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2013-10-30
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The first time I heard about the name I was taken aback why someone wants to name a cafe like that. I talk to the barista and I don't quite get it on the reason. Nevertheless, this is a good way to get notice with this kind of catchy name to begin with but it miscommunicates what this cafe is all about. Contrary to its name, NOT serves a specialty grade coffee. NOT uses selected coffees both single origin and espresso blend from CENG, a local coffee roaster and trainer based in Kwun Tong. I
Contrary to its name, NOT serves a specialty grade coffee. NOT uses selected coffees both single origin and espresso blend from CENG, a local coffee roaster and trainer based in Kwun Tong. In addition, NOT is run by an experienced barista with a background from one of the better known cafe in Hong Kong. The shop is more than qualified to be called a cafe that serves specialty grade coffee.
Contrast to my early expectation of a rather quiet place, the pace of the business is amazing. Almost two hours I sat there customers come in and out all the time. I think one of the greatest strengths and charms at NOT is its barista/owner who seems to know customers by name, call out drinks as customers come in and is more than willing to answer questions from customers regarding the drink and his recommendation. The soft skill likes this was hard to come by these days in cafes in Hong Kong where you won't be surprised to see lots of personnel in established cafes from the boss to the crew act up. The effort to place an emphasis on each customer, pure and simple, is what makes a great cafe, putting one's heart into serving one customer at a time. To me, it's not those grand visions but a rather simple focus on one cup at a time for each customer that counts for a customer like me.
Let start with my usual order, Cappuccino. The drink is on a hot side toward the high end of my preferred temperature range. Nevertheless, the drink is nice even when it is still hot with some texture though I sense some overextraction, but not that distracting, bit of the base coffee in the cup. When cold, the milk has the milk powder undertone and the coffee base feels a bit roasty that stays with me for a long while. Luckily this is not those kinds of chocolate aftertaste that felt dirty in the mouth for so long cups of water can't help and only soda can. So, in a way, the cup is drinkable in its own style.
My next order is espresso. The cup feels really harsh, particularly on the first sip, and it feels like the layer of taste does not separate well. Nevertheless, the major highlight is the ending which is dominated by Sumatra! I get earthiness from Sumatra in the cup and expect the worst, only to end up happy with a nice velvety mouthfeel, particularly on the aftertaste where earthiness was not particularly distracting. It's a big surprise for me who is not really in to Sumatra. This is a major achievement indeed by the roaster CENG and the barista himself at NOT. It is not easy to tame Sumatra to this drinkable level and I'm glad that they did. Considering that the shop has been opened for only about a month or so and managed to serve this kind of cup, particularly making Sumatra in espresso not that offending, you know the skill level and I can only expect better cups to come.
All in all, this is still an early days for this cafe and I don't think it is fair to expect a perfect cup from any visit this early. Sure, each cup of coffee has its weakness but at the same time there are positive angle in the cup to compensate for it. To me, the coffee here is drinkable no doubt about it and it's not easy to achieve this point, particularly from the start. I expect some finetuning is in store along the way and, to me, I expect a further improvement as time passes from NOT. I suggest you to try NOT now and see how this cafe develops.
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