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2010-09-03
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18 Grams has been changing their coffee blends ever since its Soft Opening stage, and everytime you have an Espresso or say Caffe Latte here ~ it just tasted so different. Some of these blends are more for novice drinkers, some are more Southern Italian styled with that heavy robusta kick, and one blend was even Salty ! Anyway their latest fine-tuned LUCKY DUCK Version No. X blend with correct machine settings to suit, is nowadays pretty spot on and balanced, that's why I wanted to let the
- Note that this 18 Grams Lucky Duck blend is not entirely the same as Glory Coffee's online Lucky Duck blend, as they were more using that as a base to build up upon, fine tune and then gradually find the right balance to suit its Cafe's customers. So please clarify with them first, should you purchase their beans either on site, or from Glory's website!
- In the latest espresso I had, there's a beautiful and very elastic film of brownish-amber crema with beautiful mottling, initially more aerated but after just a few seconds after handing it to the customer, collapsed to a surprisingly thin layer despite the full bodied drink beneath. Its crema doesn't hold up for long, but there's nothing wrong with this, it was a good drink!
- The aroma is quite earthy and chocolatey, but once in the mouth 2-3 seconds later, a secondary burst of sweet marmalade like jamminess hits you, before that dry grippy dark chocolate note takes over. *Unfortunately right at the last moment 7-8 seconds later after you've downed the drink, some kind of sharp bitterness grips the back palate. It tasted almost like it had some bitumen like Robusta thrown in, or at least to the same effect compared to before? May be to suit the milk drinks? But anyway its fine the way it is, it gives it more character I suppose!
ONLY BIT OF CRITICISM -
- I think it'll be great if they could monitor their Consistencies a little more, especially between different baristas - please don't become like FUEL Espresso, which everyone makes a very different cup! Without naming anyone, sometimes certain milk drinks either contained too much foam or can be overly aerated, rather than silkily smooth (particularly for piccolo lattes & caffe latte), probably due to latte artists concentrating too much on pouring Tulips latte art. I think generally, flat whites and caffe lattes can have different patterns which suits the coffee better. Sometimes its even a bit cold, like beneath 60-65C. On some occasions the espressos didn't taste very right, unlike the nearly perfect one I had above of their latest blend and made perfectly!
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DEFINITELY MY MOST PREFERRED CAFE IN HONG KONG RIGHT NOW! READ THAT AS NO. 1!
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