The Ritz Carlton Poolside

The Coffee Concierge was recently lounging around the poolside at the Ritz-Carlton, Singapore. The Ritz-Carlton in Singapore is a sumptous hotel with grounds and rooms designed with great aesthetic care. Although I do note that it takes two chambermaids not just one, to make the enormous high bed, I have to say, as a guest, the effort is well worth it. The poolside is no exception with a lovely oblong pool which allows laps and lots of neatly laid out and very comfortable deck chairs with ample towels and umbrellas surrounding it with the tropical gardens behind.

However since this post is meant to be mainly about the coffee at the Ritz-Carlton, I shall not go on about the exquisite Japanese restaurant, Shiraishi, or the insanely sinful chocolate fudge cake at the Greenhouse. Instead as you can see in the photo, the expresso was made on the spot by the poolside waiter, a very charming Indian hotel veteran. I was struck by his attentiveness and his effort to keep both me happy not just this time but also on other earlier occasions. He even brought his manager out to plead to let them make up some fruit basket on the spot when me and my family friend said we had no time to order a proper lunch.

Back to the expresso. The crema didn't exactly support the few large grains of brown sugar I slid into the cup. So after a few grains had sunk immediately to the bottom, I started wondering whether the test for a crema was meant to be executed with fine or coarse-grained sugar. The crema was nevertheless a beautiful golden brown with just that one large bubble you can see the coffee through.

The expresso had a reasonable aroma but not one that was particularly striking. It was slightly sour though reasonably mild. It was likely a medium roast. While it was slightly bitter, I generally like my coffee very slightly bitter so didn't have a quarrel with that. Overall there was some complexity and a little balancing of the flavours but not that much. I'd say overall that as a hotel claiming to be six star, I would have expected the coffee, like the attentiveness of the staff, and the outstanding physical surroundings, to be similarly exceptional. However although it was by Singapore standards at least (which I have to say are not high) an acceptable cup, it was not a six star cup. I should add that as this is the Ritz-Carlton, the prices were too match with an expresso going for S$10. (The very nice waiter added in cookies for free).

So the overall rating:

Flavour: 2 1/2 to 3 beans
Service: 5 beans