Coffee Duran @ Leeds City Center

Coffee Duran @ Leeds city center, 22/01/2012

So while I was at work I decided I fancied some dinner out of the unit, so I decided to go here for the food, as the previous time I had coffee there it was pretty poor.

The Location.

Coffee Duran is located near Leeds city market, just across the road from the York Street Co-op.

Upon entering I was greeted by a very friendly Italian accented man, which I presume is the manager. After being talked though what was on the menu for the lunch period I decided that the bacon pasta and meatballs (they both had fancy Italian names, but I cant remember them) sounded pretty tasty, which it was!

The Coffee

Being called Coffee Duran, I was surprised to see aspects of the creation of coffee being missed, especially if the man serving me was the manager. The group arm was removed, the old puck disposed of, new coffee put into it, tamped and straight into the shower, no flushing.

The milk was prepared in a belly jug, as I could see there was no spout jug to be used. The steam wand was not purged either before or after the steaming of the milk. And after he had finished it gave it a rather heavy coat of chocolate sprinkles, which I have never seen on latte preparation before.

As stated before I like my drinks not to hot as I like to enjoy them straight away but the latte was hot, I mean really hot!

When it was ready to drink and I had removed the half bar of chocolate sprinkles from it(which wasn’t asked for, from me or the barista) I began to drink. The foam was more of cappuccino standard, due to the belly jug being used, but the coffee blend used was quite nice.

It had an over all light aroma both smell and initial taste. From what I take the blend used is either 100% Arabica will a strong body or they have a high/low Arabica/Robusta split.

In either case I would definitely say columbium beans were used, the initial taste was very light and fragrant which quickly turned into a good strong nutty flavor, which stayed with me even after I had finished my coffee.

The overall experience of Coffee Duran is that it’s an ok place to go, if your looking for a place to go for a quick lunch then this is the place, great food and not to bad for prices.

Coffee wise it could be better, if all procedures were followed correctly it would have made for a much more enjoyable cup.

Over all I give Coffee Rand 4/5.

But because of the strange preparations and lack of detail in the drink creation I award the coffee an unfortunate 2/5.

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