八天堂 Hattendo

八天堂 Hattendo 

八天堂 Hattendo MENU

八天堂 Hattendo SHOP FRONT

八天堂 Hattendo Flat White

八天堂 VS THE COFFEE ACADEMICS

On one occasion I was having lunch gathering with my colleagues at Tsim Sha Shui Habour City, I discovered this brand new coffee shop Hattendo nearby. This was from Japan, though I did not hear of it. Superficially, I believed this was one of the coffee chain in Japan. I read the menu and found its  brand selling product was sumiyaki coffee (coal roasted coffee, which was well known to me when I was young). Because of my recent knowledge on specialty coffee, I believe that I have some inherent bias towards deeply roasted coffee. The ubiquitous commercial coffee is deeply roasted to get rid of all the inherent favours of locality and bad favours due to the substandard bean quality. This dramatically changed the public's "common concept" on coffee, which is inherently black, bitter cannot be drunk without sugar and milk. This gave birth to the wave of "specialty coffee". In fact, specialty coffee is not special at all. The baristas just wanted to reclaim and return the original coffee to the consumers. That's why deeply roasted coffee does seem to me synonym of substandard coffee.
In addition to the deep roast bias, the shop was also selling green tea, formal dishes and dessert. I suspected the level of expertise in coffee from Hattendo.
I didn't expect too much for the coffee from Hattendo and I was ready I would not have another cup from this coffee chain.

I ordered a cup of flat white. The first sip did surprise me. I would not say the coffee was very best. I really tasted sumiyaki style ginseng taste. The ginseng taste tended to the bitter more but it was not bad. The taste of milk blended quite well with the sumiyaki coffee. I don't mean the taste of the two elements mixed together. In fact, you can taste them on their own. But I liked that. I would have another cup if I were to passe by again.