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.
