Wow ! it’s already been a month since my last post, which is way over my target of a weekly post but my excuse, if I can get away with one, is that it was family holiday season and we went again to Dubai – the kids and wife insisted.
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Last year I wrote a summary on drinking coffee in Dubai, which was really like a summary of drinking coffee in one mall. This time, I tried to broaden my horizons by visiting a few more malls but still failed to visit some cafes outside the mall perimeter – next time God willing. Following on from some advise given by a coffee pro – “don’t bother tasting espresso style coffee from coffee chains because it is always going to be badly prepared”, I initially only ordered what could be called Americanos and just “normal” filter coffee. For a while it satisfied my caffeine thirst, but then I thought, it’s been over one week without espresso and decided to risk it.
A few pointers before telling you about my experience. Firstly, I only visited cafes with semi-automatic machines and not pure automatic ones (witness Starbucks), where the barista just pushes a button and hopes for the best. Secondly, and I was called a snub for this by my wife – insist that the barista cleans the machine before making your coffee. Usually, old coffee is left in the portafilter, emptied and without cleaning the old dried stale coffee, what is supposed to be fresh coffee is ground and placed into the portafilter before placing into the group head without cleaning the machine – Yuk! On this occasion, I insisted every time that the barista empty the old coffee, flush it out with hot water and also clean the group head with hot water. Finally, I insisted that they tamp the ground beans. You would think that with these key pointers, some sort of espresso will come out, but sadly this was not the case – why ? I think it falls under the best known two classical mistakes – serving non-fresh coffee with an inaccurate grind setting. From the taste of the majority of the coffee I had, freshness was compromised by far, because, even if the coffee is fresh and the grind setting is inaccurate, you will smell the aroma and the coffee, although bitter in taste, will still have some sort of fresh taste. I didn’t even go there with milk based drinks because badly frothed milk is usually burnt and gives me indigestion – Snubbish ? No ! I’m just trying to get what I paid for and not mess up my stomach.
Anyway to the shops. One thing I noticed now is that some more of the cafes have now started trying to tamp. At the Tea Merchants, Burjuman Mall, I noticed a La Marzocco machine and an expensive Mahl Konig Grind-on-Demand coffee grinder, but sadly, as you can see from the picture, after insisting on cleaning the machine, etc the crema was still very thing and lasted about a minute but the taste told me more – not very fresh.
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The baristas, however, were very amused by my tips on cleaning the machine and tamping the coffee.
Having looked down on coffee chains and there are everywhere, I decided to try a popular one in Dubai, who boasted about the “Italian taste”, so I went to the aptly named Barista – which is actually an Indian coffee chain. At their shop in the Dubai Festival City (nice shops and water way) I was impressed by their preparation techniques and most of all by the taste – it did have an “Italian taste” after all, as they proudly displayed that their coffee is roasted in Milan.
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In all, I told them that their espresso was the best I had tasted in Dubai. I also caught, surprisingly of all, one of the baristi having a go at latte art… hmmmm !
One more success story was the espresso I had on my last day at the Dubai International Financial Centre in the Testa Rossa Caffe. I decided not to fuss about how the coffee would be made – I was too hungry to run over to the bar. However, perhaps my reputation had preceded me as I watched the barista, clean the machine, flush out the group head, grind the coffee and tamp. I was impressed and although the coffee had some crema, the taste was not as sharp as the one I had at Barista.
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I’m still looking for real crema and that authentic espresso taste in Dubai – land of the malls, flashy cars, famous hotels and indoor ski slope, but that will have to be on another occasion God willing if I return. I’ve just got to leave you with one incident – On another occasion on this trip, I decided to try an espresso at a Dubai based coffee chain and after warning the barista that I write on coffee, he boasted that his colleague could make really good espresso, so I thought why not. In chatting to him, I went a step further, “so ! what sort of coffee do you use in your blend and where is your coffee from ?” “Canada” was the reply and I thought “Oh no it doesn’t, they don’t grow coffee in Canada” but I decided to keep that embarrassing revelation to myself and just smiled – I then knew I was in for a surprise. Needless to say my suspicions were confirmed and that is why I have a story and not a picture of what was advertised as an espresso. I think they need really good coffee in Dubai to match their plans to become one of the top destinations in the World…. still looking.
 Again, the short answer is that you cannot just tell by looking at it – see above.  You will have to wait until you get home and try and pull an espresso or use another brewing method. In any case, I recently fell victim to this scenario and really the warning bells should have been ringing when I asked the roaster at 
  I also noticed that once extracted, the coffee was lightish in colour despite the right time for extraction; 
 The final straw was of course the taste test – the coffee was sour around the middle part of your tongue. Now, as you know, really fresh coffee that has been taken care of should not taste bitter or sour, so that got nme thinking – what’s wrong ? I tried stuff like leaving the beans out all night in a big metallic bowl so that they could let off steam, but that didn’t work. I tried another brewing method, French Press, but still the taste was sour. Then I thought, based on stuff that I had read, to leave the beans in their bag for about a week. I was bordering on being mad, because to compensate for my ever increasing coffee appetite, I decided to buy a 500g bag for the first time. In trying to apply my general culinary skills to the situation, I thought, if the bean could talk, perhaps it would say “hey ! I’ve just been exposed to 450 F, let me cool down a bit before you get the best out of me”. It’s almost like trying to toast freshly baked bread – it’s going to burn a lot quicker. In any case, not being a chemist, I thought there’s some sort of proper chemical explanation for this. Anyway, I’m glad to report that after leaving the beans for a week in their original bag, well sealed, with no exposure to air, there was a big difference. Firstly, although the coffee may not have smelt as nice as earlier, it was now easier to find the right grind setting for a 23-25 second pull for an espresso and the colour was back to dark reddish crema – see below;   
 Also, good for latte art and impressing your friends (OK ! I’m joking about the last).   
 So next time your coffee roaster tells you the coffee is really fresh, ask them how fresh. A few days can be good, say 3 days, but I have learnt that the mistake made by the roaster was putting the fresh beans into a sealed vacuum bag immediately after roasting as opposed to letting them de-gas by their own. If it is freshly roasted, it should be left alone and not bagged up.  I can even say now, as I am drinking this coffee (Organic Bolivian)that after about 10 days the coffee is even better, especially for espresso – the sweetish taste is back. Ciao
 
 
 
  
 
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. 
 
 Wow ! an arena, where you will probably be served the best coffee in London and probably the UK over two days and the best part, it’s all free, as top baristi and espresso machine suppliers and coffee roasters vie against one another to try and sell you their coffee. Caffe Culture basically brings together all the major suppliers and players of the UK coffee shop scene covering all the supply chains – so if you were thinking of setting up a coffee shop, you will in summary meet everyone that can help you provide all the essentials (coffee, coffee equipment, non-coffee products, smoothie machines, tea, chocolate, cakes, biscuits, paper cups, porcelain cups, graphic design, cafe furniture, publications, software, etc) including consultants that will train your staff and teach you how to draw up a business plan. As I mentioned in my previous post announcing the event, this was my third year attending. This year, the event was even better and bigger, spreading over two floors for the first time in the Kensington Olympia Hall. The bottom floor was predominantly dominated by equipment, auxiliary items and coffee suppliers including two stages, one focusing on food preparation and the other on lectures on the coffee business. The second floor had a few other suppliers but was dominated by the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) events, where there were workshops and most excitingly of all, the UK Latte Art Championships and some coffee tasting sessions. Sadly, I missed some of the competitions – there was just too much going on, as I busied myself with exploring some business ideas and attending 3 lectures; (i) Why a great barista will make a difference ? (ii) planning and designing a cafe including drawing up a business plan and most excitedly of all, for me anyway (iii) Latte Art – improving your technique. For the last one, I was coached by Stephen Morrissey – Irish National Barista Champion and Soren Stiller Marcussen – Danish National Barista Champion (a favourite for the WBC 2008). In summary, there was about 30 minutes of theory and an hour of practice. Stephen guided my hand to help me pour my first rosetta (below). 
 I also got to use a 
Still with 
 Wandering along the foyer, I got to spot a really beautiful looking machine, the Mistral. It’s actually built by La Marzocco, but the body design is done by a designer and sold by a company called Andronicas World of Coffee  who now have a coffee shop in the famous London department store, Harrods. Of course, as soon as I saw it, I stopped and took some pictures. 
 For more, check 
 For training and further planning, I met briefly with Gayle Reed of the London School of Coffee (
  The Clover is getting quite popular in the USA, particularly with top independent cafes, where the rave is about selling coffees like wine, with $8 for a cup of coffee, sourced from a special farm. However, the Clover company has just been bought by… wait for it… Starbucks. Apparently, one of the first pioneers of Clover in America is so disgusted by the sale, that they will stop using the Clover machine. I wonder if they are willing to sell their Clover machine to me then for a few $$$. Next to the Clover, I also spotted this machine, made by Neuhaus Neotec. 
 It’s a smaller roaster designed to handle small batches of green coffee and has over 200 programmes that can be pre-programmed fo
 You can view more pictures from Caffe Culture 2008 under my flickr account, 
