Good_Will

Where is the best coffee shop in Hong Kong - good barista, top espreso machine, freshly roasted coffee beans and fresh rather than processed milk ? Thank you

jobin

It ain't here mate. No cows allowed in HK.

Hanuman

I hope you can find your fresh milk, perhaps goat's milk as I believe I have seen goats in Hong Kong before.

In case you haven't seen these articles:

http://www.cnngo.com/hong-kong/drink...w-cafes-094590
http://www.cnngo.com/hong-kong/tags/...ffee-hong-kong

tansmets

I think the Agnes B cafes (there are a bunch around town and in the many high end shopping malls) have pretty good coffee and treats.

Good_Will

I thought fresh milk had come to HKG because I found it in Shanghai a few years back.

i also found that a coffee roasting company had been established near Beijing.

jobin

Ha, yes you are correct. Wild, at least feral, goats and cattle do wander the hills of HK. All the goats i have seen were black so probably were escapees decades ago. That might be a 'boutique' food notion. Wild HK goat cheese. Of course, someone would need to catch the nannies daily for milking and risk getting the eyeball punched out by the rude horns. The feral cattle i see in SaiKung are very approachable but again, milking the cows may be problematic. As far as the coffee, i much prefer OK convenience store coffee at HKD8 for hot and 10 for icy cold. And all the milk served at OK comes from Holland so could not be better.

sf7307

I've read this thread with amusement - I had a client who owned coffee carts in San Francisco - he told me the average person wouldn't go more than <I>half a block</I>for a cup of coffee!

Good_Will

As a generalisation, nobody in the US should go more than half a block for coffee.

I would rate Coffee in the USA as one of the most frustrating experiences of my lifetime. Carts, milk shake containers of brown water - oh what disturbing images.

Post WWII European migration into Australia brought the espresso machine of various brands based on the 1901 Bezzera invention. We then lived off packaged coffee for many years imported from Italy touched up by 10-20% robusta beans to provide crema and the false image of freshness.

After that phase was the advent of coffee roasting businesses here and today we have over 80 in Sydney alone producing roasted single origins and blends.

When I visit New York I struggle to find "coffee". The chains tend to use cremated coffee beans in what is often known as a "city roast". Otherwise they use water infused de-caf or flavored products that appeal to a certain market segment - a large one it would seem. Even Dean and Delucas stuff doesnt do it for me. So I walk down to Little Italy and see that it has shrunk since the 1980s when I lived there.

About the best I found was a place at Murray Hill but maybe they were having a good day and I was desperate.

The point of what I am saying is that I believe major cities in Asia will follow the trend that we have experienced in Australia. We have tended to take the Italian experience and possibly better it.

So in 2009 when in Shanghai I found a barista, an espresso machine, some reasonably fresh (from China) milk rather than UHT milk and was shown some coffee beans roasted at a place just outside of Beijing.

So I am in hope that my caffeine deprivation headaches may be adequately avoided when I visit Hong Kong and Bangkok soon.

I am comforted that many people now have real espresso machines in the USA and I also know that home roasting machines also sell well there. Hopefully their indulgences will impact on the market so as to eradicate the brown water generally produced from those large pods of stale pre-ground poorly roasted beans that drip through filter papers