Taipei’s Imperfect Coffee and Matcha is quite hard to find; they have a sign, but it’s nowhere near their door. The cafe is in a university town, so once you walk up the stairs, you’re bound to discover it full of students hanging out or studying. The second-floor windows overlook a public park with giant lawns in front of the university, and the view makes the climb worth the effort. Even during overcast days, it’s a very comforting place. Their menu also offers a variety of meals and pastries and the portions are generous, so you get a bang for your buck. (Students are always broke, after all.) A lot of their pastries highlight matcha as the main ingredient, so if you’re a fan then this is a must if you’re in town.
Dr. Fern is a speakeasy in Hong Kong hidden inside a passageway directly outside a train station. It sort of looks like a doctor’s office out front, hence the name. For the most part, it’s a gin and tonic bar, although you can find other cocktails like a Negroni. Once you’ve gone inside, however, it’s clear you’re expected to order a gin and tonic. They have an entire menu (called the Doctor’s Order) dedicated to hundreds of gins that you can pair with quite a number of tonics. The combinations are almost endless, which means its a nice place to frequent if you’re a fan of GNTs. It’s a simple premise but because gin can have so many different notes, your experience will always change.
Hineleban Cafe is no run of the mill cafe. They serve a drink called Kafe Laranja, which was presented at last year’s Philippine Coffee in Good Spirits Championship by their barista Adriane Alcid. It’s an iced shaken long black, sweetened with orange juice and garnished with apples. Even when the caramelized apple isn’t available—like when we visited, for example—it’s still a very good drink. The adventurous among us can even take advantage of an optional shot of whiskey. The Laranja is very refreshing and the taste of orange highlights the bright coffee flavor. Their new location in Poblacion is known to be popular after the sun drops because of the prolific bars throughout this nightlife district in Metro Manila. But Hineleban itself is actually a very quiet and serene place, perfect for regaining your balance.
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.
Harlan + Holden is a lifestyle brand that’s expanding its reach from being a creative but simple and modern fashion brand to investing in the food and beverage industry. This branch, in particular, is called the Rockwell Glasshouse by Harlan + Holden. It’s a cafe in Metro Manila known for its magnificent play on interiors and its surrounding environment; comfy chairs paired with marble and wood tables, floor-to-ceiling glass windows enveloped by trees and plants, and natural light streaming from all corners. It was built to cater to the locals on the posh side of Makati City in the Rockwell area. Their best selling coffees—the cream and brown sugar lattes—are both on the sweet side of the spectrum. They have notes of molasses and milk chocolate that flood your tastebuds. People who don’t like a particularly dark coffee taste should appreciate them.
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.
An interesting take on the classic espresso martini. EDSA BDG’s version is made with coffee liqueur, a shot of espresso, Tito’s vodka, and Disoronno. Pretty standard ingredient list, but it gets interesting with the coffee liqueur, which is made in house. They brew their coffee grounds with heated simple syrup instead of hot water. It’s an unusual method that yields a sweet coffee flavor, similar to Kahlua but with a more prominent coffee bean. It’s also a good way to reduce the oils that usually result from other types of brewing methods. Then they add a shot of their own signature espresso blend called the Dark Matter Theory, which is comprised of half Costa Rican and Colombian origins. The overall taste of the cocktail is sweet with hints of chocolate and cherry, and the texture is very creamy because of the foam that appears after shaking. Definitely a chill way to get some late night caffeine into your system.
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.
