This year, the Tong Chong Street Market Coffee Festival has gathered a variety of single origin beans from Africa and Central America, from countries such as Ethiopia, Colombia, Kenya, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil and Rwanda, and among them, the champion of World Coffee Roasting Championship.
Coincidentally, this year's coffee beans are baked in a light and medium way, and the V60 hand-washing pots, siphon pots, Aeropress and other means were used to produce handmade coffee, allowing the beans to express in its purest forms, as well as letting your taste buds enjoy the rich floral and citrus, berry or nutty flavours.
This year's highlight is surely Black Sugar Coffee. Hailing from Ho Man Tin, this coffee shop employs a cute Shiba Inu as its star resident, and will also feature the Ugandan sundried sungle bean “Mzungu”, which was made famous by Rubens Gardelli, the champion of 2017 World Coffee Roasting Championship. Geisha coffee beans are generally used in the competition, but Rubens has instead travelled to the coffee estates in Uganda, and worked with local farmers in order to improve the problems of fermentation. He succeeded in creating the first ever batch of sundried beans in the history of the country (previously only washed beans before), and has in turn helped to promote Uganda coffee business as well. This single-origin bean has a score of 93.5 points, and boasts a unique baking technique which requires a long time and a sense of balance in order to make the flavours more diversified. The Ugandan coffee now include delectable flavours such as cherry, prune, blueberry, black chocolate, kiwi and rum, impressing coffee lovers around the world.
The New Zealand independent coffee roasting brand Coffee Supreme, which can be found in Elixir, a coffee shop in Causeway Bay, is also definitely worth a try. The brand was conceived in Wellington, New Zealand in 1993. The stores not only can be found everywhere in Australia and New Zealand, but has also set foot in Asia for the first time last year with a branch in Shibuya, Tokyo. The brand design oozes a retro style, the image and its roasting style are also very apparent. The coffee shop provides Kenya's single-origin beans, which features clear fresh flavours of blood oranges and grapefruit.
A must-have for coffee fans is the cold-brew coffee It’s Colulmbian, a brand rich in cocoa and citrus aromas created by Mario, a Colombian currently residing in Hong Kong. Coffee Concentrate is another coffee brand worth looking out for, which was created by the British brand Rapha, a brand founded by road bike lovers.