Friday, August 6, 2010

Caffeinated Cappuccino Me!

Before I was working at Elken, which was … about … 4.5 years back, I totally hated coffee because I dislike anything bitter and coffee was bitter to me. Extremely.

So working at Elken, they have their own coffee called Elicafe which was the first coffee I’ve ever liked. Everyday at 3pm, the nice coffee lady who goes around pouring all the Elkenians coffee will be at the department I worked for and when she came to pour my then colleagues coffee, it smelt so damn good. So one day, I had to try.

Surprisingly, the first sip was good. It wasn’t bitter at all and I totally loved it because it was not thick and heavy. Instead it was just nice, sweet and light and I realized that is just how I liked it. So, from then on I was very eager to have the nice coffee lady coming around my department pouring me coffee.

There was no turning back. I was hooked.

When I resigned from Elken, I used all my point claims to get boxes and boxes of Elicafe because I knew I had to stock them up as I wont be getting anymore free coffee at 3pm where ever I was going to work at but they only lasted me 3 months and I had to find a replacement. So now, my daily coffee fix would be Old Town 3 in 1 classic mix and during the weekends, I’ll treat myself to Starbucks.

Starbucks-1

If time permits, I will usually take an hour off during the weekend to visit my usual coffee place, Starbucks. I’ve tried a number of places but Starbucks is my favorite because I needed the peacefulness of the place (Midvalley’s outlet excluded), the comfort of their sofa plus their awesome Cappuccino (hot please!). I am very particular about my coffee actually. I still do not like the bitter ones, thick ones or weird ones. I just like my coffee to be light, foamy (a bit), with milk, and sweet. So, Starbucks is still one of my favorites and I won’t be able to live without visiting them for at least an hour during the weekend. Starbucks is my Zen place.

The next best coffee outlet I would say is Dome. I’ve never tried Dome’s cappuccino before but the other day when I was at Midvalley, I made a detour to Dome as Starbucks was freaking packed! Not a nice place to chill..Seriously!

Dome-1

Dome’s cappuccino is a tad bit better than Starbucks and at the same price too (RM10). However, I didn’t like the fact that the cup was smaller than Starbucks tall cup. Same price and all, but quantity much lesser. I love the place though. It’s like a place for everyone to just shut up and read newspaper. You’ll never hear them laugh out loud or hear conversations you don’t want to hear. Dome is definitely my type of Zen place but because it is at Midvalley and the cup is smaller than Starbucks, my usual Starbucks at Pearl Point won over a hundred times.

So Starbucks & Dome are yes yes to me but where are my no no places?

Two bad experiences I’ve got to share are Delicious and Austin Chase at Midvalley.

First would be Delicious. We had a bit of waiting to do before the movie starts and I needed my coffee fix so I wanted to try Delicious cappuccino and I had the most horrible coffee experience ever!

First, I would like to highlight something totally unrelated to the coffee. The manager of the place looked like some cina apek with no teeth who belonged to Petaling Street. He seriously could have passed off as a vcd seller or some old Chinese gangster. My drink came and it was nothing but foam! Everyone knows that cappuccino comes with a thin layer of foam but when my drink came, I was actually drinking foam than any coffee at all. I was scooping all the foam out, trying to look for my coffee and the fact that I was doing that, was already making me impatient, cranky and frustrated as I needed my coffee badly and a place like Delicious should very well have higher service, food & beverage standards.

So I asked the manager, what was this cup of thing they gave me and the moment he opened his mouth, I was shocked because he has no teeth! Well, if you call decayed blackish teeth, teeth, I don’t know what it was. So, he actually gave me the whole story of how cappuccino is made but I did not care because I did not go there to drink foam. What annoyed me the most was that he assumed I didn’t know what I ordered and told me that that is the standard way of making cappuccino, which was 70% foam and 30% coffee. WTF! In the end, I didn’t get my coffee because I refused to drink foam and had to rush off to cinema as we were almost late! Oh, and I had to pay for that cup of foam so I think that Delicious at Midvalley really sucks.

Austin-Chase-1

Second and last (I do hope so) will be Austin Chase at Midvalley. This has nothing to do with what I experienced at Delicious. In fact the people are very friendly, the place is actually very nice and comforting. Quiet too, which is how I like my coffee place to be but, I didn’t like the cappuccino.

Austin-Chase-2

It wasn’t light and sweet but thick and bitter. Their coffee is the opposite of Starbucks actually. It’s dark and heavy. No, I didn’t weigh them or look at their raw beans but by tasting their cappuccino I sort of figured that out. Although, the coffee isn’t my cup of tea (ironic) but I am very sure that genuine dark coffee lovers would love that place because of the ambience.

Austin-Chase-3

Baby loved his Famous Amos crunched coffee though :)

Now, how did I end up writing such a long post about coffee? LOL

3 comments:

  1. Are you crazy??? RM10 for a cup of coffee??!!! That's like the biggest rip off. We only pay like $3.50 here in Oz ... Man, come over and I'll take you to some good coffee too ...

    You got to try San Churros ...!!

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  2. Babe,

    Try Dr.Cafe Coffee @ Solaris Mont Kiara! - http://www.dr-cafe.com/

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  3. Hey Jo, isnt it the same converted? $3.50 is more than RM10 here la!

    Yien, too far my hse la..lol

    ReplyDelete