% Arabica / House Blend

I think I don't like bitter coffee. I prefer acidic coffee. I had espresso from % Arabica, just their house blend, which is all they sell, which is theoretically all grown in their Hawaii farm and roasted in New York. The baristas were hard at working making 8 drinks for one singular order, and the shop was busy, so he didn't seem inclined to engage in conversation, although he did offer to answer questions. The coffee took a while because he was making so many drinks, but we eventually got our coffee.

It was- I don't know. It was too bitter for me. They wrote that they were making a classic Italian-style espresso, which means dark, bitter, and sharp, but I'm unfortunately not into that. I think milk to temper the sharpness helps. The coffee was bitter and thick, with a heavy mouthfeel and a thick body, not light like the coffee from Terremoto (see last post). I just didn't like it, and it gave me that sickly feeling again.

I ended up only drinking 75% of it. I think this means that I might not like espresso on its own. I think I like a pour-over more. Maybe the lady who worked at Hyperion was right, and bitterness and acidity are inherent to espresso, and you can't cancel them out.

But maybe that experience with the Ariel Funez Natural process is replicable, and there's coffee that will taste like bright fruits and flavors. Hoffman explained that, yes, coffee does taste like fruits, ultimately, it is a fruit in itself. But the process of turning a specific of fruits into a drink you yourself drink is what makes the drink. Coffee can be a blurry view of a basket of flavor. There is the concept of flavor, there is something there, but it is obscured by a heavy haze. Great coffee isn't necessarily about what is behind that haze - yes, the actual flavors have an effect. It is however, the process that makes the difference. Someone must grow a seed into a tree in the right spot. The fruit must be sorted, and dried. Then it must be roasted to a specific tune, so the flavor is just right.

Then, the barista must grind the beans and pass water through them just right so that the work of all those people before him may show, (the following was added on 12/25/2024) and his hand is the most important. The barista was sloppy and inattentive at % Arabica, and I don't blame him. Some guy came in, ordered a combination of every drink on their menu, and walked out with 10 cups of coffee. Did the barista have a chance to use the hand he trained for so long? Or did he just have to do his job and get the client out of the door?

I don't have business advice for % Arabica, which seems quite successful with a sprawling global coffee shop empire. But if I were to have a cafe, I'd make sure I'm not selling bad coffee, to anyone.

My favorite part of this coffee was definitely the branded espresso size cup. It was very fun to have a cute little cup.