pstam Senior Member Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 2,301 Location: Beijing Expertise: Professional
Espresso: ECM, SAN MARCO, EURO 2000 Grinder: MAZZER Vac Pot: YES Drip: YES Roaster: YES, HOME STYLE
Posted Fri Oct 12, 2012, 11:25pm Subject: Re: Places for Coffee in HK, Pearl River Delta
boblam Said:
Paul, you're welcome. Also, thank you for the story on STS coffee thing. Hong Kong coffee scene is amazing, isn't it :D
pstam: I have no comment on WBC. But as Paul implied, HKBC just started and the competition has lots of company promotion phase in there and lots of other agenda too. Whether it will sail smoothly afterward, who know? I'm talking from a customer point of view only and if a customer feels this much, you can judge the industry yourself.
If you are not a real normal customer, how can you talk only from the point of view of a normal customer? Your feel may be from a coffee person only, I suppose.
Peter in Beijing ------------------- http://www.kaffa.cn/ ------------------- I am looking for the way and the place to extend our trainning courses.
Lazzana Senior Member Joined: 20 Nov 2012 Posts: 2 Location: hk Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Tue Nov 20, 2012, 3:58am Subject: Re: Places for Coffee in HK, Pearl River Delta
Hi everyone! I'm new to Hong Kong, thanks for your info boblam! Looking for fresh roasted coffee beans, have tried Rabbithole, just a bit expensive, do you have any review for "The fresh coffee beans and tea house" ( http://hkcoffee.co) or "Great Deals" ( http://greatdeals.com.hk )??? Some of my chinese friends introduced me but I'd like to hear more people's review about these two companies. Thanks.
santunoo Senior Member Joined: 5 Mar 2008 Posts: 63 Location: Hong Kong and Ithaca, NY Expertise: I love coffee
Grinder: Anfim Milano and Hario Mini... Vac Pot: Hario TCA-2 Drip: Nel-Drip
Posted Tue Nov 20, 2012, 7:25am Subject: Re: Places for Coffee in HK, Pearl River Delta
Hi Lazzana,
I absolutely love "Fresh Coffee Beans" over at Northpoint. When I lived in HK for 3 years, I went there every week to buy beans and talk with with the owners, Shing and Landy, about coffee. I now live in New York and still order my beans from Fresh. I can go on and on about how great they are, but I would highly recommend trying their beans. And Bob Lam can verify this, but I think Fresh roasts the beans for Rabbithole.
Let us know what you think after trying their beans.
boblam Senior Member Joined: 13 Mar 2011 Posts: 59
Posted Sun Nov 25, 2012, 1:42am Subject: Re: Places for Coffee in HK, Pearl River Delta
Lazzana Said:
Hi everyone! I'm new to Hong Kong, thanks for your info boblam! Looking for fresh roasted coffee beans, have tried Rabbithole, just a bit expensive, do you have any review for "The fresh coffee beans and tea house" ( http://hkcoffee.co) or "Great Deals" ( http://greatdeals.com.hk )??? Some of my chinese friends introduced me but I'd like to hear more people's review about these two companies. Thanks.
From what I know, Fresh/hkcoffee is a totally separated operation from Rabbithole though Fresh/hkcoffee helped set up the roasting operation and lots of things at Rabbithole at the beginning. The roaster at Rabbithole is handpicked by Fresh/hkcoffee which continues to roast the coffee with the same roast profile Fresh/hkcoffee uses, thus a similarity both places have though the coffee offering in general is different.
There is a whole thread on coffee bean in Hong Kong here. "Coffee beans in Hong Kong" I did make some short comment there. You can also add Knockbox Coffee Company as a new roaster as the cafe now offers roasted coffee for you to buy, either direct trade (to my knowledge, the first cafe in Hong Kong who is able and willing to do this vs just talk), CoE and high quality beans.
The price of coffee in this part of the world is more expensive due to economy of scale, rent and import parity pricing some used. Try comparing to Korea and Japan and Hong Kong might be a bargain. :) Nevertheless, this is not the first time I found something dubious on claims regarding 'fresh' and things and I felt like a kind of advertising in disguise. I would be very comfortable and admire if the owner actually comes out and disclose that he is the business owner and talks about his business than just some form of disguise but that's just me.
Lazzana Senior Member Joined: 20 Nov 2012 Posts: 2 Location: hk Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Mon Nov 26, 2012, 8:42pm Subject: Re: Places for Coffee in HK, Pearl River Delta
Thanks Guys! So I went to the hkcoffee website finally and just learned that they roast their coffee like right in front of you?? And you need to choose your own roast level.. Never had that experience in my life, not even in the states. I'd like to get some Colombia supremo and the ethiopia yirgachefee for myself and my dad, any recommendation other than these two? And what level of roasting should I get? I see they also has a forum but unfortunately I don't read any Chinese... does the owner speak English?
Connie, the barista over there is very enthusiastic on coffee + great skill on pulling Cameroon Single Origin espresso, the first time I had this coffee in quality conscious cafe in Hong Kong. This is not robusta bean which is more associated with coffee from Cameroon but a decent Arabica bean.
Opened by Tracy Kwok, the 1st Hong Kong Grand Barista Champion (in 2009 I think). I haven't visited but coffee from Tracy haven't disappointed me as far as I remember. Probably the only cafe to use Kalita Wave in Hong Kong vs. mostly either V60 or Melitta type filter. Quite far away from city center and tourist though on its location.
santunoo Senior Member Joined: 5 Mar 2008 Posts: 63 Location: Hong Kong and Ithaca, NY Expertise: I love coffee
Grinder: Anfim Milano and Hario Mini... Vac Pot: Hario TCA-2 Drip: Nel-Drip
Posted Sat Dec 1, 2012, 7:25am Subject: Re: Places for Coffee in HK, Pearl River Delta
Lazzana Said:
Thanks Guys! So I went to the hkcoffee website finally and just learned that they roast their coffee like right in front of you?? And you need to choose your own roast level.. Never had that experience in my life, not even in the states. I'd like to get some Colombia supremo and the ethiopia yirgachefee for myself and my dad, any recommendation other than these two? And what level of roasting should I get? I see they also has a forum but unfortunately I don't read any Chinese... does the owner speak English?
Hi Lazzana, It's great that Fresh roasts to the customer's preferred roast level. I miss that over here in the States where it is impossible to get such individual attention unless one roasts the beans oneself. I would get "City Plus" to start. I usually get "City" roast, but it's not to everyone's liking. The Colombia Supremo and Ethiopian are good choices.
And yes, the owners do speak English. But they are a little shy, so they might not be too talkative to a non-Chinese speaker at first.
For the forum, I sometimes use google translate, but it's not the best.
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