After reading a post from James back in Jan, I was quite intrigued with how this might translate to our local specialty coffee scene. I picked the most popular blend from each of the following cafes who are roasting their own beans with descriptors found either on their coffee bags or from their website.

• Papa Palheta
• Oriole Coffee
• Toby's Estate Asia
• Liberty Coffee
• Bettr Barista
• Highlander Coffee

The predominant tastes of "chocolatey" & "nutty" probably didn't come too much as a surprise considering milk based drinks forms the majority of the drinks consumed locally, and they are fairly neutral to most locals' taste palettes. Compare that with what the US market has to offer and the flavours of the coffees available locally start to look somewhat - lacking. Could this be due to just a better grasp of how their coffees taste like and putting it in words or simply a case of local roasters preferring to create blends that generally suit the locals' taste?

Note that this list is on the light side as I have chosen the above 6 roasters as examples. Other roasters not listed here is probably due to the lack of available information regarding the blend taste.

the 1st country on our road trip through Central America, and definitely one of the most memorable. from the fairly rustic village of Tacuba where we jumped down canyons of waterfalls to tasting our favourite local pupusas, we hitched on the local "chicken bus" with our 50L backpacks and travelled with the natives to Santa Ana, the biggest coffee producing region in the country before snaking back into the hustle and bustle of the capital, San Salvador. we planted our first coffee trees and toured the biggest coffee cooperative in the country. meeting 2011 world's barista champion was definitely a highlight but speaking to the folks behind Viva Espresso was just as enlightening.

a picture speaks a thousand words (or at least i hope mine does), so enjoy the following photos that were taken in this lovely country.

El Salvador gallery on flickr

We hit the flight trail again last week, with a short trip to Seoul for their annual Cafe Show, which incorporates the country's barista championship. I've never been to Korea but I've heard from many about how one can find a cafe at every turn of a street. Let me remind you that these are not your usual chain outlets (although they do have a lot of those too), but rather small independent cafes. What's even more amazing is that you will probably find a small coffee roaster to welcome you by the entrance or the cashier in many of these indie cafes. Unfortunately I spent a majority of my time within the coffee show or attending seminars but on the few occasions that I tried the coffees, I have to say it's very much a hit and miss experience. In fact, my advice to anyone who is really keen get a good cup will probably find one by avoiding those that has a small roaster proudly sitting within the compounds of the shop space.

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I have been procrastinating for the longest time ever to continue on from my last post where I left off after leaving arguably the US capital of indie cafes. arriving in SF, I can see why so many people rave about this city, describing it as one of the best cities in America to live in - people, culture, arts, architecture, beautiful weather (if it doesn't fog up), and a thriving coffee culture. we were blessed with amazing sunshine during our stay although the thermometer did plummet quite drastically once the sun is hidden below the horizon.

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3hrs in, we whizzed into rodeway hotel & inn, a motel just outside of Portland international airport where we will be flying out from 3 days after. no time for mount st helen on the way in as the clouds were gathering fast from the pacific (at one point, we were contemplating to visit the town of Forks, made famous by Bella, Jacob & the Cullens). Portland was also known as the stump town as it was a major logging town many years back and the remains of the trees after they were cut gave rise to the nickname.

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my experience with the world of brewing coffee cold has been far and few. tried my hand using a pyrex iwaki cold drip some time back but tweaked my formula by using ice cubes instead of water to slow down the flow to a trickling minimum. the result is a surprising concoction, which i shared with a few lucky peeps over at the steeping room, that taste incredibly smooth and velvety, mimicking the taste of whisky, extremely enjoyable on a hot stuffy day.

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if you have tried to buy coffee equipment on the internet, the likelihood is that you will have come across Espressoparts, based in Olympia (roughly 45min drive from Seattle. these guys not only retail everything that a cafe or coffee enthusiast will need but their real specialties really lie in repair and refurbishment of coffee related machines. situated beside Olympia roasting company, its a corner shop that houses a reception and cupping/training room in the front and a warehouse at the rear stocked full of accessories from chemax to hario to boiler replacements for your espresso machine. after i read what they did for the LM GS2 machine for intelligensia, i was really looking forward to visiting them since im in this part of the world.

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(download)

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breakfast-in-monteverde-costa-rica-BjqAFEdbwijhIlCDbium.zip (1.97 MB)

coffee brewed traditionally in costa rica called chorreador de café by the locals. bet you have not seen bread toasted in such a way anymore.

the space needle, original Starbucks store from 1971, the sprawling Redmond campus of my former employer, legendary Mount St Helen...ok, in truth, the trip wasn't planned in particular to visit any of the above but rather to pay homage to the northwest coffee culture. i look to the US specialty coffee scene because they do not stay stagnant but continuously push the boundaries on how they can bring better coffees to consumers and sustain the producers. it's bridging that gap of telling the story of the bean to cup.

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in 2 weeks, we managed to whisk through 6 cities in America, including Phoenix which we arrived just before sunset and stayed overnight in a dodgy motel just to take our flight out to El Salvador via Dallas. a summary post will probably be appropriate to avoid boring anyone reading to sleep but that will also mean much of the details will be filtered. will break the blog appropriately so  that the post doesn't get agonisingly long but feel free to drop me a line if you like to find out anything more about the trip.

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