Holly Brown  

This is one of the difficult notes I put up on cafe in Hong Kong. The main reason is I had a very high hope on cafes that has both well thought decoration and good coffee; it doesn't have to be that one is less likely to enjoy a nice cup of coffee in a decently decorated place. However, this is still my rule of thumb so far and Holly Brown was no exceptionMy first encounter with Holly Brown was when it opened the door to the public in early July 2010 with much fanfare. Experienced and award winning barista and a Italian descent roaster lured away from Australia join a team to open some phenomenon cafe in Hong Kong with no expense spare, sort of. I got from its default blend at the time a sort of citrus/flowery ending, making me think of Illy when I had the drink and I think to myself this may be how Illy should taste like 3 days after roasting. Only a month later, things turned south for coffee enthusiasts. The cup grew darker with ashy undertone coffee lovers talked among others if you want an ashy cup, go to Holly Brown. The blend profile stays pretty much more or less the same until these days I keep on asking myself why they won't return to its glory start.Things continued to go downhill for me at Holly Brown. I once had a cup of espresso with a "black hole" in its crema. I was once told that they hadn't adjusted the grinder and would like to serve me a new cup after I raised an issue of an acrid/undrinkable cup. I had a barista froth its milk drink with its steamer so loud so fast like a turbo boost of a hot rod car started to kick in when one revved up an engine to pass other cars but, hey, this is milk frothing, not a car racing. I had a barista continue to grind the bean into the doser that was totally full of coffee ground while wiped the old ground into the portafilter to brew espresso for me; not sure whether this is what barista does to trick its customer that it grinds the bean "on demand" which is the practice among the good Indie cafe. All these were done by recent award winning baristas.

I was very painful when I wrote this note, thinking that if I kept it to myself, nobody gets hurt. Nevertheless, Holly Brown will sink into oblivion for coffee enthusiast nobody will care and recommend having coffee at Holly Brown any more like what most coffee enthusiasts that I trust told me these days. I am actually on the verge of giving up on Holly Brown for good coffee though I'll try to visit the place to check whether they improve. So far, it's the same. The saving grace for this cafe is its freshly roasted coffee which continues to provide some nuances amidst the dark/ashy tone that has no charm at all. Mind you that my comment is pertaining to the one in Central only as I have a good experience with its K11 branch in Tsim Sha Shui though I like to try out more before I wrote about the place.

At the current state, the OK signal was given on a relative basis to those horrible cup I get from cafe that use imported bean but considering its pedigree and things, this is more or less pushing the limit I almost want to give it a crying face. I may not get a decent treatment there anymore if I drop by after writing this comments in the future. However, I would rather they know and change than they become just another cafe with a nice decoration. At least their K11 branch can give us some hope on Holly Brown. At least most of the experienced barista that joined Holly Brown with a fanfare at its opening is still there. To this end, I can only pray its K11 branch won't deteriorate like the Central branch and the Central branch improves soon.