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Coffee beans in Hong Kong

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HLing
Senior Member

Joined: 10 Dec 2010
Posts: 21
Location: NYC
Expertise: I like coffee

Grinder: Manual Stone Quern
Roaster: stove top cast iron pan or...

Posted Tue Mar 22, 2011, 7:36am
Subject: Re: Coffee beans in Hong Kong

boblam Said:

That link is for sealing the bag. You roll the bag down and slide this roll in to lock the bag.

Thks for the comment. I like this Coava DISK a lot and you should try it as it's difficult to try the real thing elsewhere. Barista Jam in Sheung Wan is the place for Coava DISK in Hong Kong. Not sure whether the link to outside will survive here but I wrote some of my experience a while back on the DISK... Here's the link.

Click Here (freshcoffeentea.no-ip.info)

In the meantime, you can do cafe crawl in this hot bed of Indie including Barista Jam, Coco Espresso and Soft Aroma. Hit the openrice.com for more detail or you can try timeout.com.hk and cnngo.com Hong Kong website too for more info.

Posted March 18, 2011 link

Just got a chance to read your nice review about the Coava Disk. yes, I feel the same about metal filter in general. I didn't like the swiss gold filter, either, but of course that was way back when I didn't know to insist on freshly ground freshly roasted coffee. I remember when Coava had its Christmas Special this past year where you could get an Aeropress and a Coava Disk for something like $30. I was tempted to get one. I'm pretty happy with my own double mesh filter so far, but maybe if I find myself in Sheung Wan I'll look up Barista Jam.

boblam
Senior Member

Joined: 13 Mar 2011
Posts: 59

Posted Wed Mar 23, 2011, 8:44am Subject: Re: Coffee beans in Hong Kong

Thank for your comment, HLing, and no, I don't know much. There's lots more about coffee in Hong Kong but those who know don't write. So you need to talk to these guy and they might spill the bean... :) You seemed to be at all the right places but I suggest you shouldn't miss Barista Jam. I believe William, the owner and head barista, will be very happy to try your double mesh filter out so bring it along with you. You can do side-by-side comparison with its Coava DISK 008 as they have more than one Aeropress there... Even better, bring along your aeropress and filter and you can try your mesh filter, the new 008 DISK and the original larger pore 010 DISK that I try. Compare/contrast all things at the same time and see how different they are. Just thinking already sounds like fun to me... :D

HLing
Senior Member

Joined: 10 Dec 2010
Posts: 21
Location: NYC
Expertise: I like coffee

Grinder: Manual Stone Quern
Roaster: stove top cast iron pan or...

Posted Wed Mar 23, 2011, 9:25am Subject: Re: Coffee beans in Hong Kong

That's uncanny what you said about the aeropress...I had just come back from Holly Brown tonight. Not knowing which place I might go, I did bring my aeropress and mesh filter with me just in case. Unfortunately my visit at Holly Brown was a drink and run because the friend I was meeting had to leave. My brief encounter with the place is positive so far: My house blend single shot came in their unique little whirly cup. It seems to hold the liquor well...or maybe it's just a beautiful shot of thick, round and smooth creamy coffee dew drop that never lost its body from beginning to end. I'll have to revisit with more room for savouring. So, if I get a chance to go to Barista, I'll try to be brave and see if William wouldn't mind letting me try and compare. I'm not trained at all like you all, though. It'd be intimidating to say the least. Wish I could have my stone grinder with me, since that's what I use at home. Maybe I'll bring the disk grinder just to see how that changes things, too. Until next time....

boblam
Senior Member

Joined: 13 Mar 2011
Posts: 59

Posted Wed Mar 23, 2011, 9:33am Subject: Re: Coffee beans in Hong Kong

This may sound like advertising but I don't think William will mind. In fact, he might be reading just about now. Lots in the area, including me, just browse through this one but not a member. Do whatever you feel like as long as they are not too busy. Ask some question that people know you are in to this stuff and you'll be on the way to know more. William is probably one of the most technical coffee guy in HK, one of the geek that really works on what he like so, in a way, I'm jealous of him that his hobby makes money for him. Do go there with questions, curiosity and designated driver... You might get coffee drunk there as I once was... Enjoy... :)

HLing
Senior Member

Joined: 10 Dec 2010
Posts: 21
Location: NYC
Expertise: I like coffee

Grinder: Manual Stone Quern
Roaster: stove top cast iron pan or...

Posted Fri Mar 25, 2011, 11:13am Subject: Re: Coffee beans in Hong Kong

well, no coffee luck tonight. I went to Sheung Wan tonight but Barista Jam was closed. I did get a chance to take a B & W film photos of the MTR cars without doors, almost from the end to the start! Am curious as to what Hong Kongers consider good as far as water (for coffee making) goes?

boblam
Senior Member

Joined: 13 Mar 2011
Posts: 59

Posted Fri Mar 25, 2011, 6:23pm Subject: Re: Coffee beans in Hong Kong

Barista Jam closed early by 6PM as William fine tuned his hours over the year and the area is less of a nightlife district but things may change as Holiday Inn is expected to open its door very close in the neighborhood. I don't think local put a lot of emphasis on water that much. hkcoffee suggested your tap water is good enough if it's clean, clear and no offtaste. Sound simple but some may not have this thing due to the piping system of the place they stay There's variety of filter systems. A Malaysian based "Diamond" water system somehow seemed to be famous with stripping out things in tap water and "re-mineralized" it with some "module" they have.

HLing
Senior Member

Joined: 10 Dec 2010
Posts: 21
Location: NYC
Expertise: I like coffee

Grinder: Manual Stone Quern
Roaster: stove top cast iron pan or...

Posted Fri Mar 25, 2011, 8:52pm
Subject: Re: Coffee beans in Hong Kong

boblam Said:

Barista Jam closed early by 6PM as William fine tuned his hours over the year and the area is less of a nightlife district but things may change as Holiday Inn is expected to open its door very close in the neighborhood.

I don't think local put a lot of emphasis on water that much. hkcoffee suggested your tap water is good enough if it's clean, clear and no offtaste. Sound simple but some may not have this thing due to the piping system of the place they stay

There's variety of filter systems. A Malaysian based "Diamond" water system somehow seemed to be famous with stripping out things in tap water and "re-mineralized" it with some "module" they have.

Posted March 25, 2011 link

I'm surprised to hear the lack of emphasis on water! Previous experience with distilled water's flattening affect (flavor-killing) on tea had me sworn off them for good. This trip, what I thought was French mineral water had been inconsistent, and tasting more like distilled to me. So, last night I used tap water from the hotel. There was a much taller "ceiling" in taste for the phoenix dan cong that I made than previously attemps. I expect the same result for coffee, but have just ran out of my last batch of beans....

Another reason I am aware of the water is that when I didn't pay attention, and drank a big bottle of water that turned out to be distilled water, I felt drained and more dehydrated the next day. So, I'd be very curious to find out the water source for cafe's that I might visit (or have visited).

boblam
Senior Member

Joined: 13 Mar 2011
Posts: 59

Posted Fri Mar 25, 2011, 9:37pm Subject: Re: Coffee beans in Hong Kong

You talked about two things here, home coffee and coffee in the cafe. The investment is different, in most case. If you talked about waters in cafe, mos are quite meticulous even Starbucks with complicated water filtering system and/or remineralized it back up for the taste of the drink and the scaling of boiler in its espresso machine. For water at home, it's really up to you how far you want to go. I don't know much about tea but I think for coffee, as had been said lots of time on coffeegeek.com forum, something left in the water is better and "distilled" water by itself will give you flat taste as you indicated. For me, if I don't trust the local water source or for convenient sake, I use volvic and crystal geyser as my water, per Jim's water discussion suggestion (You can search on coffeegeek for a really long discussion on Jim back in 2002, I think, or even google it as it's quite famous and I think we owe a lot to his writeup on this front). In the US, I think any spring water will do to a certain extent. To me, Volvic gave a sweeter cup while crystal geyser does not sway thing like French's water and seemed to give me the way the coffee is with some liveliness left in there. Both waters are available in HK, either for convenient at most 7-Eleven around the corner or less expensive at most grocery store. Also, if you want more info on water, you should talk to both hkcoffee, barista jam and Xen (Xen uses Diamond filtration system). They should be able to give you something more. Otherwise, apart from carrying your aeropress, buy some water bottle on the way to these cafes and compare/contrast it with its own water... Another fun thing I could think of but, again, make sure they are not that busy, likely closer to its closed time but not to the last minute as they need to tidy up the place at the end of the day. Enjoy

HLing
Senior Member

Joined: 10 Dec 2010
Posts: 21
Location: NYC
Expertise: I like coffee

Grinder: Manual Stone Quern
Roaster: stove top cast iron pan or...

Posted Tue Mar 29, 2011, 11:10am Subject: Re: Coffee beans in Hong Kong

well, it's been hectic at work, my last few days in Hong Kong. I was in the area today, so I stopped in for a quick lunch at the lunch time busy Xen Coffee. Delicious roast beef sandwich in a croissant, then the house blend coffee arrived. It was a very laid back in terms of how the taste hit: not bold, in your face type, but the long beginning if that's possible? Then first slight smokiness, then chocolate, then...uh, I kept tasting and smelling a faint strawberry ice cream..guess that's berry, and vanilla, maybe? Anyway, I'm not good at describing, but I liked the way the coffee hit the palate mid and lower with a long finish that I usually don't get with other coffee. At this point I wonder maybe it is the Diamond system for water filtration? I didn't have enough time to ask. Went back to work. After work, stopped by Landy's in North Point. Got a taste of Red Cherry still slightly warm from their siphon coffee maker! My lucky day! Couldn't get what I had hoped to, but managed to get those tie things Chang94598 wrote about. The problem is, I left in a hurry. Now, I'm looking at them, a tube with a tie strip inside, and I can't figure out how to get it out, nor how it is used. Help?

boblam
Senior Member

Joined: 13 Mar 2011
Posts: 59

Posted Wed Mar 30, 2011, 9:16am Subject: Re: Coffee beans in Hong Kong

What you do is fold the coffee bag and slide in this lock tube. The bag should go into the small slit, kinda like the bag hanging on the inside/yellow rod thingy. If you don't get the picture, you need to go back to Landy. I guess yesterday was a really good day for coffee there was another coffee party going on in town too late in the evening with nice coffees and I couldn't make it.. :(

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