Crema de la Crema: an espresso blog

This CGSG meetup was organised by Melvin at Highlander Coffee today at 11 am. I went late, and Adrian was already there, having finished his first Latte, which he remarked Ray the barista had made quite a nice rosetta on.

Having tried the doppios the first time round, I decided on a cafe mocha. Not as sweet as Starbuck’s, but definitely more milky. My 2nd drink was a cappuccino, a good balance between the coffee and the milk. The price for a single espresso is just $1.90. All in all, the milk drinks were an improvement over Starbuck’s. We managed to sneak in the backroom where they house a Diedrich roaster and a few coffee machines including a Gino 3 group machine, a Rancilio Silvia, & a Sunbeam EM6900. There were quite a few interesting charts; one of them was the SCAA chart of grading coffee, the number of defects, etc. Phil and Cedric made us feel entirely at ease and even showed us a video on latte art. Wow! Triple Rosettas. Phil gave us some tips on latte art as well.

Adrian announced that he’s starting a cafe soon. If you want further details, stay tuned to this blog. He’s already ordered a La Marzocco GB5. Now, people will get to taste what CGSG coffee is all about.

Cedric mentioned he favoured Jura over the Quickmill, which is one of the machines I’m looking into getting. He also mentioned that if you want a good coffee machine, to look at the roots, which is Italy. Not something I would agree on though.

With award winning coffees in my collection - a few Colombian COE’s, Gesha, ecafe Sidamo, it seems justifiable I should be getting a HX machine instead.

While the coffee was better than average Singaporean cafes, the service was a tad on the slow side. Understandable since Ray’s the only barista at the time. And he grinds on demand, meaning he measures out single serving doses into the grinder each time. With freshly roasted coffee, this is the way to go if you want good crema.

Well, KS has given in to hosting the next meetup (read previous post). I’m really looking forward to this one. Steve or KS advised we could have a cupping session. Some talk of having a conference roasting session maybe? Excellent company and excellent coffee to boot. That’s what CGSG is all about.