Urbean: An Unexpected Cup

Our initial plan of visiting the new Espresso Lab outlet at Avenue K turned out to be quite unexpected, with the discovery of a new, cozy looking cafe right beside it. And thanks to the friendly and handsome barista at the counter, Fergus Tighe, and the gorgeous looking cafe owner,  Sher Lynn, we decided to skip Espresso Lab for this time (sorry Espresso Lab :P ).

"Comfortable" is not exactly the best word to describe this cafe. I would prefer the word cozy instead, as it feels like our secret hideout, with our favourite indie tunes, streamed directly from Spotify, on their sleek Retina display Macbook Pro. After taking our first sip on our single shot espresso, we are absolutely in love! The espresso is well extracted, with good crema. The texture of the espresso is, I would say, creamy, with the taste of caramel, chocolate and brown sugar (quite close to what has been described by the barista, as having the taste of "crème caramel, brown sugar, and milk chocolate"). They source their beans from Common Man Coffee Roasters, Singapore, and their house blend is known as 22 Martin, which consist of 66% of Veer Attikan from India and 22% from Don Pepe Estate from Panama. 

At the moment, only cakes and some light pastries could be seen in the cafe. But according to Sher Lynn, the owner of the cafe, in the next few weeks, more food will be included in the menu, like homemade soups, gourmet sandwiches, healthy and innovative salads, and pasta with modern twists. For cakes, their personal favourite would be their red velvet and banana cakes. Those amazing cakes they are serving are made by Tokyo Pastry.

Though we didn't really get to try their pastries, but we both love their coffee and the relaxing ambiance of the cafe. Will definitely drop by again next time!

Location: UC level, Avenue K, just near the exit of the LRT station. (Avenue K is just opposite Suria KLCC).

A special note from the owner: The cafe is connected to Spotify, a music streaming service; so if there are any tunes you would like to hear when you visit the cafe, just let them know.  :)

It's Roasting Time!!!

We were at RAW (Real and Wholesome) again. But this time we were covering about the roasting session. Though we had served numerous cups of coffee during our coffee appreciation workshop, most of our readers and customers have no idea how the coffee beans are roasted. So, since most of you guys haven't witness the process of roasting, we have made a video featuring Susan, the roaster of RAW cafe, roasting a batch of Sumatra Mandheling, right in the cafe itself.

Beans cooling down

Raw beans

A special thanks to Susan for walking me through the whole roasting process

Mandheling espresso

Besides the roasting session, we had also sampled a cup of single origin (Mandheling) espresso expertly brewed by RAW's barista with the state of the art Kees Van der Westen Mirage lever machine. The espresso had a chocolatey and syrupy aftertaste, awesome!

Red Espresso

After enjoying our organic mixed salad, we also sampled a cup of red espresso, made of rooibos tea (caffeine free and antioxidant rich!), brewed the same way as ordinary espresso. It tasted earthy and sweet at the same time, with a hint of slight citrusy). What astonished us was the thick layer of crema like substance on the surface of the red espresso!

This trip was truly meaningful, and we hope our readers would love it the same way we did!