Bagels & Beans, Amsterdam (Koningsplein)

28.04.2011 //
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I am slowly developing a theory, where all outlets of Bagels & Beans within Amsterdam’s city limits provide a rather different quality in contrast to shops elsewhere. Although it’s been high-ranking in various tests with some branches, I get served a really, really bitter, over-extracted espresso machiatto with too much milk (which, in this case, helped partly mask the terrible flavours) and foam of the kind which resembles the surface of the moon. Luckily, the lack of wifi, as opposed to free wifi in other stores, toilets for which you have to pay, as opposed to other stores offering free toilets and unfriendly staff are all in line with the ‘quality’ of coffee. Just stick with the books of Selexyz.

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Röst.art, Bochum

27.04.2011 //
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I stumbled upon this place as it was advertised on a sign in the nearby Rathaus metro station as Kaffeerösterei. With my last cup already some seven hours behind me, I couldn’t resist. The place was nicely set up, with a mixture of comfortable chairs and not-so-soft yet properly shaped modern chairs, which looked really nice.

My espresso machiatto was quite good in fact. Properly foamed and a decent shot of espresso. The main issue here was that the drink itself was something in between of a machiatto and a cappuccino, with a little too much milk.

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Bagels & Beans, Almere

25.04.2011 //
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On the square, which is in plenty supply of Asian restaurants, Bagels & Beans was the first place I dropped by more every now and then. After my brother and parents had helped me move, I found it the perfect place to regain strength with coffee and a bagel. Or like today, so that I can make use of their free wifi while enjoying a cup of coffee.

The cappuccinos have always been rather good, with a very rich and nearly creamy foam and a nice and powerful shot of espresso. In my experience, staff here wants to produce constant quality, something which not all outlets of this chain are able to do. Minor annoyance was the wifi being terribly slow.

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Marx O’ Larry’s, Almere

18.04.2011 //
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Whenever an Italian ice cream and espresso store pops up, I always wonder what their focus will be on. Although some stores actually choose to sell good, Italian-style espresso, a lot of storekeepers tend to think along the lines of “when I’m selling Italian ice cream, I should also sell coffee: espresso is Italian.” Sure enough, I understand the line of thought, but on the other hand: you don’t expect an ice cream shop to sell pizza and pasta, nor do I expect good quality coffee at most pizza places.

The first thing I noticed when they were building the interior of this store, is the clear and unmistakable separation of the desk from which they sell ice cream and their coffee corner: ice cream along the left of the store, espresso on the right, while the back half of the store is used only for seating. Staff either prepares espresso, or ice cream: not both. A clear plus.

My cappuccino was quite nice. The foam was in fact really good, although it might have been a few degrees too hot. It seems to me, it is the bean used, branded ‘Kimbo’, lacks spice. It more or less drowns in the milk, by which this place loses at least one cup.

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Victor’s Espressobar, Haarlem

17.04.2011 //
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Lacking seats at Anne&Max on this Good Friday, we sat down in this espressobar, conveniently located halfway the train station and the city’s centre. My “double cappuccino” was quite good, but the regular cappuccino was a bland cup of coffee. Besides, from a participant of the Dutch Barista Championships, I’d expect excellent foam, but only got mediocre foam. Together with the somewhat chaotic interior in the store, this place is just missing the beat at everything they do.

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Coffee Town, Hagen

16.04.2011 //
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“Best in town” is what’s they are screaming from the building’s front. Sure enough, that seems like a good reason to go in and test the truth behind such a claim. And in fact, the foam was rather good and nearly creamy. However, that’s just about the only thing they’re good at. In an attempt to show their skills, they poured way too much of the nice foam and milk over the single espresso, leaving me to look for it. On top of that, they put a whole lot of cacao over the drink. If you’ll be ordering your coffee here, be sure to teach them a lesson by asking for less milk and no cacao. You might get something decent.

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Häagen-Dazs, Bonn

15.04.2011 //
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With the Haagen-Dasz shops, there are always two sides of the story. First, they are all part of the same, large, international chain of Haagen-Dasz shops, which always leads to less motivated staff, just working to get paid. On the other side, they are using a high-quality bean which tends to be rather forgiving of mistakes. Sadly, it was the bean itself which had to keep the barista from failing hard. Although it was a drinkable beverage, it wasn’t even close to an excellent cup. Huge bubbles in the milk foam made for a bad first impression, and the milk covered up most of the coffee’s taste. Lacking better shops (that I knew of), you might get your caffeine shot here. Nonetheless, I would advise to keep an eye open for something better.

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Cafetiero, Köln

14.04.2011 //
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Walking back from Barista to the city centre, I stumbled upon this, luring me in with the tagline “Kaffeekultur” on the building. Obviously having visited Starbucks for inspiration, they did manage to produce a decent cappuccino. Nothing special and too mild for my own personal taste, but still okay anyway. Having said that, the quality of baristas does tend to vary broadly at shops like this, so I might’ve just been lucky.

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Barista, Köln

13.04.2011 //
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As I’ve read good things about this place on the internet, I decided to make my way out of the city’s centre to this place, but can only say I am enttäuscht. The milk was not hot enough, all I tasted was a cup of warm milk: the kind of cup you have a kid drink if he can’t sleep at night. The espresso shot that they did put in, drowned in the milk. A better description of the drink they served me would have been: “warm milk with a hint of coffee.

On a later visit, my experience was a lot better, showing at least a passion for coffee.

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