2021 Year in Review — Blog

Intro

I guess no one will disagree with me that 2021 has proved to be just another challenging year. The pandemic has lasted for too long and we are often told to just “hang in there”. But how?

Coffee is something that keeps us going. When we are happy, we drink coffee. When we feel uncertain, we drink coffee. When we get angry, we drink coffee too. In the coffee we trust, I want to do this wrap-up and present you my “2021 Coffee in Review”.

This is my second year to do such a review. You can find my 2020 review here. In the 2021 review, you may not find some “big names” like Blue Bottle and Omotesando, which were featured in my 2020 review already so I try to avoid a repeat. In 2021, I moved to Happy Valley from Mid-Levels, hence I feature quite some (new) cafes in my new neighbourhood in the 2021 review. In case you may be also wondering what’s going on in the Valley, visit my 2021 (and ongoing) digital project “Dear Happy Valley” to learn more.

Add oil! Life is good because we love good coffee.

Happy Alley Coffee Bar

OK. I may be biased and this may sound a bit sentimental. I love Happy Alley partly because I got my first cup of coffee after I moved in Happy Valley. This small local cafe is said to be one of the best in the Valley and its beans are all imported exclusively from Vienna. If the locals do love it, it can’t be wrong, right?

Casual neighbourhood cafe by day, cool bar by night – Happy Alley serves up coffee during daylight hours and simple lunch offerings. Come late afternoon, the place comes into its own as a casual bar where those in the mood for a chilled one can enjoy good happy hour deals, including for wines, whiskies and cocktails. Read more here.

BASAO

I always wanted to try this elegant cafe in Causeway Bay but it was always full of people plus a long queue of customers in waiting outside. Fortunately we dropped by the shop and happened to grab a table easily today. The cafe is famous for its fusion-style combination of coffee and tea (including Chinese tea like Da Hong Pao (大紅袍). I don’t like sweet coffee, hence coffee with tea flavour tastes pretty good for me.

The cafe is located on Pak Sha Road (白沙道), a short path in CwB that is easily neglected by many. But the whole street is really a hidden gem for CwB. There are many other fun places in the same street also for you to explore. CwB is not just about all the shopping malls. Actually, Pak Sha Road feels more like a small town in Europe. To learn more about Pak Sha Road, read here.

Sean Cafe & Lounge

Founded in 2018, Sean first opened its shop in Tsim Sha Tsui before it expanded into the Island side in 2020. Many people may recognise the beautiful shop surrounded by flowers on Jaffe Road in Causeway Bay but you may not know Sean is in fact a social enterprise as the coffee shop is proud to hire many underprivileged people, especially people with disabilities.

Drink coffee and help people. Isn’t it a fantastic idea?

Sean also has a very Instagram-friendly type of coffee and it’s called “white cloud”. You know what it means when you see the photo. Order it, post it, and your friend will ask you where you get it.

Cotton Lane Cafe

Cotton Lane Cafe is located on Min Fat Street (綿發街) in Happy Valley. That’s also where the name of the little cute coffee shop comes from, as “Min Fat” sounds like cotton (棉花) in Cantonese.

The local cafe is well known for its bagels and sandwiches (you can choose different flavors and toppings) while I find its mini-croissant with egg on cocotte (yes, very French!) better taste for me, especially for breakfast. I quite like its simplistic interior design, simple but elegant.

On the cafe’s official website, its welcome message says: “We at Cotton Lane welcome our customers to come in as guests and to leave as friends!” That sounds like the right style for a happy community in Happy Valley. Learn more here.

Arabica Coffee

In fact, this coffee chain probably needs no introduction. It’s everyone’s favorite in terms of the coffee quality. But when it comes to the price, some people may choose to complain. You get what you pay for, and Hong Kong is not a cheap place to live (and drink coffee) anyway.

Arabica has come a long way since founder Kenneth Shoji established its flagship store in the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto in 2014. The brand was introduced to Hong Kong with a flourish in 2017. One year later, Arabica also made its name in Shanghai. And it keeps expanding everywhere.

My favorite Arabica coffee shop is the one on Aberdeen Street, right across the PMQ, which served as the Central School (Queen's College) and the former Hollywood Road Police Married Quarters. I love big windows, sunshine, and good coffee. You can just sit there and do nothing for the whole cozy afternoon.

Coffeelin

Italian café by day, cocktail bar by night, Coffeelin is a Milanese-style all-day establishment designed by JJ Acuna / Bespoke Studio, that brings the coffee culture of Milan to Hong Kong’s quaint and trendy neighbourhood, Happy Valley.

Before its new branch in Happy Valley was just officially open for business this week, Coffeelin already runs a shop on High St. in Sai Ying Pan. Both the two branches now serve home-made burned cheesecake and some signature drinks like the “Misty Forest” (see third photo) and “Morning Call”, a mixture of tea and espresso. The Happy Valley branch apparently focuses more on its interior design. According to the official Facebook page of Coffeelin, the design on the walls (see last photo) is formed by Coffeelin logo into Memphis Graphic style, which the cafe hopes its local customers may feel like going back at a Milano caffè in the 1980s.

Given its popularity — already a new Instagram-popular destination in Happy Valley — it may take quite some time before you can grab a table. Good luck to that! Learn more here.

The Tiffany Blue Box Coffee

I guess the jewellery brand Tiffany can be so famous today due largely to the iconic Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film adaptation, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Have you been wondering if there is really a Tiffany’s cafe where you can go and eat? Tiffany & Co opened its first Asia flagship on One Peking Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong in late 2020, making it the first Tiffany’s Blue Box Café outside of New York City.

Going to Tiffany for coffee is not just about coffee; it’s more about the whole thing — how you feel about the decorations, the dishes, and all the Tiffany blue around you. That’s why some serious coffee critics may downplay it as the coffee there doesn’t make any strong impression. It is OK and perhaps a bit overpriced, but it can still make you happy. It’s all about a kind of “dream come true” moment, especially for fans of Audrey Hepburn, not to mention its afternoon tea set is quite Instagrammable. Read more here.

Ninetys

Ninetys is all about serious coffee quality. Being Australian in heart, the coffee chain keeps expanding from Central to Causeway Bay and it keeps winning more hearts and minds of serious coffee drinkers in Hong Kong.

The Aussie-inspired cafe boasts its own roasting room — where you can learn to roast your own coffee beans — and you can ask the waiters anything about the beans, their origin, flavour, or you can grab a bag home to brew on your own.

Elephant Grounds

Founded in Hong Kong in 2013, Elephant Grounds is a specialty coffee shop and all round brunch destination. The first Elephant Grounds was a small coffee counter with ice cream sandwiches in the back of a lifestyle shop. Today Elephant Grounds unique “Coffee n Chill” message has expanded throughout Hong Kong and beyond the city with shops in Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou as well as a franchise in Manila. Its biggest branch so far is the one on Hollywood Road with 7,000 square feet space, which feels more like a co-working space venue than just a coffee shop.

My favorite? Go for its Affogato. See more.

Espresso Alchemy

Run by Ambrose Peter Law after he learned the craft of coffee roasting in Melbourne, Espresso Alchemy started in Quarry Bay on the eastern side of Hong Kong Island and it soon expanded to the other side, Kowloon. The coffeehouse is the only wholesale coffee roaster in Hong Kong to have a Licensed Coffee Grader and a Barista Championship Judge amongst the staff to provide unparalleled roasting quality control, coffee training and bar management.

My favorite? How about getting some beans from Ethiopia and brewing them in the Gin Drinkers Bay from Kwai Chung of Hong Kong? Gin Drinkers Bay was a British military defensive area against the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong during the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941, part of the Pacific War. It was at one time described by the media as the “Oriental Maginot Line”. What you taste is more than just coffee. It’s about history. See more.

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