With so many sources these days on coffee ‘education’, its nice to have a nicely produced video that demos the different kinds of coffee making out there by intellgentsia.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=302556126&mt=8

Ok, this is wierd shit.

“A man addicted to masturbation and flashing coffee makers has thanked police for catching him saying he needs a hand to stop.”

Read rest of article here…

‘Coffee masturbator tells police he needs a hand to stop’

Cafe Pralet is a cafe set up by Creative Culinaire. The culinary school and cafe run side by side and I popped in over a lunch break one weekend.

I felt a little weird drinking a Ice Cafe Latter after I had just eaten the cafe’s Ayam Tempra. Which was superb don’t get me wrong, but a spicy asian dish followed by milk?! Anways, the cafe latte wasn’t anything fantastic, I felt the espresso shot that was already diluted by sugar syrup, milk and ice was burnt. I mean if I can taste the acrid taste of burnt coffee grinds over all the additives, something’s wrong right? Drinkable but not that bad that I’d send it back like many of you readers have been suggesting I do.

Any-whoo, I ordered a piece of cake to go along with the iced drink and now that was fantastic. I’m sorry for not taking notes, but I didn’t order the cafe’s signature Pralet Cake, but I think I ordered a Irish Cream something something. This was definitely more pleasant to my taste-buds, then the said drink.

Cafe Pralet is located at;
17 Eng Hoon Street
#01-03/04
Eng Hoon Mansions
http://www.creativeculinaire.com

A trip down to East Coast Park one Friday afternoon found a mate and I seats at Old Town White Coffee. Here one morning on a Sunday, we turned tails when we saw the line queuing to get in.

“Please wait to be seated” greeted us at the door and not long after we were sat down at a marble-top table with the old school lookin’ chairs. Orders are ‘self-service’ – fill up one of them forms and pass’em to the staff.

OTWC, serves more than kopi and other assortments of bread, but a whole spread of asian dishes – mee goreng, nasi lemak, you get the picture. But we, we were just here for coffee. And so we ordered the signature white coffee and how could we not be tempted by garlic toast!

The coffees arrived nicely foamed kopitiam style. Initially, in both our silences we were wondering “Why is the thing bitter? Thought the kopi tiam kopi would’ve been sweetened with sweetened condensed milk.” Alas, these two moroons realised what the metal jar on the table was for – sugar lah! “DOH!”

I glance at the wall and read their well placed OTWC philosophy. According to the poster, OTWC’s coffee use Robusta, Arabica and Liberica (woah hardly hear that one). In any case, despite the sugar we were wondering what the big deal was with White Coffee’s coffee. Perhaps, it would suit folks who preferred a milder taste. But our preference was for the overdose of sweetened condensed milk from Yakun.

But wait! OTWC redeemed itself for some damn solid tasting Garlic Toasted bread. It arrived nice and hot, which tasted pretty darn awesome, but would’ve been better if the coffee was lagi power abit la!

Bean Score:
3 1/3 out of 5. Not power enough. Try but better order the bread and food too!

Have a great long weekend!

Old Town White Coffee
Big Splash
Block B Unit #01-04/05 Big Splash
902 East Coast Parkway
Singapore 449874
www.oldtown.com.my

So we headed to Mcca’s late last wednesday for a dose of warm drinks on a rainy, chilly night.

We rocked up at the counter and made our orders of tea (TEA?! You say on a coffee blog? Well, my friends at least) and a Mochacinno. If I recall correctly, the regular size cuppa cost S$3.80 and I was looking to be disappointed, when I noted that they leave grounded beans in the doser. Boy, is this gonna suck.

Badly taken photo of Exhibit A

I took a glance at their beans ($9.00 for 200gms) and wondered if they were actually repackaged Boncafe beans.

It always delights me when baristas take the time to decorate their drinks, even if it was just a simply shaped cocoa sprinkle. I mean would you smile at ‘peppered’ drink or that?

The latte was very nicely microfoamed, no ‘pea sized’ bubbles. Peeling the foam away, revealed a chocolaty- latte-espresso coloured drink. As I sip my first sip, I was proved wrong of my initial impression.

The damn thing tasted quite nice lah! I mean I know it’s probably because of the chocolate syrup but the bottomline is, I was proven wrong and finished the drink to the last drop. Unlike all the disappointments I’ve had at the joints, this fella surprised me.

Now if only, we could get this consistency at the same joint, not to mention at any joint. I say this because my last rating of this drink at the same venue wasn’t fantastic.

Bean Score: 4 out of 5

So I was sitting at Cineleisure’s GJ’s yesterday afternoon, I tried posting this as I was there but my 4 year old Powerbook has been failing on me. USB ports that don’t detect devices, Bluetooth that doesn’t sync with my phone… it goes on…

Anyway, I plonked myself there for the first time and was pleasantly surprised they had their own Internet connection which was WAY WAY quicker than the crappy Wireless@SG at Spins across the road. My cafe latte was alright, not fantastic but also WAY better than any Starbucks or CBTL.

My complaint of this GJs, it’s too f*cking hot. In spite of the mist-fans and all, it is just too humid in there. And the thing let made me stay was the Internet speeds, plus the fact I was waiting for a movie to begin. A movie I was catching on a weekday afternoon I might add.

Peace!

This is what I got from Dome at Dempsey the other day. Ok, to be fair I had stirred this already. But the foam were the size of peas and it sure didn’t taste, smell or look like this…

Both photos taken from where my butt was at both times.

Woops! Looks like I’m nearly 2 months late reporting this…

The Singapore National Barista Championship ’08 is on again this year on the 24th and 25th of April at Singapore Expo in conjunction with Food & Hotel Asia.

1st Prize is $1,000 plus a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark for this year’s World Championships.
2nd Prize $700 Cash
3rd Prize $400 Case

Think they really need to up the prize ante. Though I think we have a long ways to go with gourmet coffee culture and baristas recognized as skilled professionals / artists. At least it is a step forward, better something than nothing I guess. But at least up the game and ante I reckon, right?

Applications closed on 15 Feb ’08. Doh!

www.singaporecoffee.org

Hi dee ho!

As promised a really long time ago, a lil’ review on the above mentioned coffee beans from down-under Melbourne. To be fair, this is really just a shout out / quickie review of Obscura’s beans. Tom’s beans only arrived at my door step in mid-January. From the dates labelled on the pack, the beans were roasted early December and I guess it was the end of year peak for the postal service that delayed the delivery. With that said, I think it would be a good assumption to gather that some of the freshness of the roast were lost in transit.

Who are Obscura? Well, read the short intro here in an earlier post, or pay their website a visit obscura.net.au

Tom sent me a little bit of everything, and each packet probably made me about 8 cups with some wastage from trial and error grinds. He included a handy taste guide (left) which described the blends. Generally, his descriptions were spot on with what I tasted. In general, crema was rather weak across the board and the beans tended to have a sharp after taste on the tongue. I will attribute that to late delivery of the beans, which was why I feel this is not a fair review. Sorry Tom, I will make this up to you when I visit victoria (cheap plug) before the end of the year I hope.

The different obscura blends

These are my general thoughts on the blends;

Bruno I assume from the name that the intent was to make this one the stronger blend. The roast was quite dark and I preferred this as an espresso (though everything is fixed with latte! 😉 )

Ma Cherie is quite a light roast with smaller beans. A bit mild for my liking but rather pleasant for those who prefer it. Definitely more doable as an espresso for my sister who doesn’t add sugar.

Dark Horse the roast on this one was equally dark as Bruno, though I notice the beans used here were of a larger variety. Though the taste guide recommends this as an espresso, I preferred this as a milk drink because the taste was a little sharper and I felt the milk took the edge of that.

Mocha had a very strong fragrance of chocolate straight out from the package. However, the aroma kinda fooled my palate as I was expecting a stronger chocolate taste. Compared to beans I got from Atomic coffee and McIvers, mocha taste was much stronger in those blends.

Bold Decaf ermm…. I didn’t try decaf for I think it is a mortal sin to decaffeinate ANYTHING! 😛

So there, ma’quickie review. As I’ve said before, I’m no connoisseur I just describe the coffees I like and dislike. This would have been a better taste taste by folks at coffee geek, if you’re looking for that… well I’m no coffee-techie here. On the flip side, I would have to sample a bit more from Obscura with a more deserving timeline and I promise to do that when I head back. cheers caffeine heads!