A true brew

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.
Manu­al 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.