影片
更多
2010-09-19
99 浏览
***TO THE EDITOR, PLEASE DISREGARD THE EARLIER WRITEUP AS YIRG BY HELEN PICTURE IS NOW CORRECTED***Time to update on Xen Coffee after my last one six months agoOverall, I thought Xen Coffee was quite settled last time I visit but it continued to deliver continually improving cup quality. Xen also sends Helen Chow to compete in the World Siphonist Championship 2010 in Tokyo on September 24, 2010. Here’s more detail of the competition, http://www.scaj.org/e/event/wsc2010.htmlLet talk about my late
Time to update on Xen Coffee after my last one six months ago
Overall, I thought Xen Coffee was quite settled last time I visit but it continued to deliver continually improving cup quality. Xen also sends Helen Chow to compete in the World Siphonist Championship 2010 in Tokyo on September 24, 2010. Here’s more detail of the competition, http://www.scaj.org/e/event/wsc2010.html
Let talk about my latest experience first and the one I don’t want coffee lovers to miss. I had a special offering today at Xen, the world famous Panama Esmeralda Especial. Unlike those expensive coffees like Jamaica Blue Mountain, Hawaiian Kona, etc, this is the coffee that really shakes the world of Indie café. Googling the web and you see what's it all about.
Xen served the Naranjo lot of this coffee. Roasted much lighter than its regular offering, the cup explicitly delivered the impressive berry/lemon like tasting note with a sweetness riding on top that I can still feel it at least 15 minutes after I finished the cup. A unique floral/jasmine note to boot too. While the intensity of the taste was not up to Mario Carnaval lot that is available from the world famous Portland, Oregon based Stumptown Coffee Roaster at twice the price and I had it at one of this city’s most fanatic cafés on the HK Island side, the Naranjo lot served at Xen Coffee continued to impress me to its very last drop with all of its complex and memorable tasting notes. If one wants to see why coffee enthusiasts love acidity in their coffee, this Esmeralda will serve the purpose, maybe a bit too well you will be spoiled so much so that even you don’t like acidity, this is still the coffee to try while it lasts.
On another front, the things that surprised me is that the overall cup from Helen Chow which was very different from what I had from Dixon, Xen coffee master, and Chris, another barista, at Xen. Helen's overall tasting profile was much more forward but not much nuances I can sense while Dixon's and Chris's had a similar cup profile, cleaner and subdued overall with some tasting notes sprinkle here and there you need to look to find it out. This somehow hints that there’s something more than espresso for Indie coffees.
My Yirga Cheffe from Helen was a totally new experience to me. This Yirgh was very unique in that it had a very forward note of lemony tone so much so that I thought they gave me Kenyan. Some of the winey/floral note was there but was not easy to detect. It's not too acidic and undrinkable but it caught me by surprise like one have a liquid medicine with orange color, expecting an orange flavor but it turns out to chocolate flavor with no single hint of orange. Quite an interesting cup and a significant deviation from other two baristas which made consistently more balanced cup of the same coffee.
Helen told me that Xen’s customers now appreciate the floral notes in the coffee and no complain so far during her usual weekday shift on the acidity. To me, it's how far Hong Kong people came along on their coffee journey that a coffee with lemony tone like this receives no complaint at all from customers even I myself who should be considered an "acid freak" still think this may be a bit too much for the local taste profile. Boy, the palate of Xen's customers is so advanced. Way to go!
For another special offering, Kona Extra Fancy, The cup was somehow as promised, a delicate cup with some mild chocolate/caramel sweetness. However, when it's cool down, the dark roasted profile took over the tasting note of the cup and those earlier notes were kinda gone. So, it's better to drink this cup hotter than cooler.
On the food front, its breakfast set was quite nice though overall tone was pretty Chinese than western. The scrambled egg was so smooth with added cream and surprisingly the thick toast was tasty enough for bread of this kind. I enjoyed this set and won't hesitate to order it again next time.
To end this note, I like to note that somehow I feel I am more critical to filtered coffee than espresso. I think it is due to the fact that I myself brew only filter coffee at home and my familiarity to this brewing method took it toll on filtered coffee I had outside my place. Not that I'm that good but I feel like I can sense it more. This is quite similar to quite a few "reliable" hands I know of on espresso. This guy mostly lost words when you ask them which cafes are good, as they've never had much coffee outside due to the great cups they have at home. I can assure you that these guys pull much better cup at their places with relatively simple gears vs. other cafes, including Indies too, more than 90% of the time. So read my note with a grain of salt and let me know your opinion. Both for and against are more than welcome.
张贴
