Friday, July 20, 2012

The Two Best Places For Real COFFEE

It used to be just WHISK @ Empire, but there's a new kid in town and they are pretty good. They call themselves ARTISAN ROAST @ ttdi, a few steps away from Boathouse and Tom, Dick and Harrys. They certainly know what they are doing, careful sourcing, all the way to roasting and the final product - please, do not put in any sugar before tasting. Very satisfying. Morning and noon opt for Americano, later into the night go for their Flat Whites. I think Lattes should be banned anyways - you might as well drink hot milk. Non-coffee drinker can opt for the refreshing Rooboist tea.

The team they have assembled are a bunch of eclectic whatchamacallits... they have singer-songwriter, college students, stockbroker, etc... The coffee is sooo good, no need sugar, its got that slight coffee sweetness that comes from not over-roasting the beans. Aroma is top notch. Easily matches the best coffees I have had in Melbourne and Sydney even.


I think they are opening end of this month their second outlet @ Bangsar Village II.

"We start with sourcing the best beans we can get our hands on. The best beans come from estates and small cooperatives and from there all the way to the barista, we need to ensure that quality is maintained. Without strict quality control, the delicate aromatics that we look for in the beans will be destroyed".























WHISK Espresso Bar + Bake Shop - Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
The other place that I still love is WHISK, at Empire and now also at One Utama. They are still the place that makes the BEST macaroons in KL by a proverbial mile. Light, airy, not crumbly and not too sweet. They also make wonderful cakes, look at them and try not to salivate. But its their coffees again that shine through, an absolute cracker.
Photo: Get your coffee game on folks ;) We've got more COE (Cup of Excellence) coming your way! 

Follow us on twitter at whisk_kl for real time updates.
Photo: The Pink Stacks™ SOLD OUT at our Empire BakeShop yesterday. It is available today and NOW at WHISK, Outpost in 1Utama! 1 slice down already. Slow and steady aint gonna win the race in this situation folks. 

Stacks of pink ombre White Chocolat flavored buttercake with our Signature Rose Buttercreme. Come Get.
Photo: The MaCakeron Stacks™ / Made to Order / A WHISK Original
Photo: WHISK Rainbow Stacks™ | Customized + Made to Order 

We don't have this on offer at the shops but is available for customized orders. This cake was made for a client who is a fan of our Signature Rose Buttercreme... The Sky's the limit at WHISK :)

Photo: Our NEW Red Velvet cupcakes are frosted with WHISK's original + signature super fresh ButterCreamCheese! People have been going mad for them at the shop + these SOLD OUT for the past two weekends. Come get 'em :)

Photo: Thank you Myra for the photo! Xx WHISK Macarons as hantaran.

24 comments:

suri said...

"Easily matches the best coffees I have had in Melbourne and Sydney even."

Oi stupid, best coffees are from Europe, not Ozzy. Where the heck you think the terms cappucino, lattes and barrista come from? But stupid fucking katak bawah tempurung like you never been there lah of course.

SalvadorDali said...

suri,

i m terribly sorry, the best coffees n i mean italian espresso based, r to be found in sydney n melbourne ... yes i have been to europe n NO, they do not have the same passion for good coffees anymore. Just go to sydney n mebourne n come n tell me their coffees r shit. U dont know what u r talking about dude.

Unknown said...

Artisan Roast barista; Alang makes the best & most consistent coffee me & my friends ever tasted =D

bruno said...

I think that the best coffee is still in the good old USA.They do not have a single tree that can bear coffee beans.But they have all the coffee from Brazil to Indonesia.Expresso,Capuchino,flavored coffee you name it you got it.By the way Starbucks also originated from good old USA,the land without a single coffee tree.

CK said...

One man's meal (drinks) is another's poison.

The best coffee in M'sian can be found in many of the soon-to-be-disappeared kopitiams all over M'sia.

They cater to the palates of the locals, with distinct local favours.

Perhaps, anglophiles or babanas, can't cultivate such a taste of local distinct, as in their mind, anything outside M'sia is best. Even foods?????

BTW, Starbucks is a marketing gimmick, so the only thing good about it is the intangible marketing creativeness. For that, u gotte to give it to the Yanks.

For those instant coffee freak, try Nanyang or First Aroma, especially the BLACK for a change, if u don't mind the little extra work to go into the preparation.

bruno said...

Sometime ago I read an article about a coffee importer from the West Coast who imported coffee beans from Indonesia.His suppliers there sold him a small bag of coffee beans collected from the droppings of Civic cats(musang).

It has a funny aroma and taste and cost US 45.00 a cup.The restauranteur whom bought the coffee from him,sold a few cups and have to drink the rest himself.Who would pay US 50.00 including tips for a cup of stinky coffee.Only people from another planet,I guess.

SalvadorDali said...

ck,

its not the best coffee ... i am refering to just the usual beans made for espresso based coffee drinks ...

i think local coffee is stupendous, pls refer to my past postings on local coffee, it is not possible to compare because the local coffee uses arabica beans n roast with sugar and sometimes butter ... its not a westernised palette or gloryfying things western, good is good..

for local coffees, i like most kopi-o in Ipoh and other small towns, for instant, I like First Class kopi-o ... nanyang is good too

Unknown said...

Why do your readers or readers of any blog for the matter have to be rude?

Even if you were wrong, so what? Terribly bad form.

This is a thankless task. But thank you for your excellent blog.

bruno said...

The dow rallied past the 75% retracement of the recent drop to be short about 50 pts of 13,000 resistance.Aussie fall short of 5 pics of 104.50 resistance.Both have hit concrete walls and since have fallen on their backs.

Will the dow rallied to 13,300 to complete a wave 2,or is the recent setback the start of a big wave 3 down.If it is the start of wave 3,the markets will fall off the cliffs.

The whole world is waiting for QE3.That will only mean one thing.The markets will sell off no matter whether QE3 takes place.The bear trap has been sprung.The only important thing is will the markets hold on until after the US presidential elections.

Wong said...

I don understand why some people could just leave very rude messages in this blog. It is just simple sharing of where to get good coffee...and i appreciate that. For "the READER" if you do not like the topic and content, you can just close the blog, no one ask you to read it...and no one actually need your comment... I don think the blog owner deserves a "stupid" from you. Shut up.

Anonymous said...

I don understand why some people could just leave very rude messages in this blog. It is just simple sharing of where to get good coffee...and i appreciate that. For "the READER" if you do not like the topic and content, you can just close the blog, no one ask you to read it...and no one actually need your comment... I don think the blog owner deserves a "stupid" from you.

bruno said...

Those who are long the market will really need the strong coffee today.Early in the morning in Asian trading the markets has fallen out of bed.

Watch dow 12,480 & 11,980.The previous rally to 13,300 could be an ABC correction into wave 2.Another drop under 11,980 will confirm that wave 3 is in full steam,with a target of under dow 6,000 in the next few years.Be very careful,guys.

Mr Bojangles said...

Know the significance of the Camel picture?

The dark sections are actually the shadows.

Almost got fooled myself.

Angry bird said...

All the war over a cup of coffee,different people in different continent have different likings due to weather''would you take ice coffee at minus i degree''and''How does 2 guys came out with the same paragraph with the same amount of words in 3 minutes',i was in Vietnam 3 months ago,coffee at own bred highland coffees were so good;but when i went to those imported outlets GLORIA JEANS n Coffee Bean',they were pale in comparisons,its like Musang King of durians to me''.Asians are better''.

Angry bird said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Subba Rao Thirumoorthy said...

Hi Dali,

Thanks for posting this, as a coffee lover my self will soon check these two places out.

Ignore/delete the rude comments.

CK said...

Dali,

I've a series of coffee doc done by the HKTV in HD. I dl'ed it quite sometime back while working in HK.

It's in Cantoness & done intelligently with solid research.

Anything on AFC pales in comparison.

It traces the history of coffee in Asia, including kopi luwak.

BTW, not many local coffee is arabica beans n roast with sugar and sometimes butter. There r Liberica coffee which has a lower yield and longer growth cycle than other coffee variety. They can be found mostly south of Malacca, in many of the local kopitiams.

Another note, Trieste, Italy, is the coffee centre of the Europe? Best coffee beans, all over the world, comes here, traded & re-distributed through out the world. Here, even expresso has many variety!

Unknown said...

Best coffee in the world comes from Italy. While the beans do come from outside the country, they tend to source the best beans, turn coffee making into a science and make most of the best coffee machines. More importantly the average Italian can afford and regularly drinks much better coffee than anybody else in the world.

It does not make sense to compare Sydney/Melbourne (a city) to Europe (a continent). That would be akin to saying that at Artisan (a cafe) you'd taste better coffee than most of USA (a country), and therefore, Malaysians drink better coffee than Americans! That is a false statement.

Furthermore, Sydney/Melbourne is no representation of Australia. A few specialist or upmarket cafes do not represent the habits of most Australians. You'd easily find many more specialist, or upmarket cafes in Italy.

So far, I have only been referring to basic coffee. Most modern Westernised cafes today serve more than just espressos and 99% of people (i.e. non baristas) simply do not drink plain black espressos. They all kinds of derivatives from macchiato, cappuccino right up to affogato; all of which require other ingredients other than coffee. Therefore, one could easily argue that quality milk is just as important an ingredient to coffee beans in order to make good coffee. Australian dairy is simply sub-standard compared to Italian, Dutch, French, Swiss ,…etc. It is therefore no surprise that not a single Australian chocolate, cheese or ice cream maker comes close to their counterparts in a Western European country (bar UK). Same is true of water and sugar, there is simply no comparison in the quality of raw ingredients between Italy and Australia.

FYI, the average Australian drinks instant coffee like Nescafe whereas almost all Italians drink ground freshly brewed Arabica, and have been doing so for the last 5 decades at least.

Origin of the beans also does not guarantee that coffee is better there. I was thoroughly disappointed that throughout Brazil it is so difficult to find a good cup of coffee. Same is true of Indonesia. Again specialist cafes in a major do not count. A country can really be said to have good coffee if the average man on the street can walk up to any small no-name coffee and get a decent brew at an affordable price.

By the way, as accurately pointed out by some others, Starbucks is basically an American marketing success. That says nothing about the quality of coffee. The Australians are doing things a bit differently and trying to convince the other countries that they make the best “quality coffee” and Malaysians are swallowing the marketing wholesale.

Meanwhile, most of the Western European countries are hardly fazed. They know quality and a few big brand names and marketing campaigns with big bucks do not easily take change things. Starbucks has a much more difficult time in Western European countries compared to Australia or Malaysia. If a giant like Starbucks has issues there, Aussie companies certainly won’t be able to compete.

My wish is that Malaysians develop our own coffee culture which we once had and stop chasing the tails of any other country.

CK said...

Bravo Ray K.1

Let me, a chikumai coffee lover, tapik u for a well written piece.

kaba said...

a long black from Pret also taste good during winter so i think weather also play important part in the taste...but i do agree in this part of KL Artisan is the best

Alamak ! said...

Each to its own. Try all n just enjoy, Women, Wine & Coffee all good. Only fools fight over them.

Izzaty Asmuni said...

If I'm not mistaken Artisan Roast's first outlet is the secluded one in Ampang? I love the atmosphere over there :)

Funky Bunch said...

Artisan Roast used to be in the secluded spot in Ampang. It was lovely. However, it was too secluded. We closed down the Ampang joint and opened in TTDI 23 Jan this year.
I pity those commenters who feel threatened by our style of coffee, perhaps it's symptomatic of the way their world is changing. We only do what we do and if it causes you no harm it shouldn't bother you.
Thank you for the write-up. Whisk also comes highly recommended by us.

THE WANDERER said...

ALANG FTW
Suri please go away! SMH.