Archive for September, 2009
The Future of Kenya Coffee Culture Looks Bright
In this five part series, I recap my recent trip to Kenya where I sampled the up and coming coffeehouse culture Kenya. In the final part of this series I have a couple of suggestions on how Kenyan coffeehouses can continue to develop Kenya's own coffeehouse culture. Loot! Bags of Dormans Coffee Beans, originally uploaded by andai. Although I tried a number of coffeehouses, cafes and hotels, the focus of this five part series was Nairobi Java House, Dormans and Artcaffe. I have to say that out of the three, I really enjoyed my visits to Dormans and to Artcaffè. These are the two places that I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to enjoy a nice espresso. On the other hand, my visit to Nairobi Java House was not special nor memorable, at least in a positive way. The lattes, though not too bad, were not necessarily something that I would look forward to going back to get. So what was it then that drew me towards Dormans and Artcaffè and gave me a less than positive image of Nairobi Java House? [...]
Dormans is The Kenyan Coffee Powerhouse
In this five part series, I recap my recent trip to Kenya where I sampled the up and coming coffeehouse culture Kenya. In the fourth part of the series, I give compare the three, Nairobi Java House, Dormans and Artcaffè, by taking a look at Dormans Dormans Latte Art, originally uploaded by andai. In my opinion, Dormans, “the coffee experts”, was the icing on the cake of my coffee sampling trip to Kenya. Like I had mentioned in one of my previous posts, Dormans came highly recommended to me by a couple of people and as a result, this was one place I was really looking forward to trying out. Dormans actually has a number of retail locations in and around Nairobi but the one that I really liked was the Dormans retail location at The Junction. I also checked out the one located at the Yaya Centre mall and visited but did not sample at the one located at the Westgate mall. The first thing I noticed about Dormans is that they tend not to rent their own dedicated rental shop space. It seems to be [...]
Artcaffè, Another Amazing Kenyan Coffeehouse
In this five part series, I recap my recent trip to Kenya where I sampled the up and coming coffeehouse culture Kenya. In the third part, I examine the three, Nairobi Java House, Dormans and Artcaffè, continuing with Artcaffè Coffeehouse & Bakery Artcaffe at Westgate, originally uploaded by andai. The second coffeehouse I visited in Nairobi was Artcaffè, which is located at the Westgate mall in the Westlands neighborhood. Artcaffè was a place I discovered purely by chance. I knew there was a Dormans Coffeehouse at the Westgate mall and so my original intention of going there was to visit Dormans. For those of you have have yet to visit the Westgate mall, you will notice to your left, as you enter the mall through the main entrance, the open patio seating for Artcaffè. There was a sign there that actually peaked my interest because with the name, Artcaffè, the sign had the tagline, “coffeehouse and bakery”. So rather than going straight up to the 2ndfloor where Dormans is located, we [...]
Nairobi Java House, One of the Kenyan Coffee Powerhouses
In this five part series, I recap my recent trip to Kenya where I sampled the up and coming coffeehouse culture Kenya. In the second part of the series, I give compare the three, Nairobi Java House, Dormans and Artcaffè, starting with Nairobi Java House. Nairobi Java House at The Junction, originally uploaded by andai. The first coffeehouse I had the opportunity to check out while I was in Nairobi was Nairobi Java House. Originally the goal was to have gone to the Dormans, located at Yaya Centre mall in Nairobi’s Hurlingham neighborhood, but instead, I ended up at Nairobi Java House. On entering the place, I the first thing that I noticed was that the majority of the people eating at there where not actually drinking coffee or any espresso type drinks. They were instead ordering fruit juices, soda, ice cream shakes to go their burgers and French fries (or chips as they call them in Kenya). This I think was the oddest part of Nairobi Java House because from the name itself and the fact that they [...]
Espresso Culture in Kenya is Alive and Well
In this five part series, I recap my recent trip to Kenya where I sampled the up and coming coffeehouse culture Kenya. In the first part I introduce you to the three of the coffeehouses I visited and blogged about earlier Nairobi Java House Sign, originally uploaded by andai. Nairobi! A city I used to know relatively well and spend a good deal of time in. Nairobi is a place that has great beer, but one thing I knew for sure was that in the past, getting great espresso was just something else. This irony here is that Kenyan coffee was known and prized around the world too. Yes there were plenty of cafés and a couple of places that called themselves a coffeehouses and I do still remember that wonderful smell of fresh coffee that some of the places had. But these were not necessarily what I would term as the real traditional coffeehouses as we would think of today, real coffeehouses with the real coffeehouse culture that actually served proper espresso drinks were far and in-between. I remember that [...]
Exotica Serves Great LavAzza Coffee
Lavazza at Exotica, originally uploaded by andai. Exotica is a little café located in my old stomping grounds of Westland. They serve Lavazza coffee which I was pleasantly surprised to find here in Kenya. Reason being that even in Seattle, there are less than three places I can name off head that also serve Lavazza coffee beans and all three do a really lousy job of it. Now Exotica used to serve Dormans coffee beans but after the owner started traveling more and finding other coffees around the world especially in Italy, they decided that they would import Italian coffee and sell that instead. The reason for this decision was to simply bring something different to the table. This was not a condemnation of Dormans coffee beans which the folks there agreed was pretty good coffee but many places in the city served that and they simply wanted to offer something different. I asked them about Java House. They were really polite but frank with their answer. The reason they used to use Dormans instead of [...]
Dormans Espresso at The Creek Marina
The Creek Marina Latte, originally uploaded by andai. As my cousin and I were coming back from a day trip to South Coast I told her I needed to get my daily fix of espresso and that we should go to Dormans… wherever that was located. However, since we had already crossed Nyali bridge with all crazy traffic, and also since it was already past 6:00 PM she told me that it was very likely that the place would probably be already closed by the time we turned around and crossed the bridge again. But she suggested that we go to one of her favorite hangout joints that served the best cocktails in town... oh and espresso drinks too. The place she took me to is The Creek Marina. So they do serve the best cocktails in town, but what I really wanted to know is, do they serve good espresso? The waiter was nice. When we asked about their coffee, he told us that they only served espresso and cappuccino. I didn’t really want to go into the details of what he meant by espresso as opposed to cappuccino but I thought [...]
Sarova Latté at the Whitesands Beach Resort
My Sarova Three Layered Latte, originally uploaded by andai. One thing that I have noticed is that Dormans has really made a push towards becoming the dominant supplier for coffee to many eating establishments around Nairobi and Mombasa. So it was no surprise to find out that Dormans supplies all the coffee needs for the Whitesands Beach hotel. I am guessing that Dormans probably supplies coffee to the whole Sarova group of hotels of which Whitesands Beach resort is one of them. This being Mombasa and at the beginning of the tourist season, it’s pretty hot and humid... and finding a nice cool shaded place to relax with a cold drink is gold. But for those of you who know me by know me, the heat and humidity here is certainly not going to stop me from trying out one of the lattes here. It turns out I actually ordered two lattes in a row... and an hour later I was very awake and alert! The first latte was served in a nice espresso glass cup. It looked really beautiful, not from latte art, but because it [...]
Artcaffè Excellence at the Westgate Mall
Artcaffe Latte, originally uploaded by andai. This particular Saturday afternoon, I had some business that I needed to take care of at the Westgate mall. And since I hadn’t yet had my latte for the day, I thought I might as well kill two birds with one stone by picking up a latte while I was there. I knew that both Nairobi Java House and Dormans had retail spaces in this mall. And after my great experience with the Dormans coffee bar at The Junction mall the day before, the choice was pretty clear which of the two I intended to visit. By the way, I don’t know who came up with that expression, “kill two birds with one stone” but I can assure you that no birds (or animals for that matter) were hurt during my visit to the Westgate mall. Just like the Dormans at the Yaya Centre, the Dormans at Westgate is located, not in a retail shop, but is run as a large espresso stand on the 2nd or 3rd floor court area of the Westgate Mall. By the way, the malls in Kenya tend not to have food courts like they do [...]
Dormans are The Coffee Experts at The Junction.
Dormans Latte Art, originally uploaded by andai. After my initial, slightly less than optimal experience at Nairobi Java House, I was really interested in trying out a proper, no nonsense coffeehouse. Not a place where they had a kitchen to prepare and serve café style food and stuff. From everything I had heard and from the little I had seen, I knew that Dormans, ‘The Coffee Experts’, was the place to go. And since I was staying relatively close to The Junction mall, I decided there is where I would go to try my first Dormans latte. Now before I dive into my Dormans experience, let me start by laying down a little background about how I became familiar with Dormans, roaster and coffeehouse. A couple of years ago I was searching on the internet for coffeehouses in Kenya. I was not really expecting to find much, so it was a pleasant surprise when I discovered the Nairobi Java House website. This was clearly something new in Kenya... new beyond the traditional coffeehouses that Nairobi used to have, [...]