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2014-06-23
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Another café that I found people talked about most for this trip is Chye Seng Huat Hardware (CSHH). At first, I don't understand why the shop needs to keep the name of the hardware store it replaces. It was rather confusing to begin with but, like a lot of things in this world, finally people will get used to it that it is a hardware store which does not sell hardware any more but the cool coffee for hipsters. Make sense? Read the sentences more and more and you might get it… Initially I came o
Initially I came on Friday night as I saw on the internet they open everyday till late. Turnout, it's only weekend. So I came here twice just for this shop, in a way. Even that, around 8pm Friday night, a wooden shop door with glass panes was opened so I took my chance walking inside, talked to staff who still hung out in there mostly talking among themselves and they didn’t mind that I walked around a bit and took some pictures. I was impressed with the hospitality already even off hours like that Friday night.
My second visit was on Sunday evening. After entering the big steel door to the left of the wooden door, this is what I see in front of me. It's the office and roaster of Papa Palhetta, a roaster of Chye Seng Huat Hardware. To me, Papa Palheta is the “grand daddy” of third wave coffee in Singapore and still remains in business. The shop has been in business for so long which is rather impressive considering this fast changing and competitive high end coffee business of sort.Lots of "alumni" of Papa Palhetta went to work elsewhere. One clear example is founders of Nylon Coffee Roasters who worked at Papa Palhetta and Loysel Toy, also a cafe under Papa Palhetta group, earlier. Papa Palhetta is also one of the major reasons why I want to visit CSHH.
To the right, finally it's the real entrance to this CSHH. After you enter the door, you see the cash register and this sign. Again, tongue in cheek is everywhere in Singapore. It's not really my thing but if you like it…
All the signs are nice and cool on the design. Combinations of cake and coffee were rather tempting particularly on the pricing as just drinking coffee in Singapore by itself is quite pricey in my humber opinion. But I didn't have any of this offering as I just finished dinner. So I went straight to the coffee as this is what I’m here for.
To the right of my seating at the end of the counter, there are water, glass and condiment setting. Notice pieces of lemon slices in the water; I’ll come back to that later.In addition, there are a turntable and amplifier below. However, I don't think I see any LP played on that day and it sounds like the music, which is fun and mostly top 40, came from digital source, IIRC. Another hipster thing in showing vintage gears but using something help for the music. I'm not sure...
In front of me, there were two two group Synessos whcih were matched with Mazzer grinders. Another two goose neck Bonavita Kettle. Also, to my left, it's the "IT" grinder Mahlkoenig EK43, Uber boiler and a batch brew setup, the latter a nice touch for quality driven Indie cafe in this part of the world, IMHO. Wow! CSHH is fully loaded/equipped with coffee gears that make things happen!
The business must be really brisk one needs four group espresso to take care of customers! I noticed during this trip that, in Singapore, they always use one barista for espresso and another for filter coffee which is unlike most in Hong Kong that one barista did both. Some said the Singapore one is a better practice but what’s matter most is the cup quality, isn’t it?Espresso of Nuts + Bolts espresso blend showed off a clear base coffee tasting note of either Brazil or Colombia clearly once you sip it. It’s a Brazil Cerrado which is quite common in espresso blends but the other component, Tanzania Karatu which is harder to guess, for me. The cup clearly boasted a sweet grapefruit with a nice chocolate back; it didn’t have much of the roasty tone at the back. The overall tone of the cup was soft and nice, yum in a way. However, something in the cup felt strange I can't put my finger on where it comes from.
I let the barista pick a hand drip coffee for me. She picked the 'bright' offering at CSHH which is Ethiopia Sidama Suke Quto. It showed off quite a few citrus peel but very clean finish even though the cup has a bit of an overextracted tone, still drinkable though. I was impressed the barista offered me on the spot to brew a new cup for me learning that it tastes overextracted which means she trusted me even this is the first time we met. I haven't had this kinda honor, courtesy and care from barista for a long time and this is very impressive indeed the barista does care about her customers and the coffee she made, closer to what I call a true good spirit of good cafe, winning one customer one cup at a time. The place I came from some barista might not do it out of the doubt customers are abusing the barista, ego or something else. Kudo to my barista that night and hope she keeps up her good work and hospitality. Nevertheless, the cup is neither delicious nor undrinkable and again something is strange in the cup I can't quite tell. The clean finish could be an influence/twist on my taste bud of a lemon spiked water served at CSHH and I had no choice but to rinse my mouth after espresso and before this pour over to try to get more of the taste of this coffee.
At the top right in the picture below you see a cup almost full of coffee; it is a batch brew coffee which is the same type of brewed coffee that you can order as a regular coffee at Starbucks.I've never looked down on the batch brew and enjoy it immensely when I'm at any third wave cafe in North America, the birthplace of the third wave coffee. Yes, it carries a cachet of 'commercial grade' coffee unlike any other one cup preparation for filtered coffee these days that lots mistakenly called “specialty coffee”. However, this batch brew if one does the auto drip right with good bean/roast and skill, it's heavenly and a bargain to try a good coffee as the batch size is large enough, resulting in a lower margin of error is narrower than those of one cup brewings. Still it is not easy to find the person who knows and is willing to take advantage of this batch brew in this part of the world.
The batch brew cup of Brazil Alta Mogiana has a big body as expected. The coffee was roasted darker so it might fit some better with a hint of acidity only in line with the tasting note that started with Nutty, Milk Chocolate, Slight Citrus with Floral Aromatics. The good thing is it is quite clean but again this could be the influence of lemon spiked water.
The cappuccino on the bottom left get the temperature right without my prior request, a nice tough indeed. It has a good texture but still those starchy feel which seems to be a character of CP-Meiji milk from Thailand that I heard lots of complaints from Thai cafés but is now widely used in Hong Kong and Singapore.
I initially want to get Nut & Bolt back home so that I can compare how the coffee was vs. what I had at the shop due to my suspicion on "lemon spiked" water on my taste bud but they only carry Terra Firma espresso blend.The same nice barista at CSHH told me the Terra Firma is better than Nuts & Bolts blend. What I had back in Hong Kong from various baristas and rather sure hands on this Terra Firma blend was just an OK cup on a brighter side. But they feel that they can't dial in the grinder perfectly for the coffee. Thus, the taste profile was just so so at best, citrusy and bitter grapefruit something like that. Too bored for me but could be flexible enough for milk and black but more of a jack of all trait for this blend
Ethiopia Koga has the following on its tasting note: balanced, berries and sweet floral. However, I can hardly call this coffee balance. It has those a tad lighter than optimal taste with acidity like not properly ripened fruit in front and "nothing" at the back. I can accept berries and sweet floral of the tasting note but Aeropress further accentuates the acidity in the cup, typical tasting note of pressurized brew method like Aeropress, making the overall cup much less comfortable to drink vs other coffee I Aeropress before. Last night hand drip yield a much better experience so I guess this is purely for non/gentle pressure like drip and siphon.However, when cooler, the Aeropress of Ethiopia Konga's middle berry tasting note was pretty like last night but the front is lacking while the extension of the taste toward the back was better but one still feel it lacks sth vs coffee I normally had in Hong Kong. Some woody cardboard paper toward the back too. Not a clean finish and it left the dirty back in my mouth. Time for soda rinse? Another style?
When the coffee was quite old, ie 3-4 weeks post roast date, the acidity becomes more mellow which is a good thing but the coffee a bit on a rancid side due to its age which is expected. However, mixing rancidity due to its age with roasty tone at the back from the decision made by roaster to coax/force the profile into the coffee make the coffee quite unpalatable. To me CSHH almost got it right on the front and middle of the taste spectrum why doesn't CSHH do away with those roasty back that keep drinkers' mouth discomfort/felt dirty for a long time. I don't get it.
Total bill of my coffee when I'm in Singapore almost always boiled down to about S$50 give or take. It's not cheap to drink coffee in Singapore, FYI.Despite a very small sample size but a much talked about/recommended cafes I visit, these places show a good trend. Barista's enthusiasm and care for each cup to each customer are top notch and Singapore barista's forte, the thing I miss from places I visit these days, reminding me of the good old days. With enthusiasm and willingness to learn shown to me by Singapore's barista during this short trip, I'm sure Singapore will move leap and bound in coffee scene, particularly with exposures to more coffee style which should help propel the level of coffee up notches sooner than later with personnel like this, I believe.
If you want to try coffee in Singapore, Nylon is the place I can recommend, following by Chye Seng Huat Hardware if you can get pass this 'hipster' thing and decoration which was initially a no-go for me.
張貼
