Coco Espresso
In short, I think this is a very good café that I will definitely drop by more often in the future. What’s in the cup is very good.
I can understand why lots like the café. It has simple, clean and easy decoration plus a great barista. I could imagine spending a relaxing Saturday afternoon there reading or talking to Johnson, the barista, about coffee and photograph. He got quite a few nice work of his hanging on the wall. The decor and barista personality almost made up for any flaw one might detect at this lovely café.
How about what’s in the cup!
My cappuccino is velvety smooth with a very very faint sweetness at the right temperature, ie not too hot to scald your mouth. However, ask them to hold cocoa powder if you don’t like it in your capp. I did have both with and without cocoa powder to come up with the above conclusion.
I would say I had better milk drinks from Café Corridor and, at time, at Zambra, ie. I can easily detect the milk sweetness. However, this is a nitpicking as its capp should be held very very high.
The barista suggested me an espresso over my usual ristretto. Gotta listen to the barista as they should know what their beans perform best in each drink.
My double espresso was very good but its taste was subdued vs. other café like Crema and Café Corridor but significantly better than my espresso/ristretto from four different occasions over a twelve month period at Initial.
To me, part of this is the style of the bean, I would classify it as an Italian style, ie reminding me of Illy, Fuel and all those Italian café.
If you are in to a low acid and smooth, this is the café that should be held high on your espresso quest. However, I suspect the subdued taste of its espresso was due to lower brewing temperature range, somewhat reflecting in the crema color which is only a tad darker than light brown vs. a typical reddish brown I typically had at all those great Indie cafés in Hong Kong and the US.
The crema was quite thin too, making me doubt about the freshness of the bean. The bean seemed to come from somewhere (undisclosed) and was roasted locally via some local roaster to match the taste profile of the café. Johnson indicated he likes the taste profile of Illy and Victoria (?), a brand (?) or the location in Aussie. I think he hit the nail on the taste profile vs. Illy and his coffee tasted better for sure.
This taste profile will greatly benefit newbies as it is easier to drink and much less ‘in your face’. There is some nice but faint aftertaste to boot including some very mild acidity and some peanut/nuts taste – I guess the contribution from Brazil beans which is typical in Italian style espresso.
I could imagine having lots of this espresso and really enjoying it. Nevertheless, I kinda missed the ‘wow’ I get from the cups at Crema and Corridor.
One caveat, coffees from Coco were not consistent. I had a tastier espresso on my second visit with a livelier cup and darker brown crema. Third and fouth visits were when Johnson was off. It was different for both times with weak/stronger cup. Nevertheless, all drinks were in a ballpark of what I call good coffee but never great one.
If I have to rank this café, I will put it above Fuel Espresso but well below other local cafés by significant margin on what in the cup as I give a significant priority to freshness and taste profile of Indie café. To me, the artisan style of coffee that Indie cafés starts is significantly more fun to follow than the old world charm.
However, if a so-called “Italian style” is your thing, Coco Espresso is probably at the top of chart. Also, newbies can find it easier to start the coffee journey here and try Crema/Corridor later to appreciate how the specialty grade coffee/artisan roaster broadens the coffee horizon so much so that there is a great chance you won’t look at coffee the same way you did before the journey.
Location, for google map, it points to the middle of road but it's actually opposite Hang Lung House. Look for the odd number side of the road
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