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| Harrods' coffee |
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| Harrods Espresso Machine |
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| Harrods whole beans and ground coffee |
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| Harrods Beans |
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| Harrods Beans |
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| Harrods' blend coffee |
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| Harrods Probat Roaster Machine |
Harrods was my girl trip mates' top pilgrimage spot. This was really a good place for shopping. The interior design was grand and comfortable for shopping. I could see that the product displays were kept filling up whenever there was a gap, so that you always feel you could have your products any time you want and Harrods was full of glamorous products for you.
Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately), this was a spot designed for those girl trip mates so that they were busy enough when my male friend and I could go to see Premier League. We briefly stayed at Harrods for a moment and had to rush to Fulham to see Fulham v Hotspur match. When I saw the coffee counter, the baristors were very busy, the ecliptic coffee bar was filled up fully by coffee lovers and there was a very long queue awaiting for the next seat of the bar. I wished that I had a little more of time to have a cup of cappuccino there. And I couldn't. Thus, I looked around instead. At first, I did not expect too much from Harrods. Harrods is a high market department store. The scope of its business is just so broad that I doubt if Harrods would pay any attention to coffee. However, I found that I might be wrong.
It was no surprise to have elegant display of coffee products in a high market department store. But I found a very big Probat roaster!!! This Probat was even larger than the one I saw in Glitch, Tokyo. So, this implied the sales volume and consumption should be a whole lot bigger in Harrods than in Glitch. Or, no beans could be kept roasting day in and day out at the spot and the roasted beans would be sitting on the display and got rotted. This coffee roasting showmanship was not only the attraction to the high market normal consumers in London (I guess most of them talking more about wine and tea than coffee). This was also a big plus to me, a amateur coffee lover. I quickly moved to the coffee corner and looked for some beans to buy for myself. There were numerous beans displayed. Whole beans, ground beans, single origin and Harrods' designed blends. Of course, I preferred single origin. Between Columbia and Blue Mountain, I finally picked up Blue Mountain. Blue Mountain was a legend to me. I was taught this was the no. 1 coffee in the world when I was young. Blue Mountain was also the most expensive cup in Pokka Cafe (I worked there in summer holiday). I had 1 or 2 cups Blue Mountain when I was a teenage if I remember correctly. The cup was clean, the coffee was not strong and I could not sense too much acidity. During those days in Hong Kong, Hong Kongers were still soaked in Nestle instant coffee, Hong Kong style coffee in "Eastern and Western restaurants" and Starbucks for those who had "higher" taste in coffee.
I saw the roast was light-medium and 250g for 9 pounds. OMG, Harrods might be coffee know-how and really not tried to screw you with artificially high prices? I wished the beans to be roasted on spot by Probat. But, I was told only Harrods' blends were roasted there. So, no chance.
After coming back to Hong Kong, I quickly finished the left-over beans by Japan Blue Bottle (a gift from my lovely colleague) and opened Harrods' Blue Mountain. I brewed myself 3 cups by pull over method before writing this post to make sure the quality of Harrods' beans have been fully appraised.
I brewed:
- Hario V60 (copper), 15g, 225g water, continuous slow pouring of 94C water
- Kalita 102 (ceramic), 20g, 300g water, continuous slow pouring of 94C water
- Kalita 102 (ceramic), 15g, 30g-30g-30g (40%) + 135g (60%) 94C water, by Tetsu san's 4-6 method
All three cups gave the tastes in accordance with the taste notes on the bag, floral aroma, sweet grapefruit and clean with some small deviations between them due to the different brewing method and drippers. Overall, I was highly satisfied with the cup quality. You know, I tried specialty coffee (single origin beans by hand brewing methods) whenever possible in Hong Kong and I have done quite a number of brew myself of single origin beans. Supposingly, the taste of specialty coffee should be complex and intricate. I found that the taste was broadly similar, usually with accent acidity in a similar manner. After these years, I returned to Blue Mountain. I think I can comprehend much more of Blue Mountain. When I was newbie, the lightly clean cup might not taste exciting. Whenever you are new and something is very famous, you expect the famous things to be very outstanding in terms of strength. And now, I can see the value of cleanliness and lightness.
I saw blooms in the 3 brews. The coffee beans were still pretty fresh. I guessed Harrods' sales turnover should be far more faster than I imagined. May be Londoners really love coffee?
If you are a Londoner or happen to be around London, you can really pick a bag of Harrods' beans.
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