Historic Hull (1)

[walts]

Hi there. Living in historic Hull and being new to real coffee, I thought I had better suss out the potential for real coffee lovers, with special regard to 'espresso' (got it right that time).

First venture was to McCoys which has been around for a few years now. Housed in a fairly old building on the side of what used to be Princes Dock where not so many years ago hundreds of ships would dock to unload their cargo of fruit and vegetables from all around the world.

It had a nice feel to it, maybe one would call it ambience. The staff were ultra friendly and they had a fair display of freshly ground coffee beans in vaccuum bags. There was also a good selection of loose, freshly roasted beans. Kenyan Peaberry. Monsoon. Columbian. Ethiopian Mocka, to name a few.

The next thing I noticed was the espresso machine. A Gaggia E90 with manual flow control. 2 Group head. Itm looked very impressive in it's all black livery. I ordered a single shot of espresso and sat down at one of the round tables. I was not all that impressed with the marble type table top, prefering wood myself, but there was plenty of room between it and the next table, which is always a good thing. I waited about ten minutes for the espresso to arrive. It was not as hot as I would have liked it to be. It had a very thin layer of crema. There was no cinnamon brown colour, in fact it was almost colourless. There were patches where it was actually non-existent. But the taste was good. It lingered pleasantly on the palate. I detected no fruitiness or sweetness, just a good, satisfying taste of fresh coffee.

Everything it seems, evolves around the 'house blend'. I was unable to find out what that constituted, but visually there was a mix of light and dark roasts present. On the whole it was a pleasant place to visit and sup espresso. From what I have learned to date and from all the accounts I have read up on the correct way of making espresso, I would venture to say that the Barista needed a little more training on the Gaggia. I will try and include a picture of the building and of the control room. Bear with me if that fails as I am new to all this. Regards Walt.

[phil]

The proprietor of McCoys is a TMC member going by the name of "markb". Steve and I met him at a Nicaraguan cupping in London a few months ago. Very nice chap. He roasts his own in an Ambex YM2 IIRC.

Regrettably, after searching, I can find no record of Mark ever posting - in fact I don't think he's ever signed on, which is why his name doesn't appear in the forum memberlist. Jog his memory if you meet him, Walt.

I must go there next time I'm in Scunthorpe for a few days (and assuming Allyson will let me - I suppose we'll have to do some shopping).

Very nice post indeed Walt. Thank you very much for this.

[Raf]

Be sure to send a short description and the address to Phil, so that we can include it in the "UK web links", and thanks for the info, Walt!

[phil]

Raf - when Mark gets a web page up I'll be very happy to list it in our web links section. However, although he owns his domain name mccoyscoffee.co.uk, he doesn't have any web content yet. I just got a blank page when I tried.

As you were Walt, but thanks anyway.

[walts]

Okay Raf. By the way, just as a matter of interest, I particularly asked who 'McCoy' was. I was a little saddened to learn from the manageress that there was in fact, no such person. Ah well, all those intriguing thoughts that I had woven around 'McCoy' came to nothing. I did gather that the title 'McCoy' came from the belief that their coffee was the real........McCoy. whoever he might be. Regards Walt.