For those who love cold cof­fee on a hot day (final­ly!) or just want to have a bot­tle of decent caf­feine on hand for those days when you can’t get out for a cof­fee, barista Akle­sha has opened a small True Brew cof­fee bar up in the Grand Arcade doing sin­gle ori­gin ‘man­u­al brew­ing’ (no espres­so machine, no milk and no sug­ar) and spe­cial­iz­ing in cold drip con­cen­trates.

The inten­tion is a bar where peo­ple can chat with each oth­er or Akle­sha, enjoy a sense of com­mu­ni­ty (and Arobake good­ies — win­ner of the 2013 nation­al xmas mince pie con­test!), and learn more about man­u­al brew­ing while he cre­ates their dai­ly fix.
Cold-as brewMan­u­al brew­ing for Akle­sha includes cold drip, infused cold drip, chemex, jebe­na and V‑60 pour over, and as he states on his web­site ‘results in a rich­er and more intense cof­fee expe­ri­ence, not unlike top shelf drinks’.  You can read more infor­ma­tion about Aklesha’s back­ground here.

The ‘cold-as brew’ take­away con­cen­trate is sold in small 300ml bot­tles, with a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent ori­gins depend­ing on what Akle­sha has recent­ly brewed, and should pro­vide six serv­ings (return the bot­tle for cred­it as they’re reusable).  The ori­gin I tried was Yir­gach­effe (Ethiopi­an), which was tasty with a light choco­latey after-tone.  A refresh­ing change to hot cof­fee.

Pop by and see Akle­sha Wednes­day to Fri­day 8am – 4pm upstairs in the Grand Arcade near the lifts to the Light­Man and Boul­cott Street.