Café de l’Ambre, Tokyo

By Kenny Mah and CK Lim


Coffee can be all black.

Why, have you ever visited a ‘pure’ café? One which did not serve any food, not even a morsel of cake – only coffee, and pure black coffee at that.

We enter this café, dimly lit like a pub, possibly a beer tavern, wondering what we have gotten ourselves into. Could we really only simply drink coffee? Deep inside is a long bar where Japanese baristas from an age that had not heard of the term ‘hipster’ take their time with their brewing.

Old Grandpa here brews coffee using a flannel, with steady hands and his eyes on his handiwork. It’s a performance, and watching him at his craft is a pleasure.

Will we be able to drink the difference?

The beans they serve here are certainly special; many of their treasured lots are older than we are, aged from years to decades.

But still: will we be able to drink the difference?

The thick aroma of strong, black coffee; the vigorous flavours; the pleasure of knowing we are drinking a brew made from beans with more years than we share: we do taste the difference, and it is glorious.

We have visited a pure café and invite you to experience this too. Taste the difference, and may it be glorious.

這是一家很‘純粹’的咖啡館;
純粹得連一點食物都沒有,除了咖啡,還是咖啡。
踏入館內,裡頭一片昏黃的燈光,加上長長的吧台,
不像一家咖啡館,反倒讓我有種來到酒吧的錯覺。
有別于一般常見的虹吸或濾斗式手沖法,這裡用的是法蘭絨。
老師傅煮咖啡時專注的神情,倒水時那穩健的雙手,
看他煮咖啡,宛如觀賞一場表演;是一種享受。
而這的咖啡豆子也很特別,不少的豆子都是‘上了年紀’的“老豆”;
從幾年到幾十年不等。
是的,幾十年,有些豆子的年紀比我還老。
渾厚的口感,濃郁的咖啡香;
是老豆子給我的第一印象,和我平時愛喝的截然不同。
如果你喜歡這種口感強烈的咖啡,
又或許對老豆子所沖煮出來的咖啡有興趣,
下次來東京時,不讓來這試試。
記得吃飽了才來喝咖啡,
因為,這是一家很純粹的咖啡館。

Café de l’Ambre カフェドランブル
8-10-15 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
h6.dion.ne.jp/~lambre

Comments

I’m glad you would like to know more about the flannel method of making coffee; I’ll try see if I can persuade Devil CK to write more, or maybe add some more myself. Watch this post in days to come! 😉

法蘭絨可以說是我最早接觸的咖啡烹煮手法。從以前保姆家到一些老咖啡店(kopitiam)都可以看到它的蹤影。
和其他烹煮手法比起來,各有特色吧。法蘭絨的過濾層較厚,燜煮的過程比濾紙更完全,透熱性也比有濾杯的好。
比起濾紙,油脂則更容易滲透法蘭絨,所以味道也許沒有濾紙來的‘乾淨’。
而且清洗和收藏也會比用過即丟的濾紙麻煩。

this would be a very cool place to open somewhere in KL. maybe in a small shoplot in taman desa, next to maruhi sakaba? 😀

ooh, the ‘barista’ here looks like he was probably also very cute about 30 years ago 😀

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