Bean There
Below is a record of visits to different cafes that I’ve been to during my world journeys. OK ! I’ve been to the US (Atlanta) too but I think that if you don’t go to the hotbeds of coffee making like New York, Chicago, San Francisco and of course Seattle then you only have one option, Starbucks, unless you know the ins and out of your city. However, based on the assumption that if you’ve been to one Starbucks you’ve been to them all, not taking away from what Starbucks have done, I am not going to highlight visits to Starbucks. The origin of this section was based on what I would like to read if there was a monthly magazine on coffee drinking and caffe culture. I think people would like to know about different types of cafes, not just the style, layout, clientele, etc but also where preparing coffee is also given top priority. You will see from below that I’ve tried to make it international, so if you visit one of these places and you are craving a good espresso, cappuccino or latte, or just want that “caffe culture” feeling, then you can find somewhere that won’t disappoint.
South Africa
OK ! I admit before I visited South Africa in Summer of 2006, I went through all my South African Food magazines and made a list of all the coffee shops I wanted to visit. I was surprised by the vibrant Caffe Culture, untouched by the major global players, even though they have their version of a big chain, aptly named Mugg & Bean, complete with brown and green decor and an English pub like interior. They are quite popular for their extra large muffins and their lattes reminded me of the type you get in a normal UK Chain like Costa and Starbucks. They are also present in Dubai and Namibia.
Still on the big chain scene, there’s Woolworth - South Africa’s version of Marks and Spencer’s and they are rolling out deli and coffee shops in their department stores. I went to the one in Durban. However, I was a bit skeptical about ordering coffee from a department store but was sold the moment I saw their coffee machine, La Marzocco - the one favoured by expert barsitas - and sat down and ordered a double espresso. The shot wasn’t bad and I even wanted to buy the coffee but was told that the coffee was exclusive and came from a specialist roaster in Johannesburg - Shame ! You can find Woolworth in every city in South Africa and in all major shopping centres and malls.
Cape Town
However, in Cape Town, the most European City in Africa, the caffe culture was more diverse and innovative; in fact I have never seen so many cafes within a short distance offering coffees with such diverse and interesting names. It was hard to make a selection but here goes.
You have Melissa’s - more a deli than a coffee shop, but with high quality preserves and European delicacies and with an innovative selection of cakes. The coffee drinking space is quite limited and you would probably be more tempted to walk cup in hand and look at the wonderful delicacies on the shelves (fig jam, orange and date biscuits, oils, vinegars, Cape gooseberry jam, etc). If you do visit, Melissa’s is on 94 Kloof Street.
Also on Kloof Street and quite popular in Cape Town was Vida e Cafe (life and coffee in Portuguese). I visited the branch at the Tourist magnet, the V&A Waterfront - a lively coffee shop where it was obvious the staff loved their job and the lively music - perhaps it was the bright red decor that lifted their spirits. The espresso was dark and bitter with a tobacco edge - not for the meek, but I guess, good for macchiatos, lattes and cappuccinos. I must admit, I was trying to see what machine they used and if they used a tamper - they did and it was a La Cimbali.
Also worth checking is Sundance Gourment Coffee - their logo is coffee that makes you dance. This was top of my list for decor and presentation - clean, innovative, wide selection of coffees, sandwiches and cool serving cups. I had a latte on my first visit but an espresso on my second to really test their skills and how they used their La Marzocco machine. They roast their own coffee, which they told me comes from Brazil - a sweet intense taste, which definitely doesn’t need sugar. Sundance has a good ambience, making it easy for you to stay there for hours. Their carrot muffins are massive and very tasty too. Sundance is on 59 Buitengracht Street and also on Church Street.
On a second trip to Cape Town, the experience was even better.
On the more trendy side, right in the heart of the city on 138 Long Street, is RCaffe - arty with magazines and portraits on the wall, attractive looking cakes and sweets and of course good coffee. The barista, Jo, makes a great cappuccino - just what I needed after a week of bad coffee in another country nearby. The frothed milk was silky smooth and thick, just sitting on top of the intense espresso underneath - the sign of a well prepared cappuccino accompanied with properly frothed milk - the type that makes you smile to yourself and say Wow ! RCaffe is like a Bistro and they also serve interesting sandwiches and snacks, so you can have breakfast and lunch there - their croissants are also delicious. Worth a visit if you visit Cape Town.
However, for me, I had the best coffee experience of my life at the Origin Coffee Roasting Cafe on 28 Hudson Street in trendy de Waterkant. I don’t even know where to start, OK ! I lie, here we go - the ambience is relaxed and welcoming, the floor has coffee beans infused into it to give off a great colour - now that’s Origin-AL. They have green beans in the shop, which they roast there in front of you, blend in front of you, select fresh in front of you with about 20 choices, including their special blend too - now I’ve never seen that - it’s like the whole experience almost from start (excluding plucking the cherries and washing) to finish. They have one of the best coffee machines in the world, the Synesso Cyncra - they use bottomless or naked porta-filters - this means that the coffee extracted does not touch metal, it flows directly “naked” from the machine into your cup. Now the real stuff - I had macchiato with latte art (now that’s hard in a small cup) on my first trip in the morning, trying to keep it real with milk based coffee in the morning and of course I had to go back in the afternoon after lunch for a doppio (double espresso) - the presentation of the espresso was incredible, half crema - the sight that you read and hear about but never experience - of course the coffee tasted great. I had to take 2 pictures, which I use as a screen saver on my mobile phone. For roasting style, Origins favour a medium roast and also offer a wide selection of good teas.
The experience at Origins is so overwhelming that you might even be tempted to say “hey I can try this at home”, well you can have a go because they also sell coffee machines (Expobar, Kitchen Aid), gadgets like tampers, shot glasses, milk pitchers, burr grinders, cups, cleaners, etc but most important of all, a barista school in which they will teach you how to use the machine you bought.
Also important for me is the customer service - they know what they are talking about - they LOVE Coffee and can advice you. The owner even gave me my first cupping experience and then advised me what coffee to get after I shared with him my preference for espresso type coffees and the occasional filter coffee. They also supply tailor made blends to restaurants and hotels. I can’t wait for my next visit. Origins are on 28 Hudson Street, De Waterkant and have a great website too (http://www.originroasting.co.za/)
Vienna
Everyone who has read up about coffee knows that Vienna, where I live, is famous for its coffee shops and has a long tradition of coffee culture. In fact it was the first place to offer a wide choice of how to drink coffee and also the first place to experiment with adding milk and cream to coffee (see more in the history section). However, keeping with that theme, my favourite coffee shop in Vienna is the Mocca Club, which offers coffee from over 50 places in the world and if you like tea too, from over 70 places in the world.
However, the Mocca Club is not like your traditional Vienna Coffee House in terms of décor, as the furniture comes from exotic Bali - now in surroundings like this, you can really drink like the escapist. Now to the real stuff - the great thing about the Mocca Club is that you can select to have your espresso, caffe latte, cafe au lait, iced coffee, etc from a wide range of coffees from around the world, as Mocca Club primarily have Single Estate Coffees from 50 countries. After all, coffee is about variety and you can indulge on countless visits, trying as many coffees as you want before settling on your choice from whichever country you want. They favour dark roasts and have a small selection of blends and naturally, a secret Mocca Club Blend. On my first visit, I had an Indian cappuccino, with very low acidity. After a few visits, I dared to try a Vietnamese Arabic/Robusta blend espresso - very strong and dark reddish brown - the sort of coffee that you can feel at the back of your neck, but it was what I needed on a hot summer’s day. You can also buy the coffee in very fanciful 250 g bags. There’s a wide selection of organic coffees especially from South America - try Honduras and Ecuador, which produce real crema even on a domestic machine and also the very hard to get and expensive Yemen Coffee for a real taste from the land of Mocca with a wonderful aroma.
Also up and coming are two new cafes, keeping with the modern edge theme in Vienna. Newly opened as of February 2007, is Kaffee Kuche (i.e Coffee Kitchen), located at the busiest metro station in Vienna at Schottentor. It is small with a comforting dark interior, high stools, wood trimmings, etc but the key to this new café is the coffee preparation and presentation – you can be guaranteed latte art servings for your cappuccinos and caffe lattes.
Now, when you are waiting for that tram in the rain, you can brighten up your day with being served latte art in Vienna. The coffee is of course good and goes down smoothly. One way to tell a well prepared espresso and a milk based drink is that after consumption, you don’t feel any indigestion – it’s almost like you drank air, if that is possible – anyway that’s how I felt after downing an apple heart cappuccino recently. In Italy, that is how they also judge a well prepared espresso – there should be no feeling of discomfort after consumption. Anyway back to the shop, they have a Della Corte espresso machine and an impressive Mahl Konig grind on demand state of the art grinder. I also had a lovely mini brioche. They offer teas, smoothies and other healthy drinks - Highly recommended !
The Roast, opened for just over 4 years in Vienna, but with a prime location across from the University, is also turning shoulders. The décor is comfortable brown and they can offer you a real coffee experience with a roaster located right in the shop, together with manual commercial espresso machines. This is supported by staff that know about coffee, magazine racks and book shelves with coffee memorabilia. They also offer bagels, smoothies and all other bites associated with the modern caffe culture and freshly roasted coffee to take away with you, well they wouldn’t be called the Roast if they didn’t offer you freshly roasted coffee to take home too – the back of each bag has the roast date too.
For a more traditional Viennese coffee experience, try the Cafe Landtmann on the ring, opposite the Rathaus, Demel at Kohl Markt, Sacher Hotel opposite the Opera House and Julius Meinl um Graben all within the inner city state or ring. I promise to post on the blog some articles on other cafes in Vienna.
London
Although primarily dominated by the top brands, Starbucks, Costa and Caffe Nero and high quality sandwich shops like Pret-a-Manger (good lattes for the morning) and Benugo’s, the quality of Italian style coffee drinks seems to be improving in London. There are some real authentic and artisan coffee shops springing up in London, especially in the West End, where London’s stamp as a cultural hotbed is producing cafes run by serious coffee lovers who are beginning to gather their own coffee lovers followers, feeding the caffe culture scene. In central London, there is an explosion of cafes almost around every corner with strange names and trendy interiors but, what are we looking for ? Coffee shops that use La Marzoccos - no seriously, cafes of the high street, like Flat White at Berwick Street Market, voted best coffee in London by Restaurant Magazine in 2005 and Time Out (a City guide magazine for London). It is run by 4 Australians and Flat white is actually an Australian version of a caffe latte with less froth, hence it’s name flat-white (the froth is flat). It’s got a basic interior and is small but, it’s got queues coming out from it and really good coffee: in-house milk based drinks served with rosettas (the shape of a rosetta flower displayed in your cup due to the way the frothed milk is poured) and takeaways served with apple hearts. Whenever I visit, I have to have a flat white and on my second visit, my flat white was served with a rosetta naturally, which I drank from the base, leaving the imprint of the rosetta still in the cup. That shows the quality of the frothed milk and skill of the barista, plus it’s a fun way to drink coffee, after all coffee is about fun. The coffee comes from Monmouth Coffee Company (see below) in Convent Garden and of course the machine is a La Marzocco - the choice of the expert baristas.
OK! La Marzoccos are also available at Apostrophe (a French style cafe - order a double macchiato if you want an Italian style cappuccino), Benugo’s, E.A.T and Fratelli’s - all worth checking, especially Benugo’s for breakfast, fresh sandwiches and fresh juices. At Fratellis, between Market Street and Oxford Street (Tottenham Court Road end), you can expect your coffee to be well prepared - try double espresso.
However, steeped in London’s coffee history is Monmouth Coffee Company at 27 Monmouth Street in Convent Garden. Very artisan and trendy, with little space to seat but with great freshly roasted coffee from the basement, where they have been roasting coffee since the early 1970s. This place has history and is worth a visit if you have a few hours to spare in London, which I did on a recent trip. The staff are friendly and helpful and I was served by an Australian called Trent, who was very attentive and full of advice. I tried a ristretto and an espresso macchiato made on another La Marzocco and of course I bought some beans; their Organic Espresso Blend and Rwandan Rusyeni - their coffee of the week, which my cousin, a new convert to coffee drinking, liked.
I must admit, considering the prices they were charging for their drinks, this must be one of the best value coffee houses in London, if not Europe. For bites, they had cakes and pastries supplied by the authentic French patisserie, Paul and the organic, Villandry and some interesting top quality chocolate bars. You can also buy original green coffee bean bags for £1 each if you want to go that extra mile and decorate your house with coffee memorabilia. They have branches at Borough Market and Park Street too.
Monmouth also supply coffee to a newly opened coffee and foodie shop on Beak Street, located between Oxford Street and Soho called Fernandez & Wells. I am a bit of a foodie, so I was impressed with the authentic lay out - all white decor with high stools, magazine and newspaper racks on the wall together with the simple menu chart and most important all, the two good-looking La Marzocco machines, but really, the friendly staff, who made you feel welcome and relaxed. I also liked the kitchen feel with the sink and free access to tap water. The food was displayed organically with ciabatta filled sandwiches and luscious looking cakes on cake stands. I had a lovely and filling slice of Carrot Cake and a double macchiato. They also had a drink I had never heard off, called a Piccolo ( advertised as a small latte served in an espresso cup) which I hope to try on my next visit to London. Anyway, worth a visit whilst on the shopping run in London’s West End.
And that’s it for London until I visit again. However, if you join the coffee forum please share your “positive” experiences from across the world by posting articles on there or contacting me on stories@fromcoffeewithlove.com. I emphasize positive because I don’t want to get sued but really it’s because there is so much negativity out there, so let’s be good to each other and besides opening and running your own cafe takes guts and isn’t easy.
Ciao!