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2009-10-01
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Drop by Fuel this morning for breakfast.The cappuccino was just OK and definitely nowhere near other good Indies. The milk has a hint of creaminess and only extremely faintly sweetness in it while the texture wasn’t quite enough for me to feel anything special about it, ie neither rich nor luxury.As both Fuel and Crema use Pura, the comparison came to my mind. Crema showed a consistently rich, creamy and velvety texture over the past two years. I could say its milk based drink is consistent g
The cappuccino was just OK and definitely nowhere near other good Indies. The milk has a hint of creaminess and only extremely faintly sweetness in it while the texture wasn’t quite enough for me to feel anything special about it, ie neither rich nor luxury.
As both Fuel and Crema use Pura, the comparison came to my mind. Crema showed a consistently rich, creamy and velvety texture over the past two years. I could say its milk based drink is consistent good year in year out from my experience there. I even like Capps at Corridor/Assembly duo and Zambra much much more than that at Fuel. I would rank Fuel capp quite close to Coco style, ie not quite rich, not quite creamy but a good and decent one though I would notch up Coco a bit higher on this front. BTW, the comment is more of a nitpicking on Fuel as Fuel’s Capp will beat any mainstream café and would not be far off from good Indie café, particularly on the temp side.
I also had two ristrettos from each blend too. The first one was from a darker blend, its default blend for black coffee. Nothing came close to the shot I had last time there which I considered the best from Fuel so far. However, it wasn’t bad either, ie passable cup, nothing’s really memorable kinda thing.
I asked for the second one to be made from the lighter roast blend which is a default blend for milk drink as I want to see how it tasted like. While the acidity was sharp, in your face and much more prominent, it was OK and I like it more than its default darker roast. Mind you that I like acidity in my coffee and I like to borrow words from Andrea Immelt’s wine book that I am also an acid freak. If I have to choose among these two blends for espresso/ristretto, I will go with the lighter one for a much more interesting dimension of its coffee vs. the darker roast for both milk and espresso drink
The good point is that I can now easily sense lots of aroma, flowery taste in the cup that was sorely missed from its dark roast. It still maintained an Italian taste profile but not to the point of caramel dark sweetness like its darker one.
Nevertheless, what’s sorely missed is the liveliness of the cup I typically had from Indie café in Hong Kong like Crema, Assembly/Corridor duo, Soft Aroma and, to a lesser extent, Coco Espresso. This prevents me from rating this cafe as a must go even you're out of the way.
The very weak link was its baked goods offering. The blueberry muffin was kinda crummy, way too sweet and very sticky to my tongue and mouth I had to chase its sweetness away with lots of water before I can sense the taste of the coffee. In a way, one could have this muffin with any coffee and you won’t feel a thing no matter how good or bad the coffee is which should give lots of flexibility to the café on its down day.
The $100 I paid for two shots of ristretto (not double as I order one shot from each blend), one muffin and one capp was on an expensive side but I don’t feel much regret vs. any $ I spend on coffee at Habitu. The Habitu/Fuel shouldn’t be compared at all at any level of café but it came to my mind when I think of the first Grand Barista Championship in Hong Kong last June, I believe. There you have it, Sanjay of Fuel Espresso and Lena Tsang of Café Habitu sitting side by side judging the barista for the first HK GBC title. However, their products were like night and day/a total pole apart with Sanjay coming on top of the game. For Lena. err... , let’s not go anywhere near that. You can read my experience on Habitu elsewhere on this website.
张贴
