I joined the queue to place my order right after we reached while the others settled down. We ordered affogato, caffe latte and chemex from a friendly female barista at the counter. As their milk based coffee is served with double shot, we switched the caffe latte into single shot, which we don't want it to be too harsh. For the chemex, they had only the El Salvador beans for this week, so no luck, that was our only choice.
I attentively watched the barista who was preparing the chemex for the brew. He told me that the beans were quite old, so he will use 24 grams of beans to make it up. It was quite satisfying that the barista was really careful in controlling the temperature and grinding the beans, he even let me smell the aroma of the beans before and after grinding it. Turns out this barista was quite skillful compared to the previous ones. He told me about the perfect temperature of water (88-90°C), mass of beans and the taste profile for El Salvador in detail.
The tasting time was kind of awkward as he insisted on staying until I tried the coffee he made. The temperature of the coffee was perfect, and the taste of El Salvador was, no doubt, fruity (slight acidity) with mild sweetness left in the throat after draining the cup. It was a medium- light body cup, and the aftertaste was mild. I, of course, praised the barista for his skillful technique and his care about coffee.
I know I'm quite bias, focusing only on the chemex, so here comes the review about the milk based coffee. The affogato was fantastic, as the espresso was rich and perfect, it blended well with the vanilla ice cream and bits of nuts. The caffe latte was rather too milky for me, it was not really my cup of coffee.
The process of observing the hand brew and talking about coffee was fun. Again, coffee made my day.
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| The barista brewing the El Salvador, chemex using the Hario Buono long tip kettle. |
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