Simple Kaffa is the place of champions. Owned by Berg Wu, 2016’s world barista champion, all their coffees are heavily floral, which is a theme in his brews. They have an element of tea like flavors in order to appeal to the Taiwanese tradition of tea drinking. Since the country has an understanding of these flavors, he pushes said notes in every single cup. Even their Ethiopian heirloom is naturally sweet but tea-like. Usually with a dark coffee, you wouldn’t expect these notes. (All their single-origin, black coffees use the clever coffee dripper, which combines a french press and a filter drip.) To capture the perfect flavors, Berg Wu personally traveled to coffee farms in Ethiopia. He worked directly with producers there to customize the coffee process so they would still taste like Ethiopian coffees but with a focus on more aromatic flavors. They conducted several experiments with different processes for the raw beans and brought them back to Taiwan for roasting. Kaffa is the only place in the world with these coffees, so if you’re in town be sure to drop by.
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.
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.
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?
This coffee shop was founded by 4 students who won the Hult Prize for their idea to improve informal daycare centers in slum areas. They used their $1USD million prize to create IMPCT Coffee which embodies a sustainable approach through their “Coffee for the Future” program. They go beyond the farm to cup business model by donating all of the profits their coffee shop gains to the play-care schools they built in the regions where they source their coffee. Supporting this coffee shop means taking part in helping pre school children access quality education.
Old school doesn’t even begin to describe the discreet pleasure that is a midnight visit to Yong He Soy Milk, open 24 hours. The soy milk itself is made right in the front of house and served either chilled or warm. After an evening of Taipei’s finest cocktails, we opted for the comfort of the latter. We also grabbed some radish cake, some fried dough, and a basket of eight Xiao Long Bao made the way they used to do it in the pre-DinTaiFung era. The punchline? All for under 3USD.
