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The coffee academics 

Hunting an artisan coffee shop in Singapore can be a daunting task for coffee snob like me, the other day, a friend of mine recommended this place called “The coffee academics”, in the famous shopping area- orchard. It’s on the second floor of Scott Square.

Created by a group of people who are really passionate about coffee, this place   did not disappoint me with its fresh and fruity coffee. 

I ordered a normal latte. I have to say the latte art can be fancier considering its high-end price tag. As an amateur like me, may be able to do this simple heart pattern. They also serve a wide range of classic espresso based coffee and brunches. 

  

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Fresh roasted coffee bean in Tokyo

Where do I get my fresh coffee beans in Tokyo? The answer is that it’s not very easy if you don’t live in places where there are loads of coffee snobs like me. Most of the coffee beans you get from the coffee shops here only have the “best consumed before this date” tag on their package, from which you don’t know when the beans are roasted.

Having said that, you will find some cool café selling fresh roasted coffee beans in the trendy area like Harajuku and Shibuya. There is a place called “Rostery” between Shibuya and Harajuku, where you can find fresh roasted coffee beans on the same day. This cafe is spacious, and with its modern decoration, you can enjoy a coffee, cappuccino or latte with very comfort and relax atmosphere. There were staffs there tasting a line of coffee brewed from different beans when I visited there, making them really look like professionals.

Added to the in-house roaster, the lighting, the finishing, the wood interior and cozy terrace all create a fantastic atmosphere for café lovers.

 

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the Naked Portalfilter

My bottomless portafilter ordered from www.naked-portafilter.com has finally arrived home this morning from Hungary! Over the last a few weeks, I have been trying to figure out the problems why I am not able to produce rich crema of my espresso. Now  I hope this is the tool for me to find out the problems, whether is dose or channeling or something else! At the moment, I suspect that uneven tamping which results in uneven extraction could have attributed to the lack of crema. But let’s see what I can observe from this tool.

I am all agog to see my perfect extraction with it! Please stay tuned with my extraction video.

 

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This Hungarian company www.naked-portafilter.com is quite an interesting one, of which the website featured a quite professional video promoting their bottomless portafilter. The video is somewhat reminiscent of Apple’s promotion videos for their Macbook. Take a look the video below see whether if you find it interesting.

 

 

(You can’t see this video from China, as Youtube is blocked in mainland China)

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The culprit – three holes tip

After sifting through dozens of YouTube videos online about how to froth the milk with the default three-holes tip steam wand of La Pavoni, I gave up using the pre-installed steam tip and purchased a one hole tip from eBay as some people suggested on the home barista forum.

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voilà, with this new one hole tip, I finally be able to steam the milk with the desired microfoam result, which is nicely float on top of the coffee (see picture below), and which is essential to make latte art. With the original three-holes tip, steam came out with three different directions, and it was very difficult to get the milk swirling. Next step is to how to make a rich microfoam.

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La Pavoni

In early January, I took the plunge and purchased the espresso machine “La Pavoni”. It is the biggest investment I have ever made for a coffee machine. However, I hope one day she could understand its worth the money ($800) for a serious manual espresso machine.

According to the internet, the learning curve of this machine can be quite steep and it would take a good while before I can pull a good shot. Unsurprisingly,  the shots I pulled so far are quite bad, and it is still a long way to even just to match the taste of Starbucks’ coffee.

I will post updates when I get the hang of it with better shots. Please stay tuned.

 

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