Hey guys. Today, I had the best espresso of my life.

"Ni hao! Fei xiang hao!!" I told the barista, who ran the Geisha Specialty Coffee cafe with his wife. See them here: https://www.facebook.com/GeishaSpecialtySG.

Actually, prior to the espresso, I ordered my first "Geisha" coffee, which cost 10 singapore dollahs. Don't hold me to this, but tasted like a really, really good Yirgacheffe. After the pourover, I proceeded to pick at their shelf of Yami products. The wife frantically flipped through her clearbook of price catalogues as I finally set aside a 0.1g accuracy weighing scale, a Tiamo swannecked kettle, and a dozen V01 coffee filters.

When I asked about the two roasters they had in the shop, it was then that I got the husband's attention, who only spoke through his wife, who in turn spoke English with me. Suddenly, the guy opened a shelf and showed me his green coffees. He showed me his La Esmeralda Geishas, which they packed in 1kg retail bags for home roasters. He also showed a Guatemalan maragogipe, which were large beans nearly the size of a FC roasted typica.

I asked them where they got their coffees, and the wife plainly told me, as if I wasn't familiar with it, that they bought coffees in online auctions. A question to everyone: when you have the highest bid per pound of coffee, do you get the entire lot? Or do you have the option of buying only, like, at least 60%? Because I asked again if they bid and paid for these coffees, and she said...yes! And I was like, wow, this small business can bankroll an entire lot of auction beans! She showed me the rattan sacks that had their company's name printed on it. These guys weren't kidding.

Really, it was judgmental of me to presume that only large flagship cafes and buying companies can go ahead and bid for auction coffees. Normally, these kinds of cafes have amazing interiors, lots of expats, sit in CBDs, have more two or more commercial espresso machines per shop, have memberships in Specialty Coffee Associations, and charge the price of a square restaurant meal for a pourover.

The wife told me the price per kilo of the Guatemalan they had. I told her that I should taste the Guatemalan coffee first before buying some greens. When I handed my payment to the wife, the husband waved his hand and said "free". I thanked them. It was good, but a step down from the Geisha I had earlier. Suddenly, the husband nonchalantly served an espresso and a cappuccino to me and my mom. "House blend," he said. "You try."

I took a sip. Blew my mind. Saw the entire earth. Then fell back down. FEI XIANG HAO!!!!! (very good).

It was a mix of four coffees, said the wife, and the blend was a secret. I've ordered espressi in cafes in the Philippines, Durham NC, NYC, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen (Gee coffee roasters)...this is the best espresso I've had. I liken it to the best sashimi I've ever had (in that all-Jap restaurant street in Manhattan). I defer to the experience of other members of home-barista, but trust me, you gotta try this..They used a push-button actuated espresso machine, and probably did more roasting on their 250g sample than the 4kg roaster. Yet, what a gem.

Online reviews seem to be sparse, but this 2012 blog concurs with everything I've said so far. http://4-the-love-of-food.blogspot.sg/2 ... -pour.html

As a side note, I think there's a large non-english speaking chunk of enthusiasts like this cafe that participate internally in Chinese associations, like FHC Shanghai. Hope to write for these guys on Sprudge or something. Hope to pitch an article.





The posters are from the Lasalle College of Arts at the next block. i don't know if they get a lot of customers from there, but they have an in-campus cafe. Well designed, but bad coffee.

wearashirt wrote:I asked them where they got their coffees, and the wife plainly told me, as if I wasn't familiar with it, that they bought coffees in online auctions. A question to everyone: when you have the highest bid per pound of coffee, do you get the entire lot? Or do you have the option of buying only, like, at least 60%? Because I asked again if they bid and paid for these coffees, and she said...yes! And I was like, wow, this small business can bankroll an entire lot of auction beans! She showed me the rattan sacks that had their company's name printed on it. These guys weren't kidding.

Auction lots can be pretty small, ranging from 50 pounds to 300 pounds in some cases but on up to 1000 pounds in others, but even still it's not uncommon to see smaller roasters get together to bid on the smaller lots as a group buy. The winning bidder or bidding group would buy the whole lot.

Here's a link that shows past coffee auctions from the Stoneworks specialty coffee auction site: http://coffee.stoneworks.com/auction/in ... age=recent