4th Floor Drip Bar, Bangkok

Coffee is making the old new again.

With a sharp knife and a spoon, Worawut Joowattanapong carefully places a single freshly plucked bergamot leaf on the frothy surface of the drink. Named after the dried Thai dates (intapalum) that the home-brewed black coffee is infused with, this concoction isn’t whipped up by a cocktail shaker-swinging mixologist but by a barista with a flair for the whimsy.

Joowattanapong, who is the owner of 4th Floor Drip Bar along the tree-lined Soi Sukhumvit 26 in Bangkok, had been in the coffee business for eight years, including a stint at local coffee roastery Roots, when he decided it was time for a change.

The charming wood-lined 4th Floor Drip Bar is suffused with plenty of natural sunlight. Various tea and coffee brewing equipment as well as grinders are part of the décor. It’s clear the bar is a playground for Joowattanapong. This is where he can put his years of experience brewing coffee and tea — and put a uniquely Thai twist to the results.

Take his signature drink called Toob-Tub: home-brewed milk coffee with peanut, chocolate and Thai-style toffee sauce – his take on a traditional Thai snack that’s also called toob-tub. It’s a street food, a candy made from hammering crunchy bits of peanuts.

Arunothai is inspired by a mix of both loy kaew (chilled fruits in spiced syrup) and nam kang sai (Thai shaved ice): peeled white grapes, jackfruit, sugar palm fruit and butterfly pea flower granita, all topped with slivers of orange peel.

To make Kobori, he slowly whisks matcha the traditional way before pouring the foamy green tea over vanilla bean ice cream. He finishes by drizzling some homemade lemon-orange wasabi syrup on top. Simply beautiful.

4th Floor Drip Bar 坐落於Sukhumvit 26 街，
顧名思義的，想要拜訪這家咖啡館，你得爬幾層樓梯。
來到咖啡館，推開木門，入眼的是木質小桌椅配上簡潔明亮的環境，
雖然佈置簡單，卻也舒適幽靜。
老闆在咖啡業已有八九年的經驗，
除了當過咖啡師，也曾烘過豆子，
還到咖啡園和咖啡農一起工作過，對咖啡的流程可說十分熟悉。
而多才多藝的他除了沖泡咖啡外，
對無酒精雞尾酒也很拿手，不時會有一些新鮮特調。

據老闆透露，這些特調的靈感都來自泰國的一些傳統飲料和食品。
例如我們喝到的這份西瓜汁飲料，
靈感就是來自他小時候居住的小漁村，
當地的居民會用西瓜配飯，而這道特調便以西瓜汁，
搭配上一些米餅碎以及些許的炸紅蔥頭，口味非常的特別。
Toob-tub 則是一杯以同名泰國花生小吃為名的特調，
以手沖咖啡配搭牛奶和花生粉，非常新鮮。
除了味道不錯外，這裡每一杯特調的賣相也做得非常誘人，
每次到訪時我總愛走到吧檯那，
看著老闆將一些普通的食材，慢慢變化出一杯杯精緻的飲料，
也是一件非常有趣的事呢。