Coffee is the New Gin: the gourmet taste in hotels around the world

Drinking a good coffee is a ritual more than a routine and although schools of thought remain antipodic, attention to this drink has finally taken root in some hotels. We don't necessarily talk about espresso, the world's most famous fast coffee, traditionally drunk standing and sometimes served in traditional hot cups. On the contrary, most of the time what is proposed is an experience in the world of grinding beans, which takes a long time and cannot be concentrated in three sips. Let's discover this new trend together and where to find it in the contemporary hôtellerie.

Bali and coffee culture from Jakarta

It is called Katamama and is a boutique hotel in Bali, Indonesia. Katamama means "Mum says" and you know that it is the assumption that what a parent says is law. This temple of research is a true Balinese happy oasis. Coloured like the famous theatrical masks, it brings together in a single place a contemporary idea of hôtellerie. No glitz and superfluous marbles, only traditional artifacts that blend with design to the point of blurring. But what Katamama is famous for is not only the mixology centre in a research hub that offers dyes, revisited classics and other alcoholic amenities, it is the attention to coffee. It is located in the same district of Katamama and with the hotel it has now established a consolidated dialogue.

One Fifteenth Coffee opened in 2012 and was the first coffee to offer blends from Jakarta. The initial objective is as essential as its interiors: to serve a noteworthy coffee in a place that promotes relational exchange and that integrates perfectly with the pre-existing community, without imposing its style and presence. Shortly after the opening, One Fifteenth Coffee began toasting the beans in collaboration with Morph Coffee Roasters. And in less than a year, the home bartender One Fifteenth Coffee triumphed on the podium of the Indonesian Barista Championship, becoming the first Indonesian to compete with the exponents of the world coffee scene.

One example is the One Fifteenth Coffee, which shows how craftsmanship perfectly contrasts with the routine of automatic - and almost listless - coffee making. Each individual cup is the result of well-established research methods and extraction to get the most out of each individual grain. And the philosophy of what is more than a coffee is already stated in the name: 1:15 is the coffee-water ratio needed to create an ideal blend. All this is obtained starting from capillary research of raw materials; One Fifteenth Coffee collaborates with local cooperatives to give its customers a different perspective of each single mixture coming from different parts of the world.

Coffee becomes an exclusive club: Ace Hotel in London and New York and Soho House in Toronto.

Such a capillary attention to the quality of coffee is not a Balinese prerogative, far from anything else. The first ever to offer guests very high quality and fine filtered blends were the various Ace Hotels located around the world. We have chosen two examples of this, those in London and New York.

Inside the lobby of the Ace Hotel in New York, in fact, the first café curated by Stumptown Coffee Roasters opened in 2009. The choice is by no means random: the hotel is par excellence a place of passage, exchange and confrontation and the one in New York from the beginning becomes a mix of artists, businessmen, aspiring writers, all perfectly integrated in a refined but never pretentious place.
The offer? From espresso to French press, from Chemex to Aeropress. In the wake of the Ace Hotel and then the work of Stumptown Coffee Roaster, a real nouvelle vague of coffee was born, which reached its peak in the Roost Apartment House in Philadelphia, where guests can find in the room everything they need to toast the beans and prepare a properly filtered coffee. The Ace Hotel in Shoreditch, London, is also no exception. Here the offer is curated by Bulldog Edition in partnership with Square Mile Coffee Roasters. Driving this exclusive coffee, the World Barista Champion with Annette Moldvaer, World Cup Tasters Champion. The result is an obsessive attention to detail, in a continuous search for the world's best toasted roasted products.

Last but not least, another great example of a hôtellerie that offers something more, combining design and affordable prices: Bonay House in Barcelona. The structure, which is housed in a completely renovated popular building, is not just a hotel. Restaurants, boutiques and bars, make Bonay a home address for those to mark and try absolutely. And even here coffee is a serious thing. The project is in fact curated by Satan's Coffee Corner, which in 2012 awakened the coffee barceloneta culture.

Such a trend is that of coffee that has led to the birth of a real exclusive club, as in the case of Soho House, first and foremost that of Toronto, represented by Gabriel Navarro. For those who are new to the environment, a Soho House is a real member club, consisting of cafes, but also restaurants and hotels. Waiting times for access vary from two months to two years, but once they have entered, Soho House members enjoy a unique experience, including a real coffee discovery and tasting program.

Not surprisingly, given Navarro's tight routine: from emails, brainstorming with the whole team to exchanges with other managers around the world, everything revolves around the perfect blend and the novelty is always welcome. It seems almost a constant of hotels and restaurants of high level to offer a coffee if not bad, at least mediocre. This is not the case with Soho House: here coffee is considered an integral part of everyone's routine. Starting a busy day with good coffee can make the difference, even if most people see it as an irrelevant detail. In short, a true cult that is nourished every day and that in every grain infuses commitment and passion.

Foodies hotels: the case of Belcampo, Belize and Hacienda de San Antonio, Mexico

If, on the other hand, you are interested in going to the source of the coffee cult and learning to recognize the plants and appreciate their cultivation, know that there are a couple of hotels to visit at least once.

Immersed in a nature reserve of about 15 thousand hectares, the Belcampo Belize Hotel stands out undisputed. A structure that surprises for a perfect balance between privacy and adventure. There are only 16 rooms, which guarantees maximum intimacy and the right dose of solitude, but the cultural offer is very wide. From mountain bike excursions to diving, everything at Belcampo Belize is taken care of with zeal.

This is a real foodies hotel: in the 3000 hectares of an eco-sustainable farm, guests can take part in workshops and classes ranging from chocolate to coffee, rum and spices. All raw materials are produced locally and therefore sustainably. In addition, you can join the chef and snorkel, go in search of the catch to cook for dinner. Another case of a new type of hôtellerie that no longer declines into sumptuous interiors and livery on each floor is the Hacienda de San Antonio in Mexico. A hacienda dating back to the nineteenth century with pale pink facades that can only be accessed with a private jet. The property is located at the foot of an active volcano and has a 5000 hectare farm. Among the activities proposed, there is a tour in the coffee plantation, to learn to know the plants to appreciate the mixture. Not only tennis lessons and listless swimming in the pool. The Hacienda de San Antonio makes your stay a real adventure, all in the shade of the Volcán de Fuego de Colima, which puffs, grumbles and chisels. Here dinner is never served twice in the same place. In short, if you're a foodie, these are the places that make for you and show how the hôtellerie is evolving.

Sumptuous beds and important chandeliers will always be an integral part of a certain type of stay, but the new luxury in the hôtellerie field is given by simple environments, capable of interpreting tradition and modernity in a single place and offering visitors authentic experiences. In this sense, the growing interest in coffee seems to fit perfectly naturally into this hotel "revolution".
Coffee is an accessible beverage that - precisely because it is within everyone's reach - can offer a unique experience, from the very first lights of the day and give the day a whole new meaning.

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