The idea of spending the day trying great coffee shops brings a big smile to my face! For more than a decade, I've taken the time to research where I'm going to find good coffee at a given destination. Even when I'd be connecting through a European city, I would budget time on the layover to take the train into the city, have a good cup of coffee, and make my way back to the airport - even if I didn't have time for anything else. Traveling for work, I've become known as that guy who'd go to some local, out of the way, specialty coffee shop rather than the known coffee chain. I would love to see a catalog maintained that lists exceptional specialty coffee shops in different places around the world! As you mentioned, you'll find any number of amazing specialty coffee shops in major cities around the world. It becomes a little more challenging in smaller towns. Happy to help build a platform that can easily be searched (not just geographically, but also by roast, beverage, type of milk offered, etc.), that the community can contribute to it. It would be great to enable consumption of the content via a website as well as via mobile applications.
I could have wished for a longer video. Too long since I visited Ireland, too long since I was in Bewley's. James Hoffmann is a reliable coffee guide, a coffee democrat, never a coffee snob. Thanks for your videos.
I think its more about where is the best coffee experience. This can range from staff experience, interest, atmosphere, the type of customer base. So u are right the best coffee is a thing of the past. Take 3fe for example. This coffee brand is everywhere in Ireland now and i have been to shops who understand coffee and can make great coffee using the beans and i have been to shops that that curn out under extracted 3fe coffee all the time. The great thing in Ireland at present is that a lot of local roasting is happening and being distributed locally and even better when the roasters actually have a shop for u to sit in. Cork coffee roasters for me is a fantastic spot true to this ethos
I LOVE James’s videos: the music, the content, the videography & of course, James himself is a Brilliant presenter... But - I didn’t get the usual the feeling of satisfaction after this video - I felt like I got clicbaited - & still don’t know about the best places for coffee in Dublin
Always knew you could get great Guinness in Dublin, but when I went back over to Ireland for a short city beak couple of months ago, I was massively impressed with how many great independent coffee shops serving fantastic artisan coffee especially Network Coffee and Shoe Lane Coffee as well, although I definately enjoyed the Guinness as well as the coffee, especially Guinness at the Gravediggers pub, mind you I'm glad they havnt changed the Guinness much, it was the coffee in Ireland that needed improving.
In Manhattan, many people only go for coffee in their neighborhood or close to their work. It is not that they limit themselves to a one block radius of their apartment but that once they have found coffee of a certain standard they have no reason to venture farther.
For me this would just change the criteria. "Where is the best coffee in X place" has multiple factors and it is possible to be objective. Quality is first, but for sake of argument we will take your word that it is virtually impossible to distinguish between them even at a high level. Next would be number of varieties of coffee and coffee drinks *at* that highest level. If you can have more varieties of coffee at that same very high standard then you are going to catch the 'ideal' coffee and flavour for more people's subjective tastes. This would mean that the larger and more established you are, likely with more employees and more customer throughput the better you are going to be able to be as you will be able to have more and fresher coffee on hand. We can probably go even further than that with distinguishing factors, but I honestly think that's enough. Number of varieties of coffee and coffee drinks at that same "indistinguishable" standard. If your place has the most? You're the best place in town.
I live in Ireland and the standard oh coffee is both high and largely universal. I do wish that there was more choice wrt beans, origin and roast. Few coffee houses offer much choice in this regards.
I moved to Dublin a few years ago, so I have not tried all places here, but my favorite up to now is both located in Rathmines (no specific order, they are both fabulous). One is "The Pot Bellied Pig" at 15 Rathmines Rd Upper The second is Ernesto's Cafe at 15 Rathgar Rd They both also have high customer ratings on Google Maps as well.
The biased answer would have been to mention the lovely spots serving delicious Red Brick or Sweet Shop but fair play for resisting that temptation too!
Haha I'm from Dublin only found your channel recently and im watching this seconds after hitting purchase on an aergrind grinder and an aeropress after watching loads of your videos haha ,have a feeling its gonna make an upgrade from the bosch tassimo in my house it was a gift and better than instant but I'm sick of those damn pods haha
Tbh I'm glad that you pointed out that it's a nonsense question to ask. A lot of "best" things are entirely subjective. That said! To add my two cents.. Urbanity in Smithfield do great light roast from a rotation of growers, and round the corner oxmantown do addictive cold coffees (so much so that i.. actually haven't drank any of their hot stuff..). Galway is finally getting quality coffee shops too now, with Matt's and coffeewerk in particular being my port of call. It's really cool to see Ireland picking up the pace in regards to coffee over the past few years
From the locations I have tried in Dublin so far, the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin does serve amazing coffee. Do try it if you get a chance :)
Science gallery is very good, also Cloud Picker across the road from it. Really it's a case of where in town are you and narrow down the recommendation from there
Unfortunately, they're closing. The café has been closed for the duration of lockdown, but now the gallery itself is closing, which is a great pity. It's a wonderful institution.
Bewley's was my favourite spot. It still amazes me how they could employ 8-12 people to wait tables at the front and mezzanine level and how other places could deliver better service with only 3-4.😂🤣
Hello, I just went to Berlin & had an espresso at Röstätte, it was really good & tasty, it has nothing to with the fact that they brought me two as I ordered one ! Any other ideas ? Just keep brewing! Bernard, France
@@brewster99 Oh yes great coffee scene over there much better coffee there than beer. I though personally found 3rd floor espresso to be a bit overrated. You can find reviews of dozens of cafes over there from my trip in July 2018 on my Instagram account. Same name Stefan Sigfinnsson.
At 2:48 you mention Deaton Pigot and Take Flight in Los Angeles, and I looked him up. Take Flight doesn’t seem to exist anymore, but it’s called Tectonic Coffee now.
Dear James, love your channel. However, it is difficult to watch in the evening, our preferred time, because there is a significant difference between the voice audio and the interstitial music which is louder and risks waking up others. May we ask you to balance voice and music volumes? Thx for everything.
At home in your bedsit you can't swing a cat in... And for double the price of a coffee anywhere else you can be lava za caffeinated to your eyeballs for half a week...
This kind of runs against my limited experience of coffee which is that nothing I've had in Brighton is even close to the coffee I had at Colonna and Smalls in Bath, which I would say was an all-round superior cup. Not every place is putting as much care and love into the coffee, so I think the better question is: which place(s) in city X is making coffee at the highest levels on a nationwide or global scale? If there are so many quality places in a small pond, how many there qualify compared to the big pond?
There are a lot of little places in the vicinity of Trinity. My favourite when I was a student there was Café Tri Via for sit down, and Handsel & Gretel for take away, because most of the others were chains I preferred to avoid, though I did go to Insomnia sometimes, as it was cheap and did decent sandwiches. I was in the Centre for Deaf Studies, which was just off campus on South Leeson Street, directly opposite Insomnia.
I've got a question for the Irish lads. Does anyone know if bewleys coffee beans stand up to the rest? Coz they still sell them and they're cheaper than specialty
I remember when Bewleys was the *only* place in Dublin to get a good cup of coffee. The early 80s were grim in Dublin but the opulence of a Bewleys coffee and a fruit scone made it occasionally bearable.
Nice post. Haha, yeah I always roll my eyes when someone ask where's the best coffee in Seattle. I usually ask them what sort of coffee experience are they looking for. Most of the time they don't know (understandable), so i just give them my top three. :)
Who are you asking? You are really asking, "Of all the coffee you've tried, which did you enjoy the most?" The answer will tell you lots about the individuals that you asked, but will tell you very little about coffee in Dublin.
It would have been awesome if you had rated every coffee place you have ever been to. Like the michelin star, but for coffee. I know it's unrealistic, this is just a what-if.
What a curate's egg of a video. On the one hand, posing a (non) question?!? It appears there is no relevance to that question, in 2018 coffee world. Then, having nuanced the question, as a teaser for the discussion at 3fe, there is no recording of the event! Just me, then... 🤔
