Soft Aroma  

Dropped by Sheung Wan today to settle some payment and decided to go to Barista Jam for a coffee.

On my way to BJ, just realized that Soft Aroma has moved their store from Causeway Bay to Sheung Wan and so I decided to pay a visit. Recall from my memory, the store was much smaller than the one they had in Causeway Bay. I still remembered they serve nice spaghetti to go along with coffee. I got there at around 3:30pm and it was full of people already. As I had to share a table with other people, I decided to just grab a quick coffee.

Ginger latte was one of the coffee I have never tried before and so I decided to give it a shot. Coffee still comes with cute latte art. The taste of coffee was not too strong perhaps being cancelled out by the ginger?? But overall speaking, the tast was quite good. I personally prefer to have a stronger ginger flavor so that it will have the similar effect with ginger tea..

Time of Visit:
Weekday lunch - solo.
Food:
Maybe my expectation was a bit too high after seeing all positive comments here, I was slightly disappointed. Ordered the lunch set with Spaghetti - chicken a la king. The spaghetti itself was ok, the chicken was not tender but acceptable, but the sauce was a bit disappointed. It was very thin and "watery" and tasted like water rather than sauce..... I bet the procedure of making this would be: 1) boil the spaghetti with water, 2) add chicken and some produce together with some so-so concentrated cream sauce into the pan and add water into it (without much stirring, as water and sauce concentrated could still be easily distinguished when served), and 3) put them together. For coffee, it was good, but not outstanding enough to be ranked among the top 5 places for coffee in HK on my scoreboard. (Score for food was 2 and coffee was 4 making 3 as the average)
Services:
Friendly but slightly passive. The table was not cleaned when I sat down with quite some sugar crystals left over on it.
Environment:
Small and cozy shop, not bad.

I believe there is room for improvement for the food portion. I would prefer to pay more for an improved version of the spaghetti.

I've written my visit date as recently, but I have been visiting Soft Aroma since February 2010. Just haven't got around to writing a proper review for them.

I love my coffee. I love my Melbourne coffee. I never ever thought that I'd be able to find coffee in HK as close to 'home' like I have recently (there are 2 more other cafes that I think hits the bar too but more on that in separate entries).

Soft Aroma has quite a comfortable area, suitable for about 20 people max (I might be overestimating it). Their breakfast menu is THE most affordable and amazingly great value in the whole of Hong Kong (considering what they are serving here). Case in point, a normal cafe latte would cost about $24-$36 (hate high end coffee joint); for a very nice Croissant + Fried Egg + Cafe Latte, it'll cost you about only $31. OR, get a absolutely lovely danish + cafe latte for $27. Breakfast menu from 7am to 11am.

There are numerous comments from other reviewers of how burnt the coffee is from Soft Aroma, and unfortunately, I've experienced this a few times as well. I tend to have my coffee in a very slow pace so suits me well. But there is of course a very important rule in coffee making that you should never burn your milk as it changes the taste altogether. However, the other times that my milk wasn't burnt (and this is most of the time), it has been wonderful.

Maybe what they should invest in is a milk thermometer, as feeling the heat at the bottom of the milk jug while heating the milk can be deceiving and takes practice to get it right.

If you're interested in only getting a cafe latte, it'll cost you HKD$24 (or thereabouts).

I'll be leaving HK for a short period of time, and if any staff of Soft Aroma reads this, keep up the good work and will miss your coffee. You found home in a foreign place.

I live near here so I went there last month and I've not been back to Starbucks since. First, I always like to support local small businesses over massive chain stores but, more importantly, these guys are really cool. Service with a smile, they remember you and what you drink and they'll go out of their way to see that you enjoy your drink- even to the point of walking out from around the counter to get a straw for your iced coffee.

It's a small place, but it has a welcoming, homey vibe to it and there's always the daily papers to read there. It's also very clean which is nice.

I've never eaten there so I can't speak to the quality of the food, but the coffee is quite good. I'm a Latte or Americano drinker - always - and their's is better - and less expensive - than Starbucks. Been going there every day since I found the place.

The only disappointment I had was that once, when my PCCW wi-fi wasn't working, I could not find free wi-fi as I might otherwise find in other, larger places. Perhaps this is understandable, given the small business that they are, but I'm sure there's an affordable service for them to look into. Not really that big a deal for me though.

Overall, though, these guys are pretty good about making you feel like you made a good decision in stopping in and the coffee hasn't disappointed me yet.

Before going to my dearest friend's home for gathering, I went to the Soft Aroma nearby.
I enjoyed the comfy environment there and had a peaceful time.
The tea sets are reasonable and I ordered the toast with smoked salmon and turkey instead of ordering my usual choice, cheesecake, after having a glance over the cakes.

My coffee - honey cinnamon latte, what a cute piggy
The barista added too much cinnamon which has strong taste and a little bit would do.

The toast was warm and quite crispy.

I may go again for the green tea latte which quite a number of people recommended.

Tthough I like the coffees and their blending here before, I always knew its slightly flawed in execution but still - see that the shop's staff are friendly, serve with 'heart' and carried some potential, I therefore wrote a positive review hoping they'll improve even more! Instead, the coffees sold here have been going backwards, in other words: 不進則退 !

ESPRESSO -
I understand that at least 2-3 people make the coffees here for the customer, but despite me and others having pointed out the problem as a good gesture over and over again, sometimes - the Espresso's sold here are still way over-extracted and disgustingly watery & bitter, not to mention the lightish yellow coloured Crema conclusively indicates that the original Grind Size and/or Tampering measure is way off the mark. How can they not even notice?
Note: I actually think this particular 'blending' drinks better as a Ristretto, or at least a Shortened Espresso, but I did order the default Espresso just to test if they've improved anyway - and disappointingly, its worst than before. *rolls eyes*

CAPPUCINO -
Like BOBLAM mentioned below, the way they make their coffees here are way too hot, to the point of burning the tongue and the milk. In fact if you look closely at what I wrote last time, I tried to RELAY this message to the shop too but there has been no improvements after so many months. Actually, it got even hotter.
Temperature aside, their bigger problem sometimes lies with their drinking-in Cappucinos or Caffe Latte. They usualy have such a 'weak' espresso base, they carry next to no coffee taste nor aroma in the Mug, its worst than Starbucks. In the Take-out version however, this is usually better.
They really need to work out their coffee vs milk proportions vs cup size, correct temperatures, and quite frankly the Espresso extraction is way off the mark (1 barista here makes better coffee than others, but still a bit off )
I really didn't enjoy the tragic coffees I received of late at all.

I was thinking of dropping by Coco Espresso for my morning fix but nobody answered the phone last Saturday. The only reasonable choice in the neighborhood for me was Soft Aroma.

This time, things weren’t as rosy. Anyway, let start with good things first

The ristretto was good at the right temperature, which, for this café, means not too hot. However, I can’t sense any nuances I did vs. my last visit.

The barista and waitstaff, (the same person) was very nice and, unlike her boss, tried hard to show she really cared for the customer.

Now, the complaints

Drink’s temperature: Same as my last visit, the temperature was the problem. The Cappuccino was served way pass its temperature range and could scald my mouth if I drank a bit faster. I ordered another one and told the barista the first one was way too hot. The second Capp arrived at the same temperature range. Of course, both Capp had nothing in the department of velvety texture and sweetness that one should look for while a new unpleasant ‘flavor’ was added, a ‘milky’ taste once it cooled down only a bit. I blamed it on the high temp they used to make a nice appearance at the expense of the good drink. The milk used that day was Australia’ Pura.

Ristretto ordering and attitude of its supervisor: I managed to get one but I had to take quite a bit of the attitude from the ‘supervisor’ on that day. My guess is he may be frustrated as I’m particular on the milk drink, i.e. my two successive order of capps will result in only one payment due to temperature (I should have paid for one drink due to the nature of the drink but I decide to pay for both). Or this could be just his attitude as he asked me “what do you want?” after I informed his barista I liked a ristretto or espresso with “less water.” This makes it more difficult for me to recommend this café to anyone. At any rate, if this supervisor would like to be in a restaurant/hospitality business, he should leave his attitude at home no matter his customer is right or wrong.

Food: I had a thick cut toast and the texture was really so so it could only be passable as something to cut down the effect of caffeine that upset my stomach. Lots of improvements are needed and, at the current stage, its food offerings are nowhere near half as good as Felix’s Café Corridor.

Ambience: Nice western deco with Chinese undertones but the coldest treatment to its patrons vs. nearby cafés including Café Little and Coco Espresso.

In all, I have to downgrade this café due to
1.No improvement on temperature of milk based drink
2.Attitude of the waitstaff

To conclude, I suggest this café for espresso/ristretto only (if you can manage to order it and bypass the ‘attitude’ the waitstaff might give it to you). The significant supporting factor for this is the freshly roasted coffee bean that is in use at this café.

Take other offerings, including milk beverage and food, at your own risk unless you like scalding hot beverage (local palette, I guess) and Chinese style western food.

Try to order things ‘mainstream’ and exactly to the ‘t”, ie whatever available on the chalkboard. Otherwise, one risks oneself getting the attitude from the waitstaff. Nevertheless, I still believe you should get a better treatment for something not on the menu if Rango, the owner, is around.

I have a nice tea set on last Saturday afternoon. The place is very good. Food is good.

I ordered a Toast set with a latte. My friend ordered Instant noodle with fresh brewed coffee.

The toast is perfect, freshly baked. The instant noodle with some food. Very good price.

The latte is not bad. The foamed milk is quite smooth. The espresso base is just ok. For the latte, you can see how much heart they have put into it. Have a look to my photo.

Sheung Wan seems to become a hot bed for Indie café these days with at least three cafés in the area including Soft Aroma, Café Little and Coco Espresso.

One good thing is that I had coffee at both Soft Aroma and Café Little before a while back and didn’t bother to recommend these cafes at all. The main reason is that, despite their Indie’s cache, they were once not up to the standard. This was not a strange phenomenon as it happens all the time in the US. Nevertheless, the positive comments these days on these cafés so much so that I like to try it once, actually twice.

After I finished my breakfast and delicious Cappuccino at Coco Espresso, thanks to Morris – the barista at the time at Coco, I stumbled into Soft Aroma on my way to the MTR. So, why not trying it out.

I had an espresso at Soft Aroma on Saturday afternoon and boy they seemed to come a long way from just another black water. I couldn’t get my usual double ristretto as the barista did not know so I was actually bracing myself for the worst. It turns out to be a positive surprise, layers of taste with floral notes. I wish it was pulled a bit shorter for more body but, considering its black water era when they were still in CWB, I can’t complain.

I revisited the shop on Sunday morning for breakfast and coffee.

The cappuccino was not quite right. The temperature was only slightly above the decent level but the milk texture wasn’t there and the foam, which looks nice, was quite weak I can’t feel the velvety texture typically associated with properly prepared drink. Only after it cooled down a bit I can sense some extremely faint sweetness of the frothed milk but, due to the time, the texture was long gone.

I managed to order ristretto this morning. More body and quite forward flavor with layer of floral note in the middle. While the aftertaste was quite nice both days, there’s a bitter undertone for my morning cup.

Both Capp and ristretto pointed to the rather high temperature during the morning. Maybe less traffic particularly on Sunday morning. The Saturday afternoon wasn’t suffered from the temp issue as they had more business so the temp was on the lower side. Only if they were pull a bit shorter…

Also gone were the barista that cranked up the grinder while there was no customer in the shop. This was a practice at Soft Aroma at its previous location. From my ear, I can't see the grinder, I heard the buzzing sound every time they made a new drink, a very good practice other cafe such as Cafe Habitu should look and follow.

While coffee at Soft Aroma was considered good this time, they still couldn’t manage to reach the full potential of the blend I had elsewhere. While it’s nice, lots were still missing vs. my experience, particularly the body. The blend was a simple two beans from Africa and Asia but is very flavorful and much better than some Italian blends which I heard some time they went up to “nine” beans for its flavor though I believe that’s more the consistency of the taste than what they claim… My 2 cents though

The bean is locally roasted and remains the same blend as its old location so the freshness is definitely not an issue. In fact, I remembered the proprietor choosing this blends due to its freshness and its roaster. You see who roasts the bean on the magazine pages that was pegged to the corkboard above the sofa.

Food for this café is a very weak point. It’s a Chinese style western food which still lag behind the good one. Spaghetti was not quite al dente and the meat sauce tastes like it came out directly of the can and not a good brand. The lemon/citrus cheese cake also wasn’t good. The scramble egg for the E breakfast set was so oily I can clearly see the oil on the side of the scramble egg like a lake in the middle of the mountain. Its ambience is the same as food, ie westernized decoration but with a strong Chinese style feel. The picture did not tell this story but you feel it once you're there. This is very contrast to a simple, cozy feeling and, likely, less expensive deco at Coco Espresso which retained an ambient of Indie cafe and you still feel it's warm and clean.

So, go for its espresso and hopefully in the afternoon. It’s still worth to try Capp in the afternoon though.

I've previously noticed this narrow shop opening up in this location a few months ago, even before the 3rd Segafreddo Zanetti Outlet had settled in merely 100m away, that in turn not located very far from the ultra high quality Coco Espresso run by a trained coffee expert!

Never bold enough to venture into the unknown these days - I did not even realise this in its previous guise was located at much more populated area of town with an enviable record! With the additional help and referral by another OpenRice member, I had to give it at least a 'shot'... Or a coupla of them afterwards!

Indeed, I really love the coffees here a lot. Its very drinkable, made seriously well, sophisticatedly bold in flavour yet surprisingly 3 dimensional in complexity. When you drink a coffee here, you can almost imagine a 'small universe' forming right inside your mouth and conquering your sensory intakes 1 by 1. I also think that for once - both the Espresso and Milky drinks such as Caffe Latte are equally interesting here. A well chosen blend that works as an all rounder. Nothing to add really.

Perhaps its getting a bit too hot for coffees, so it might be a good idea to make the milk slightly colder. The single espresso shot meanwhile seems slightly over-extracted, a comment I found from an overseas website that happened to have rated Hong Kong coffees recently.

Another Equal No.1 Coffee Shop - with bonus high quality latte art thrown in and also one of the most affordable prices in town! Need to try their cold drinks soon!

'4' for now but could be hitting on '5' very easily, very soon. Let's see!

The buzzing sound of the electronic coffee mill grinding the house blend into fragrant powders. The flicking of a switch turned powdered coffee into liquid darkness, topped with a thick layer of beige crema. The "sss...sss..." sound of steam tunnel heating and foaming the milk at the same time. With magical twists and turns of the hand and wist movements a perfect cup of coffee is created. The aromatic beverage that can fix everything from holiday mood to blues of solitude.

Latte art, recently highly recommended as an edible art form, depends on the artistry of the barista. Here at Soft Aroma the art takes the cutest forms constructed above milk form -- the face of a piflet topping a Caffe Mocha, while a cartoon frog atop a simple caffe Latte. Art aside, Soft Aroma is cozy with chocolate brown tables set against chestnut brown sofa and chairs to match. On one side of the bulletin showed news clippings while lomo shots and post-it notes show of words of encouragement and compliments from others.

Unlike Fuel at IFC focusing on the lethal combination of coffee and jazz, Soft Aroma is gearing towards the Classic Rock and Soft Pop music as familiar melodies ring through the room from Joanna Wong to Norah Jones. The minutes tick by yet there is no sign of any clock anywhere, nor should there be. Time, afterall, is for those who are in a hurry, so unfittingly ironic at a cafe where people are supposed to relax and unwind with a warm mugful of coffee in their hands, leaving out the hustles of daily life at the front porch where smokers can huff away their troubles outside.

Caffe Latte ($23) is textbook perfect, with one shot of espresso topped with steamed milk and a thin layer of milk foam. It is soft and delicate to the touch and goes down easy without the stinging sour aftertaste. Caffe Mocha ($25) takes latte with a chocolate twist, but unlike other mochas with a dominating chocolate part, here chocolate and coffee are well balanced, and the creaminess of steamed milk offsets the two strong flavours. Caramel Aroma ($25) is a sweeter version of coffees with a darker caramel taste lurking beneath an otherwise simple latte. It's like a drinkable dessert, I think.

Here, coffee lovers savour the moments as sweet and satisfying as the coffees can get, the soft aroma arises everytime an order is placed, with a mixture of pungency and welcoming familiarity not easily created at home. Yes, it is as much ambience as the coffee that make a good cafe run. Soft Aroma's coffees may be focusing on sweet variations of the original, but the essence of chilling a bit during a quick escape from the lives of many who "bust their bottoms" is delicated and effortlessly captured here.

Having finished my coffee and writing this on the premise, I looked out the glass from the inside. Workers unloading boxes after boxes on an ordinary weekend morning, stores pulling up metal gates ready to open for the day. Passers-by smile as the warm sun shines into their hearts, kicking out the blues from repeated days of rain. It shines on me too, as I walked up welcoming the sun in open arm. Now how's that for a good morning, with the joy of a perfect coffee pastime!