietnam. The blend was balanced and with fruit-like sweetness.
People come here for indulgence. Maison Marou is the foremost single origin chocolate company from Vietnam. Incredible both in terms of the flavor and the ability to tell a story with design and style. When you come to Marou, you’re tasting chocolate in everything – but you never feel like it’s one-dimensional.
They focus on highlighting the taste of different chocolate origins and they are able to incorporate different flavor notes throughout the products they have, be it a dessert or a drink – even with champagne and craft beer. Try their hot chocolate and experience it for yourself.
A tiny coffee joint in an unlikely and hidden spot. Great specialty coffee shops in the Philippines started like this, building up their dream little by little, starting with only a small counter, and owners with dreams: El Union, Habitual, The Curator — they all started this way. Hoping to join in on that familiar origin story is Kapitolyo’s Common Grounds Coffee. It is still in the early stages of their coffee journey and we give them a nod at the effort they’re putting in to serve coffee at a day to day basis at their little spot inside a healthcare institute in Pasig. They still have a ways to go to in terms of becoming a great cafe, a road that can take months or even years. We wish them all the luck they need in that journey!
How do you feel about oat milk? It’s an interesting push made by Minor Figures that seems to be finding a lot of success. This company brews their coffee in East London and finds its way all around the world. We found this particular cooler of nitro cold brew cans on display at a street culture event in Singapore.
It was a pleasant surprise but also a reminder that as great specialty coffees find themselves in more easy to consume package forms, it opens up a new world of possibilities of where it can be served and enjoyed. Along with that, the fact that it’s using oat milk adds to the stability and drinkability of Minor Figures pretty much anywhere, especially since this is a lactose-free option.
Where does your coffee come from? At Saigon Coffee Roastery, there is an extra effort to continue this discussion throughout the cafe; you’ll feel this as soon as you enter the shop and even at the bar when your coffee is ordered. The cafe has a little potted coffee plant, a display of 8 different coffee origins, and finally at the one big communal table, they had displays like this one: raw coffee at different states. What we really appreciate about this is that they extend the dialogue about coffee and they make coffee itself the conversation piece at the cafe.
Its called the Trinity One. When visiting Saigon Coffee Roastery, it was our first time to see this device in person so we decided to have it brewed this way. The Trinity One looks like a marriage between an aeropress and the portafilter you find on an espresso machine. It has a very heavy weight on top which extracts the coffee through a paper filter with the use of gravity, this method is supposed to make for a more consistent pressure throughout the brew.
One of the things we liked about this cafe was that the care given to each cup was really evident. They were generous about featuring different brew methods and on the table were different kinds of coffee beans, even letting you to touch green coffees on display as conversation pieces on the tables. They like exploring methods and they make you feel like you’re invited to explore with them.
Blended Geisha? We got to have a chat with the barista at Congrats Café, and while discussing their coffee offerings, we noticed that they chose to blend Geisha with other coffees. This is quite unusual, so we naturally asked them “why?” They said it’s a beautiful flavor which they believe is not lost when you blend it. And that because it’s very expensive, blending it allows for more people to taste it on a day to day basis.
Interesting approach, one we’re not sure we agree with. It is a special experience to drink Geisha on its own. However, they were not wrong, the Geisha blends were pretty good in Congrats Café — but it does make you wonder how must better they are just on their own as a single origin. Jury’s out on this one. What do you think: should geisha coffees be used in blends?
Dreams do come true. When people dream about opening a coffee shop someday, those fantasies usually involve a tropical paradise, an easy going crew, and — if you dream a little bigger — a global, cult following. This fantasy is a daily reality for the free sprited people of El Union Coffee of San Juan, La Union. Known as “Surf Town, LU” in the Philippines, there’s a whole different vibe in this coffee shop. People often enjoy conversations, making new friends. And this is why El Union has become the purveyor of La Union’s now famous surftown vibe. As one of the pioneering shops in a recent boom for the area, they created and influenced a community of adventurous and simultaneously easy going people. Visit them on weekdays so you can enjoy your cup and apprieciate their interior better. Visit on weekends to enjoy the rush and buzz of the crowds flocking in for that must-photograph “Dirty White.”
Breakfast is an exciting time in the surf town of San Juan, La Union. One of our go-to spots is El Union Coffee, where they serve a number of our childhood favorites. Buttery grilled cheese, sweet s’mores, fluffy pancakes, and waffles that are pretty close to perfect. These pancakes are paired well with their cafe mocha. Or for a cold drink option, go for their own version of horchata. Grab brunch after a sunrise surf session and enjoy a conversation with their friendly surfer baristas.
Adelphi and Co might be our favourite coffee shop in Kota Kinabalu. A multi-roaster cafe, they were serving Papa Palheta coffees on espresso when we visited. Also featured were single origin pour overs from Finnish roastery, Kaffa Roasters and Koppi from Sweden. Between these options, you get a nice sampling of expressions from Europe, Africa, and Asia. There is an obvious high amount of attention paid to quality here, and an even higher amount paid to culture. The staff is friendly and this attracts a friendly bunch of customers too. And even though Adelphi and Co is very much coffee-forward, the dining menu and other beverages — such as a healthy wine selection — are equally excellent.
So simple, so complex. Adelphi & Co’s coffee soda starts with a cold brew concentrate to which soda water is added upon every order. The soda water really opens up the flavor of the cold brew revealing inherent sweetness and spacing out the layers of flavor without any additives. The result is a pretty healthy version of an energy drink in the middle of the afternoon.
