H
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idden away at
the edge of Carpenter Street, you might be wondering why such a small café might
be full (It’s not just because they only have three tables). Being a café located
in the part of town where cafés are usually designed as “tourist bait”, selling
expensive foreign coffee equivalent to black watery dirt and faking their way
into unsuspecting hearts with their “local” decor, Kuching-ites may feel wary
in trusting just any café. Besides, who could blame them?
If you can
suspend your scepticism and stop by to soak in the stained columns, white
coated walls and charming setup, this shop which epitomises Classic Kuching
might just entice you to grab a seat. If you have, you might have also been
enticed to grab a cup of coffee. Once you’ve had your coffee and taken your
first sip, congratulations! You now understand why so many stay and why it’s
worth the wait even when this place is full. You now understand that this is
not just any “tourist bait”. Quite the opposite. You’re experiencing the real
deal of what Local Sarawak Coffee is like.
Opened in 2001,
Black Bean has managed to take local Liberica coffee beans to new heights by
steering away from the norm of promoting Arabica beans. Arabica beans have
rightly so been the Coffee species of choice, yielding a large array of different
flavour and aroma profiles. What Liberica beans do provide though is a
different matter. Not better, but different. What kind of different though? The
good kind of different.
Unlike beans
that we are used to that are pre-roasted and packed for us, Black Bean is one
of the two prominent cafés that roast their own beans. What in-house roasting
does is present us with a flavour that is exactly the way the owner intended for
us to taste. It is the attention to detail from the way these beans are
personally picked after acquiring them from a local plantation, to the way it
is roasted to form the flavour you are picking up with your palates.
Now the way you’ll
want to pick up these flavours starts from a single cup of espresso which is
the base for our favourite coffee drinks. The water to coffee ratio in the
espresso here is estimated to be 1:3 so it makes for easier drinking and upon
first sip, you will want to take a whiff of your coffee before spraying it on
your tongue by said sipping.
Before we
continue, I might add that it takes years to pick up all the notes from your
cup of coffee and though I do not have the experience, I can do my best tell
you what most of us who are not coffee aficionados might pick up.
You will be able
to pick up hints of berry and nutty aromas while the flavour spraying your
tongue will carry an earthy and mildly dark chocolaty flavour. It must be noted
as well that this espresso is a blend of Liberica and Robusta and the latter
brings about a pleasant bitterness that we are so fond of in our coffee. This
is only possible due to the care that is taken from the roasting process all
the way to manually pulling the espresso unlike many cafés you might encounter.
You will not find many places in Kuching that not only do this, but proudly
serve beans that make up 2% of coffee produced in the world.
There are many
things that could have gone wrong with this cup, but for all the things that
could have gone wrong.. What Black Bean has done by no easy feat, is create a good
cup of coffee.
Now because the
base of your coffee is done right, we know that we do not have to worry too
much about how the rest of our coffee choices will turn out.
As for these
choices, you may choose to add brown sugar which is a good additive if you like
something a little sweeter while adding a fuller body, or even milk that Black
Bean does well to add enough of said flavour and body that you require to
enhance your coffee experience.
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| Iced Latte |
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| Iced Cappucino |
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| Cappucino |
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| Latte |
Black Bean is open from Monday to Saturday and from 9:00am to 6:00pm.
You may find them using the following Google Map Location found below and if you have liked reading this post, please like, share and comment to share your views! Much Love!
