Although I have been drinking lots of coffees over the past months, no new ratings have been posted to my blog. The reason for this is simply that I have been neglecting my blog for a long time, but it’s time to step up now. And the place I’d wish to start with, is the Village in Utrecht. Right around the corner from where I live, this place has opened up last February. Right on the first days I stopped by for a coffee, but struggled to formulate an opinion back then. On the one hand, I have always loved the relaxedness about the place, yet I didn’t think their espressos were any good – back then.
espresso, travel & berlin
Located in an old-fashioned market hall, where local produce as well as exotic products are being sold, this espresso bar is a good place to recover from the masses of shopping people. The espresso machiatto was on the mild side for my liking, while the espresso got completely lost in the milk of the cappuccino. They do however have various beans on offer, so that might be a solution to their mild standard bean, although I haven’t tried the other beans, all other variables were as they should be: nicely foamed and just the right amount of milk.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.