When three passionate baristas joined forces to open their own specialty coffee café in Sydney, they had one distinct goal in mind.
“We wanted our customers to decide on their very own customised coffee,” says Roy Yu, one-third Owner of Haven Café. “So we introduced the new concept of coffee tailoring.”
The three baristas have each clocked up more than 10 years of coffee making experience in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and Australia. Over that period they each tweaked, developed, and changed what they wanted in their coffee cup. Roy says they wanted to afford the same luxury to their customers.
“When someone approaches the counter we ask them what they like in terms of aroma, acidity, body, and sweetness,” Roy says. “We select the coffee, adjust the parameters of the machines to alter the brew times and serve them something that is unique to them.”
Haven Café’s simple, rustic interior provides the backdrop for the show-stealing VA388 Black Eagle espresso machine.
For its house blend, Haven Café serves Single Origin Roasters’ Killer Bee blend. It combines beans from Brazil, Colombia, and Rwanda to produce flavours of dark honey, toffee, and tropical fruit notes.
The Haven Café team also offers cold drip coffee from Taiwan and use a V60 filter to prepare a rotating selection of single origins.
“Our filter is quite special because you can’t easily find it in Sydney,” Roy says. “Working in cafés overseas we met a lot of roasters across Asia and got to know the ones we thought we’re doing great coffee.”
At the time of print, Haven Café was carrying three single origins from Jake Hu, a certified World Barista Championship Judge.
As well as doing coffee a little bit different, the trio are serving classic dishes with a twist. Its Drunken Chicken Kale Ceasar Salad comes with crystallised bacon and confit garlic.
“Our chef is from New Zealand and he likes to mix things up,” says Roy. “We are trying to change people’s usual ordering habits – its taken a bit of getting used to but Sydney is definitely coming around.”
