Category: Bean There – Cafes

I’ve been promising to visit a traditional Viennese Coffee House so that I can report about it on my blog for a while and if you live in Europe, you will know that the European Football Championships (soccer to North Americans) are being hosted by Austria together with Switzerland and I thought that if any of my readers where in Vienna, they could visit some traditional Viennese coffee houses. To help you, I chose a very authentic cafe, famous for cakes, the Cafe Demel.  It is near the Hofburg Palace, situated on Kohlmarkt, which now resembles Saks Fifth Avenue (New York) or New Bond Street (London, UK), next to shops like Armani, Chanel, Louis Vitton and Tiffanys. Cafe Demel is famous because it was often visited by royalty and in keeping with tradition, even today, whenever dignitaries visit Vienna, a lot of them get taken to Demel to have a coffee or at least to buy a famous Viennese cake. For example, when the former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan visited, Cafe Demel made a cake that looked just like him, at least from shoulder up.As you enter the shop, there’s a display of souvenir cakes on your left and on the right and in front of you, an impressive display of very traditional Viennese cakes and pastries. As you make your way to the back, the traditional atrium has been converted into an open display area, separating you from pastry chefs decorating cakes – you are allowed to take pictures as long as he flash is off. I made my way upstairs as the lunchtime crowd had already taken up all the best seats downstairs. The interior looks like it hasn’t been touched since the turn of the last century, but that adds to the character. The regular customers I spotted in there were all into the typical Viennese tradition of ordering a coffee and reading a newspaper. as you know, if you have been through my website under “did you know”, you will know that cafes in Vienna were the first ones to introduce newspapers on sticks.Anyway Cafe Demel is now a must-stop on the Vienna tourist trail, so I was not surprised to hear lots of American and British accents. I am also happy to report that the waitresses spoke English and more importantly, where very polite, contrary to the infamous Viennese reputation of unpleasant waitresses. I had a very traditional Viennese coffee, called an Einspanner, which s basically like an Austrian version of an espresso topped with lots of thickly whipped cream. To accompany my very Viennese Coffee House experience, I ordered another traditional Viennese dessert, a cherry and apple strudel.  All in all it was a good experience, something to be done at least once if and when you visit Vienna and I must confess, this is my first visit to a traditional Viennese coffee shop since I moved to Vienna almost 6 years ago. 

This is another long overdue post, as I was in Cape Town in February 2008. Again, any visit there has to include a trip to my favourite coffee shop in the Southern Hemisphere, Origins Coffee Roasting, 28 Hudson Street, de Waterkant, Cape Town. It’s one of those places that when I visit, it feels like home, as the staff now recognise me as that keen coffee drinker with a camera always talking about coffee machines and coffee beans. I was glad to see that Origins have expanded their horizons and are taking their self-imposed goal of educating South Africa about quality coffee seriously. For one, they now have a barista school at the back of their shop, where I was able to witness upcoming baristi (plural for barista in Italian) practising their latte art. I also met briefly again with Joel Singer, co-owner of Origins. Secondly, Origins now organise roadshows and they planned to have one in Johannesburg in late February. They now sell their blends to other cafes (Manna Epicure – see post on Cape Town Coffee Scene of 2008 below) and are now beginning to get a reputation. When I first discovered the place, I used to go around Cape Town mentioning Origins and everyone used to look at me like, “what and where is that ?”, but on this visit, they were like “yes, I’ve heard of it….” . In addition, one of their baristi won the South African National Barista Championships – the second year in a  row that one of Origins home grown has won.

So, I’m glad that Origins reputation is spreading as the “Artisan Roasters of Africa” in SA.

In the shop, they’ve changed their main coffee grinder to the Spanish made Compak, which is fast becoming the expert choice of the baristi world as Compak coffee grinders are now used at the World Barista Championships.  In any case, I went for my double espresso and was tempted to try 2 Portugese custard tarts or pasties de nata and shot a video of a two heart latte art, which you can view on my YouTube page ( http://www.youtube.com/Lameen71) They still serve their coffees using a naked filter on their Synesso espresso coffee machine, which I was determined not to miss. This gives their espresso and edge.

I also got to snap this unusual latte art piece – dragonfly of heart ?

I bought some freshly roasted coffee and was glad to see other people in the queue enquiring and splashing out (an English slang for spending lots of money) on coffee.

I continue to wish Origins the best of luck in their ventures and if you go to Cape Town, please do yourself a favour and visit – your taste buds would love the experience. Check out their website on http://www.originroasting.co.za/

“Can I have a triple espresso flat white made on a bottomless filter please ?” You what ? OK ! let me decipher. Usually, you can get a single or a double espresso in your milk based drink, mainly because the portafilter (where the coffee is ground into and placed into the espresso machine) can take a minimum of a single espresso and a maximum of a double espresso. However, I learnt that at Flat White, Berwick Street, Soho, London they had a special triple espresso portafilter, which means you can order a triple espresso shot. A Flat White (from which the shop is named) is an Australian Version of a Latte, but with less frothed milk. I also learnt that they sometimes use a bottomless filter, which means that the portafilter does not have a base under the coffee basket – Am I loosing you in this jargon ? Making espresso in a bottomless filter means that the coffee is extracted straight from the machine into your coffee cup, without touching any metal. So in essence, you are getting quite a pure pour and the taste should be sublime. So, on a recent visit to Flat White coffee shop, I made this order and watched the event. The top barista and co-owner, Cameron, was really helpful. Here is the beginning of the pour for the latte art;

And here is the final version – almost too good to drink, but lovely as a picture.

They also use bottomeless portafilters at my other favourite coffee shop in Cape Town, Origins Coffee Roasting, which I have a picture of and will share with you some other time God willing !

So ! if you get a chance to be brave and show off to your friends, forget that stuff about skinny soya latte, etc and order a triple shot espresso latte or flat white. 

Another one of favourite coffee shops in London has to be Fernandez & Wells, which actually has two shops in Soho – fast reclaiming back its status as the place to eat, drink and be seen in London. The first shop on 43 Lexington Street is described as a Food & Wine Bar “a European Market Stall in an English Setting”, where you can buy meat, cheese, sandwiches, etc. However just around the corner on 73 Beak Street is their Coffee Shop, where I’ve been before (see https://fromcoffeewithlove.com/pages/enjoy_culture-beanthere.html).

For a little background, their coffee is from the famous Monmouth Coffee Company and they now have a Synesso Cyncra Espresso Machine (they used to have a La Marzocco) – I’ve only seen 2 Synesso machines, one in Cape town and one now in London. For more info about this wonderful machine see www.synesso.com If my dream of having a coffee shop one day came true, then this machine is first on my list. Anyway back to the shop – they have a simple clean layout, where all the goodies are displayed

Now ! doesn’t that look inviting ? As I had just had breakfast, I could only stomach a Pasties de Nata a Portuguese custard tart, which I had only had previosuly at Origins Coffee Roasting in Cape Town – now that I am writing this, there seems to be come kind of connection, same custard tarts and same coffee machine, hmmmm ! They also have bread from the famous French bakery, Poilâne. I decided to try a Piccolo, which I had wanted to try on my return. A Piccolo is like a smallish latte, served in a double espresso cup and I found out that the barista and another shop assistant were previously from Monmouth Coffee Company – so they got the coffee and the staff from the pros – well done ! Anyway, as you can see below, my piccolo was served with latte art in this tiny cup – impressive as Im still struggling to do latte art in a big cup.

The coffee was nice and smooth and the staff were friendly and on my next visit, I pray that I’ll have the chance to pop in and have that Sicilian Lemon Cheesecake that I didn’t have space in my tummy for.

For more, visit http://www.fernandezandwells.com/beak.php

If you’ve been to my main website under enjoying coffee, you would have seen that I was excited about the cafe scene in Cape Town. In any case, I’ve been lucky enough to visit Cape Town twice in the last 4 months and thought that I’d share my experiences with you, but this time with pictures. 

I noticed that when goggling (doesn’t that sound and look weird) coffee shops in Cape Town, a writer boasted that a new Eatery called Manna Epicure on 151 Kloof Street had the best cappuccinos in Cape Town. So always up to the challenge, I made sure that on my next visit, I would make a “beeline” for Manna Epicure, which turned out to be more like a marathon, as it was way up on the hill of Kloof Street. Needless to say, by the time I got there I was starving, having turned down the free breakfast at my hotel. The restaurant is a bit small and to be quite honest, I think it was converted from a bungalow. It has an all white decor inside, including white tables, chairs, floorboards and displays and a chandelier. There’s an outside bit, where I sat, which is like a balcony. To eat, I had their signature dish, scrambled eggs on coconut bread (delicious) and of course, I ordered a cappuccino. Turned out that they get their coffee from Origin Coffee Roasting Cafe (more of that to come later) – Anyway the coffee wasn’t bad, but I think it was more like a caffe latte than a cappuccino – I promptly got my camera out and took a few snaps – of course I got some weird looks, but hey ! you’ve got to seize the moment and what a lovely picture it is, below.  

They also had some lovely cakes on display and although the three layer carrot cake and white icing fairy cakes looked gorgeous, I just didn’t have any space in my stomach for more – perhaps for the next visit, God willing.

Also on Kloof Street, there is Melissa’s, packed with expensive delicacies like jams, preserves, biscuits, nuts, vinegars and imported European stuff. There’s also a small corner to have cakes and coffee, which I haven’t tried out yet.  Still with Kloof Street, there’s a newish place called Caramellos, where you can pick up some wonderful Greek/Italian confectionery – the manager was really nice and on hearing my British accent, he was inspired to give me some lovely biscuits – Again ! no time to taste the coffee, but a nice venue nevertheless. Quite popular with the young and trendy of Cape Town is also Vida e Caffe, with sites springing up around Cape Town, however on this occasion I tried the one on Kloof Street. The cafe was small, but it has a buzz and you can tell that the customers are regulars. Concerning the quality of the double espresso I ordered, it was OK and the crema was gone in less than one minute, so it’s a good place to hang out.

On another of Cape Town’s fashionable streets, Long Street , there’s RCaffe – where I got to sample a medium sized cappuccino after about a week of bad coffee in a neighbouring country. The milk was frothed well and the coffee was good. RCaffe is also like an all day deli, where they serve small lunches, cakes, pastries, etc. The art displayed on their walls are also for sale and the clientele was quite mixed, with young and trendy, mixing with the older generation.

My second favourite cafe in Cape Town has to be Sundance, which have now added branches in centrally located Church Street and at Greenpoint (where they have live Jazz) to their original shop in Buitengracht Street. They try and make their shops unique – so for example at their first ever shop in Buitengracht Street, they have a La Marzocco machine, which the barista knew how to use, judging by the sweet and sharp espresso I got from him on a sunny Friday afternoon. The decor is warm with light brown colours and a huge mirror. At their Church Street branch, keeping with the warm comfy colours, the shop is quite small, with bar stool type chairs and their machine is an Elektra. On my visit to this shop I tried a large cappuccino, accompanied with a lovely carrot muffin, but afterwards I came to judge that to really get the best from the type of coffee you prefer, you need to try it in the original size and not these massive versions.

I think I read somewhere that in Italy they only serve one size of coffee, except of course for espresso. So for example if you went to Italy and ordered an extra large caffe latte, they would really think you were mad and probably say no ! Anyway I digress, back to Cape Town cafes.

If you do visit Cape Town, you will no doubt be drawn to the tourist magnet, the V&A Waterfront, which has a lovely array of shops, restaurants and cafes, as well as the nearby Two Oceans Aquarium. As with most tourist traps unfortunately, it is always hard to get a really well prepared cup of coffee. You will no doubt be confirnted with many choices such as another branch of Vida e Caffe, Coffee and Bites, Love Revenge (strange name for a cafe) and Mugg & Bean (South Africa’s Starbucks), but I think when you are here, you should go for atmosphere and scenery and I don’t think there’s anywhere better than at Balducci’s, advertised as a Cafe, restaurnat and Royal sushi Bar (OK !). At Balducci’s, if you get a seat, ask for one  outside, so that you can be sipping your cappuccino or espresso with a view of Table Mountain and that’s exactly what I did, where I took this picture of an Illy espresso macchiato and lovely caramel cheesecake.

I’ve saved the best for last and for me, there’s no doubt however that my favourite coffee shop in Cape Town and probably the World is Origin Coffee Roasting on 28 Hudson Street in de Waterkant area. On the website, I wrote a glowing report about my experience, so I wont’ go into similar details here. In any case, Origin is in keeping with their name – the Artisan Coffee Roasters of Africa. They now have a barista training school and are providing coffees to restaurants and other cafes (like Manna Epicure on Kloof Street), needless to say their coffee is of course superb, having won the 2007 and 2008 South Africa Barista Championships but I’ll say more on them in a future  post – after all, they should get a special post as they are my favourite and this post is already getting quite long. Cape Town Coffee Scene – highly recommended !

Always on the look out for buying coffee wherever I am, I went back to a cafe in central Vienna, just off the Naschmarkt, Alt Wien Kaffee on 23 Schleifmuhlgasse, A-1040, Vienna. It doesn’t look too exciting when you walk in, but on your left there’s a massive Probat Coffee Roasting machine, which was roasting green coffee at the rate of 12 kilogrammes per 12-15 minutes. During my visit around lunchtime, the machine stopped and all this lovely freshly roasted coffee poured out and the air was awash with freshly roasted coffee beans, ahhh !!!!   Back to the shop, coffee beans are displayed in metal-like boxes, offering a choice of 19 different types of coffees, mainly house blends but for the eco-friendly and trade conscious amongst us, there’s also a selection of 6 fairtrade and bio/organic single estate coffees. There’s also a small place to drink coffee round the back and up some stairs, where your coffee can be made on a La Spaziale espresso machine.  At the shop front, they also sell some minor coffee equipment like French presses, moka pots and drinking glasses as well as fancy chocolate and something unusual, used green coffee bags, which are more like sacks, and can be used for decoration. Now for the real stuff, I tried an espresso, which they can offer you in 3 strengths as mild, medium or Italian strong – well, I had to try the strong stuff naturally. I checked the techniques, and although a tamper was used, my crema wasn’t dark reddish and caramel like and didn’t last minutes before disappearing – I therefore think their strength is in selling coffee beans. Now ! time to buy coffee. As a bit of a purist, I headed straight for their organic Fairtrade Papua New Guinea coffee for my dosage of afternoon coffee. I tend to drink cafetiere (French press) coffee in the afternoon and so favour either bold African coffees or flavoursome Central American coffee. However, on this occasion I decided to try something from the Pacific Ocean – just in case you are wondering where Papua New Guinea is – right above Australia. I still wanted something different for my daily espresso and cappuccino fixes and was persuaded to try their Scarlatti blend, advertised as ideal for an Italian espresso, consisting of 85% arabica and 15% robusta beans – I am a bit fussy about finding the source of things and tend to shy away from blends that do not offer the full listing and percentages of the origins of the coffee beans used in a blend, but again on this occasion I decided to bend my rules. On first impressions, the Scarlatti blend has a bitter and woody taste and does look like an Italian espresso. The Papua New Guinea coffee is just what I expected, a bit light, but flavoursome nevertheless. Alt Wien roast their coffee weekly and so promise freshly roasted coffee beans and their prices are quite reasonable, where the average 250g bag cost less than 5 Euros ($7). They have also opened another cafe on 32 Josefstadter Strasse, A-1080, Vienna.

Caffe Del Doge – the famous cafe from Venice now franchises and a new store recently opened in Cairo at the City Stars Mall (2 Aly Rashed Street, Heliopolis West, Cairo). After wandering endlessly looking for good espresso in the mall, I stumbled across this cafe almost by mistake. I walked in curiously, especially as all the staff where wearing SCAE (Speciality Coffee Association of Europe) black t-shirts – so did this mean that they were all trained baristas ? Anyway, I ordered an espresso and observed the barista – he followed the rules, even cleaning the machine thoroughly before pulling a shot – looked at it, poured it away and pulled another shot on their La Spaziale coffee machine (the company that WBC Champion, James Hoffman of the UK works for). Ok ! so I was impressed by the barista’s attention to detail and search for perfection – it was worth it, a glorious crema filled espresso, dark reddish brown. The barista, Mustafa, didn’t speak much English, but he knew about “crema”, pointing at the dark reddish cloud in my cup with a smile. I was so impressed, that I thought, I’ve got to come back for more after some more shopping, which I did. I went back to Caffe Del Doge 2 more times before I left Cairo and my last was amazing, being served the best latte art cappuccino I have had – the milk was so smooth, I couldn’t even see the bubbles. The first time, the barista poured an apple heart and seeing that I was impressed, took my cup away and did some more stuff with chocolate syrup, whereby he squeezes chocolate sauce onto the milk froth cloud and draws circles, etc. I watched him with great concentration as I am trying to learn latte art myself. As I didn’t have my lovely Nikon Camera with me, I took 2 pictures on my phone. I discovered too that one of the baristi – the one that served me latte art, was ranked 3rd during the Egyptian national barista championships.

I was also tempted to buy some coffee beans, which I did, their Doge Rosso arabica blend, which I tried recently but, sadly it wasn’t as fresh as the stuff they serve. In any case, you can also buy stuff like moka pots, biscotti, cups and other memorablia – and food is of course served along with desserts. For me in any case, the espresso served in Caffe Del Doge is the best I have been served in any mall I’ve been to in the World, because sadly most malls are dominated by chains whose main focus is to serve coffee quickly with little attention to detail.

I love being pleasantly surprised and that’s what happened to me during my short trip to Cairo recently. If you’ve been to Cairo, you will know that apart from all the history in the place with pharonic stuff, the pyramids, the Islamic Museum, the 1000’s of mosques, dinner on the Nile, etc, one thing distinguishes the place, traffic jams. This means that wherever you stay in Cairo, determines what you do ad have time for, as spending hours in traffic is not ideal if you only have a few days to visit. On what was my second trip to Cairo, I had to stay on the outskirts, in Heliopolis, which didn’t really bother me as I had previously done the tourist stuff on my first trip almost 2 years ago. However, I wasn’t too saddened, as I learnt that there was an American style mall (City Stars Mall) not too far from where I was staying and that even with traffic, it would still take me about 10-15 minutes to get there. So, off I went, thinking, for espresso, it’s all going to be about the image – selling espresso, lattes and cappuccino without much preparation and just to escape from the hustle and bustle and think you are in New York drinking coffee.

I did some prior research – there’s Cilantro (strange name for a cafe, as it’s what Americans call the World’s most popular herb, coriander – the main herb used in Indian and Chinese cooking). Anyway, Cilantro is like the Egyptian equivalent of Starbucks, similar in decor, with dark brown, comfy chairs, bookcase style centre piece, but with smoking and no-smoking sitting areas. As it was still morning, I ordered a cappuccino, which came with a small biscotti. I checked the barista area and spotted a La Cimbali machine, but noticed that it was being used only for frothing milk – I couldn’t see what machine was used to make the espresso part of my drink – Shame ! Anyway, the drink was like your typical mega chain espresso drink. I was nevertheless impressed with their wide variety of coffee cocktails and their choice of different types of coffee blends.

So my suspicions were confirmed, but not for long. After lunch at an indoor version of a corner Parisian/Italian style cafe bistro, Casper and Gamibini’s, what do I see in the corner – a La Marzocco coffee machine – could it be that one of the best coffee machines was situated here in Cairo. Yes ! So I ordered an espresso and went to watch the barista do his stuff and got chatting to another barista that was intrigued by my curiosity. After a while he started talking about the WBC (World Barista Championships) and how La Marzocco sponsors the event. The preparation for my espresso followed the normal rules, but I don’t think their coffee beans was either ground right or fresh enough, as my crema disappeared under 1 minute. In any case, I got an espresso.

However, thinking that all was lost and heading back to my hotel, I took a wrong turn and entered into the “posh” part of the Mall, which is expanding by the month and what do I see, Caffe Del Doge – the famous caffe from Venice, who I learnt previously where now franchising their brand to other parts of the World. Anyway in summary, the espresso was so good that I came back twice in 2 hours for more. See next post for more details on Caffe Del Doge, Cairo.

Another cafe worth trying too in the City Stars Mall is Caffe Alfredo, where they have a La Marzocco machine and produce adequate espresso. Also, Starbucks have 2 cafes in that Mall – their first 2 on the African continent and there’s a Costa Caffe and another Egyptian chain called Beanos, but with Caffe Del Doge I was satisfied and didn’t venture to any others – once you’ve found the real thing, settling for anything less is difficult or at least wasting money and trying something you are not sure off, is risky. I also learnt that Cafe Supreme – a Canadian Coffee Shop Franchise – is due to open soon at the same mall. For now, I think Caffe Del Doge in Cairo’s City Stars Mall serves the best espresso drinks in a mall that I have been to. Highly recommended ! Ma’assalam as they say in Cairo.