Hong Kong - where to go for Xmas coffee?

[triptogenetica]

So, I'll be in Hong Kong for a couple of weeks, and would like to know -

what the coffee will be like over there?

(I have this idealistic hope that they'll drink Asian coffees, and understand the provenance, and not import African and South American ones, and it'll all be lovely. But I'd rather be prepared than not).

When I was in Moscow last year, I was actually pleasantly surprised by one of the chains. They have a huge *$alike, "Koffee Haus", which apes *$ in everything including roast style. But also a smaller chain, which looks to be being squeezed out of all the good locations by fake*$, called Schokoladnitsa, where at least the coffee isn't burnt black.

But that was last year, before I knew anything about coffee really. Ah, TMC has made things difficult, certainly, but also fun...

[Neo]

It's a shame that I actually don't know about local cafes. There is a cafe called First Cup in Tsim Sha Tsui that quite a number of people talked about. I never went there before but it seems that the shop has earned a bit of reputation.
*$ and pacific coffee dominates the coffee scene here. There are loads individual shops,especially in Kowloon, but most of them are restaurants rather than a real cafe ( or coffee house?).
In fact, I usually go to my roaster's place to buy coffee beans and brew at home. They are one of the very few roasters(perhaps the only one) here that roast upon orders. If you're interested, I'll pm you the address.

[triptogenetica]

Thanks, that would be excellent - I'll have time to explore, so i should look for good coffee..

[triptogenetica]

Just thought I should update this -

I had a PM from Neo, and he gave me directions to his favorite roasters. I hope he won't mind if I reproduce his (excellent) directions here:

"This is the address of my roaster. The room aint big, but you can find what you need:P
RM 802, 8/F, WORKINGBERG COMM BULDG, 41-47 MARBLE RD, NORTH POINT, HK

Here in Hong Kong, the metro is called MTR. The island line is the blue one and North Point Station is somewhere in the middle. You can fine a map of different lines in the stations so no worries:)
Their opening hours in weekdays are from 5pm to 7:30pm, 2:30pm to 7:30pm on Sat and they're close on sundays and public holidays.
Their phone number is 8209 2898, so if you aint sure whether they're in the shop or not, feel free to phone them.
Hope that will help
Neo"

(There was a map, too. And a url - http://freshcoffeentea.no-ip.info/ or www.hkcoffee.com)


Anyway - they're truly excellent! It's an 8th floor office, really, a tiny tiny place, but they have two roasters hooked up to vents out a window, and they roast to order. I selected 2 coffees, they roasted them, and I picked them up the next day.

And it was really, really interesting coffee. (More to follow when I find a moment).