In the up and coming Colonia Napoles, just off the World Trade Center in the heart of Mexico City, there is a beautiful little coffee bar that offers a complete departure from what most local coffee drinkers are used to. It’s – wait for it – yes. It’s a brew bar (with espresso).
For a country, that despite being the 7th biggest coffee producer in the world but is only recently waking up to its own potential coffee greatness, Mexico, for the longest time, didn’t know anything other than Nescafé and Starbucks. Thank god for visionary and daring entrepreneurs like Hey! Brew Bar owner Rodrigo Moreno!
The interior is modernist in its heavy use of white and neon letters, but also highly functional. Next to the Victoria Arduino Black Eagle used for pulling espresso shots, there is an elaborate brew bar that truly lives up the coffee shop’s name. A total of four Acaia Pearl scales are built into the counter and used in combination with daily rotating slow brew methods.
Rodrigo explained: ‘The idea here is that we highlight a different brew method every day, using one of our three different single origins, thereby allowing our customers to discover three different taste sensations at a time. Right now we’re focusing on the V60.’
Before I knew it, I had a steaming cup of Hey! Brew Bar’s Nayarit coffee in front of me, waiting to be savoured. Barista Bruno Hergenreder explained: The beans from Nayarit are of the Typica variety and to make this cup we used 20.5g of coffee with 340g of water, blooming it with 25g of water for 25 sec.’
What struck me was the incredible passion and dedication with which every coffee was presented, brewed and explained. Like most other specialty coffee bars in Mexico City, Hey! Brew Bar work only with Mexican coffee growers and Café Sublime in Guadalajara who roast the coffees for them. It’s heartwarming, both philosophically and physically, to see the local coffee scene blossom as it has over the past two to three years. My prediction is that Mexico City will soon be a new coffee Mekka, but until this happens, let’s enjoy this coffee boom quietly.
Out of beans? Visit our brand new online shop and buy beans directly from some of our most favourite roasters. World wide shipping available on many products!
