Posts Tagged ‘coffee’

I really want to love this place; from the attractive setting in the heart of Miami Beach to the two level “loft” feel, it has all the right elements to be a great cafe. However, whereas Luna Cafe had a problem with atmosphere, Lofty Latte lacks in the quality of coffee.

To be brutally honest, I see this place closing within a year or two, I’ve seen this happen more then once with new start-up cafes. Its right in Miami Beach, subsequently the rent can’t be that cheap. Combined with the fact they’ve done everything they could to make the place look like a professional (Starbucks) cafe, complete with custom cups, menus, and twin La Cimbali super automatics. Their website does seem to be more store oriented selling coffee related items, so perhaps that revenue combined with the cafe will keep this operation afloat. In any case the coffee leaves much to be desired.

Where to start. I ordered a cappuccino to accompany my meal and sat in the second level overlooking the cafe. My first observation was how empty the cafe was. Granted, it was a Tuesday night, but after a while I was the only one left at around 7:00pm, later some other customers arrived however I don’t see how they can make any money with the hours they’re currently open. When my cappuccino arrived, it was in a “to go” paper cup instead of a ceramic, even though I explicitly told them I would be dining in. Upon opening the lid, the foam was too light, and had the visible consistency of dish soap bubbles, no microfoam to speak of. The ratio of milk to espresso was way to high, more on the lines of a cafe latte rather than a cappuccino, in fact it felt like I was drinking hot milk with coffee flavor. The size was also annoying; a small entailed a 12oz cup, filled to the brim with only a half inch of poorly developed foam. The temperature was constant however, although I would contend the cappuccino I had previously at Luna Cafe was far better. This was more reminiscent of something I’d get at Starbucks.

So far things are not looking good for coffee in Miami, and to be honest I wasn’t expecting much to begin with. As far as I can tell, this place along with Out of the Blue, are the only two late night cafes that really peaked my interest. If worse comes to worse I guess I could stop by the Segafredo cafe, although I’m almost positive that would be a disappointment. Perhaps I should abandon my search for good coffee and re-direct my efforts towards sushi.

There is a certain stigma when dining alone, in fact I hate it. But under circumstances such as business travel it becomes unavoidable and small price to pay for a decent meal. Yesterday, I decided to have dinner at Luna Cafe, after reading some good reviews it seemed like a good Italian cafe at an excellent price point. It was more formal than I had expected, as cafe was in the name, however I was promptly seated and ordered a glass of Malbec. To my annoyance, my waiter wasn’t convinced of the authenticity of my Minnesota drivers license and thought it prudent to bring this to the attention of his manager. As I sat, waiting for my wine, I was ever aware of the two of them discussing my position as they talked amongst themselves near the kitchen entrance. I don’t mind being carded, but if I was trying to pull one over to get some booze I would have gone elsewhere, say a bar perhaps (or I would have orderd my wine on-line, I should have thought of that before I was 21 . . .). When I was in San Francisco, I was only carded once out of the dozens of wine tastings and dinners I had, and the validity of my license was never questioned. After concluding that my license was genuine, I placed my order and waited, awkwardly checking my cell phone and glancing over at the TV near the bar attempting to catch some updates on the AF447 crash. This is by far the worst part of dining alone, but has the added benefit of being able to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. I noticed some of the diners around me, especially one lady who thought it was a good idea to put ice cubes in her Chardonnay. The food was decent for the price, although the vegetables seemed undercooked a bit although the wine pared well. Then the fire alarm went off. I sat relaxed at my table as the owner assured everyone the building was safe, despite the loud automated messages to evacuate the building and to use the stairs instead of the elevators.

Since I previously wrote I would attempt to center this trip around coffee, and I wanted to end my meal on a positive note, I decided to order post-meal cappuccino. I didn’t see an espresso machine at the bar but from the label on the cup I received (and from the taste), I assume they were serving Lavazza beans. The cappuccino I received was marginal at best. I’m not a huge fan of Lavazza to begin with; despite that fact, the cappuccino had minimal foam and was topped with coco powder (which I didn’t request). The ratio of milk to espresso was far to high, and the drink was well over 160F, more on the range of 180-190F inducing a burnt taste. To top it off, they did not pre-heat their cups and the shot seemed to have been taken in haste with a bitter-watery feel in the espresso, devoid of any substantial crema. Granted, this was still miles ahead of Starbucks, however I was expecting something more from an Italian restaurant with Cafe in its name. I would go back if I had the chance, but with only two weeks back in Miami this won’t be a repeat.

Next week, I’ll be flying the Y class (NWA A319) to Miami again for another two week business trip. I admit I didn’t write a whole lot last time I visited (there wasn’t much to say), however I did mention a few restaurants I visited and made a few anecdotal comments on the food. This time around, I’ll probably visit the same places for dinner, however I’m going to make it a goal to visit some of the top rated cafes in search of a decent cup of coffee, I have an addition to feed after all. Previously, I visited Out of the Blue cafe. The food was great, however despite the good reviews the Segafredo coffee was abysmal. Hopefully this time around I’ll be able to find something palatable (and perhaps stop at the BMW motorcycle dealership), even in the June Miami heat.

One of my larger Japan purchases was a Siphon Coffee Maker, bought from a store adjacent to the Union Commerce store in Tokyo. For anyone

Pre-heating helps with the brewing time, although a good degree of patients is still required.

interested in coffee or general culinary implements, the district Union Commerce is located in (Kappabashi District I believe) is a must. At first I was planning on purchasing a chef’s knife, however after seeing the insane prices and realizing I would probably use the siphon coffee maker more anyways, I decided with the latter. I’m a coffee geek, and have been interested in trying a siphon coffee maker for quite a while. Some varieties are available on the internet however I was determined to get one made in Japan. The store had many different varieties some of which were quite massive and taller than myself. In fact part of the store looked as though it was filled with chemistry glassware, or was a meth lab in disguise. After finding someone who spoke some english, I chose the Hario 3 cup Coffee Siphon (TCA/50A). I got a few extra cloth filters, and the owner made some espresso as we waited for the bill to be totaled. The only thing I regret was purchasing the maker the second day I was in Japan, subsequently I had to lug the rather large and delicate glass instrument around for the rest of my 15 day Japan tour. In any case it was worth the pain, and amazingly I was able to carry it on the plane as it went through customs and two security checkpoints at the airport with no issue.

Although the siphon (or vacuum) method of brewing originated in France and Germany it seems Japan has, at least in recent history, taken the most interest in the brewing method. Coffee Geek has an excellent article summarizing how to brew with a siphon coffee maker, so I’ll forgo the brewing details in this post. It does take a while to brew compared to other methods, especially if your using an alcohol burner (as I am), but the result is wroth the wait, and watching the brewing process is half the fun. I’d say the finished product will be rather strong if your used to usual drip coffee, much like what you’ll get out of a French Press. The advantage from the siphon method, as far as I know, is the higher level of temperature stability along with the fact the grounds are "pre-infused" so to speak from the heated water vapor rising in the center column. My next step is to see about getting a butane burner to speed up the brewing process or perhaps getting another maker that uses the stove instead of another heat source. The maker I purchased is rather nice (and gold), so perhaps later on I can justify purchasing another one for more frequent use, after I get a decent grinder that is.

Although I still haven’t written about the first day in Tokyo, I’ll skip ahead a bit to our Ghibli Museum and Akihabara visit. The Ghibli museum was a must when we first began planning this trip and required us to purchase our tickets ahead of time as they cannot be purchased at the museum. The entire complex is located within a park, only a small sign indicates where the entrance is. We handed our voucher to the attendant standing outside the entrance, who then greeted us, talked into a two-way radio to let the front desk know we had arrived, and escorted us the the entrance. The entire process was very personalized and seemed rather odd. The complex itself is odd as well, some doors are extremely short, and generally everything is designed with children in mind. To get a better idea, I would suggest watching this video tour since we were not permitted to take pictures inside. I especially enjoyed the areas which re-created the working environments of an animation studio, which also included many original drawings and cels. In my opinion the Ghibli museum far surpassed anything Disney has in the states, everything is authentic yet directly oriented towards children.

Next on our list was Union Commerce, located in a kitchen wares district of Tokyo. I wanted to either purchase a Chef’s knife or a special type of coffee maker After struggling to find the store front, Matt was able to somehow direct us to the right location despite not having an accurate location. Although the knives at Union Commerce did look fantastic, I just could not justify the $300 for a Chef’s knife especially since I’m on a rather tight budget. The adjacent store however did have the siphon coffee maker I was looking for, which I purchased. As far as I can tell, these are only readily available in Japan and the one I purchased seemed to be a great deal. The shop attendant was very helpful despite the language barrier, and offered us both complementary espresso.

Lastly on our list was Akihabara, the electronics/anime central of Tokyo.

Some of our purchases from Akihabara.

Although we did visit Akihabara the day before, we were only able to scratch the surface of what was actually there. Both Matt and I had specific purchases in mind, so we set off looking through DVD stores. It should be noted this is a rather dangerous undertaking considering neither of us can read Kanji well, many of the stores are ero (porn) oriented. Subsequently some of the stores we left immediately, this proved to be very frustrating as we had no idea which store to visit and which to avoid. In any case I was able to find a box set and the second DVD of Bamboo Blade for an amazing price, and Matt was ale to find a few sound tracks. In keeping with the theme of Akihabara, we decided to visit a Maid Cafe after our search was over.

An advertisement for a Maid Cafe. If your walking in Akihabara, girls dressed as Maids will hand these out to promote their various cafes.

Although both of us were somewhat adverse to visiting one of these establishments, we decided we should give it a go since we were in Akihabara and it would be a good cultural experience. For those of you who don’t know what a Maid Cafe is, basically its a cafe run by waitresses dressed in French Maid costume (or cosplay), who will serve you and generally keep lonely Japanese guys company. There was a Maid Cafe somewhere that had a special To Aru Majutsu No Index/Toradora cosplay this weekend, although sadly we were unable to locate it. We did however visit another cafe, and although the experience was rather strange and uncomfortable at times (our maid did not speak any English) it was entertaining and quiet an experience. I’m not sure if would do it again, perhaps at another cafe in Tokyo, however if such a place existed at home it would not be a repeated visit. The picture is one of many adds being handed out by maids in Akihabara, although some seemed rather dubious (and expensive), as the one pictured is advertised as a “relaxation salon”. It far to late to write further, especially since tomorrow we leave for Fuji!

Obtaining a true espresso machine has been long term goal of mine, however I’ve been repeatedly thwarted by a lack of funds combined with the high prices of a true 15 bar espresso machine.

Obviously this is a picture I just grabbed from the web. My attempt at photographing my machine was a complete failure and I have no time to try again, perhaps later.

However, now that I’m happily graduated and employed and happened to see good deal on woot, I made my move.

In the past few years, my interests had shifted more toward wine and away from coffee. Although my passion for wine has not diminished and coffee seems to be making a come back as my pallet continues to change. I am by no means a coffee connoisseur, my knowledge of wine far surpasses that of coffee, although I do enjoy a well brewed cappuccino and sorely missed the wonderful coffee experiences had in France and Italy. To put it simply, I wanted something more then the bland, bitter, watered down ,”latte” and “cappuccino” you get at Starbucks or Caribou. I was hoping to get a Rancilio Silvia, as this seems to be the standard in the pro-consumer barista market. This was not an option however – over the past few years the price ballooned from a reasonable $499 to $699. At $699 the Rancilio was out of my price range, and at that level I would consider waiting and purchasing a slightly more expensive Expobar or Pasquini. $150 for the Breville seemed like quite a deal, considering new the machine goes for $400 (despite being refurbished).

Upon arrival I first examined the exterior for any scratches or blemishes, as this was a refurbished machine I expected at least a few. Surprisingly there were none to be found and all the accessories and manual seemed to be in place. I machine seemed to be well constructed, as previous reviews I read earlier mentioned. The portafilter was nice and substantial, and the steam wand was positioned on a ball joint allowing it to pivot wherever it was needed (much better then the previous Saeco I had experience with). I filled the water reservoir with purified water and turned the machine on, letting it warm up until the heat light had turned off. I then went ahead and pulled one blank shot, and continued to do so until the reservoir was near empty. The first thing I noticed was the pump was rather loud comparatively but not unbearable, especially considering how loud frothing can get. I then went ahead and tried the steam wand, as well as the hot water dispenser. Although the machine was able to produce hot water at a good rate, the steam simply was not enough to heat or froth milk. I knew there had to be something wrong, so I first removed the metal sheath used to enhance the frothing process. This did not alleviate the problem and I continued to search for the issue. Finally, I removed the tip of the steam wand, ran some steam and water through it, and replaced the tip hoping any possible obstruction had passed. This seemed to do the trick and steam began coming out at a normal rate.

I’ve been using the machine for a good month now on a daily basis and am generally pleased with the results. The pre-infusion system seems to work well, and generally pucks come out moist but not watery. As many reviews have stated before the espresso lacks the signature thick chocolate espresso goodness and has far too much crema due to the unnecessary pressurized filter basket.  It should also be noted this machine drinks quite a bit of water.  I find myself refilling the water reservoir about once every three shots.  Keep in mind this is three separate uses, and each time I pull a blank shot to warm up the portafilter and shot glasses.  As recommended, I’ve already ordered the Krups filter basket to replace the current pressurized basket that came with the machine, hopefully this will further improve my results.

This machine works well for my needs and produced espresso far superior to Starbucks and other chain cafes. Individuals looking for a machine capable of producing world-class espresso should look elsewhere. The lack of a boiler combined with the small group head just isn’t going to get to the temperature stability needed to extract top end espresso. However for those like myself who simply want a well brewed cappuccino in the morning, this is hard to beat.

UPDATE: I finally recieved my Krups filter basket in the mail the other day.  If you own this machine I would HIGHLY recomend purchasing it.  It will durastically increase the performance of the machine, and give it the ability to pull truely great 20-30sec shots.  The only downside is the performance between shots is a bit scatterd compared to before.  I would make sure you tamp each shot properly and firmly, as well as warm the portafilter and shot glasses prior to taking your first shot, this will increase the quality of your shots dramatically.