Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending the launch of the new coffee menu at my favourite Guildford Coffee Spot, Bar des Arts. If you’ve been following the Coffee Spot, you’ll know that this has been the result of lots of careful planning by Sara and her team, in consultation with new roasters, Horsham Coffee Roasters.
I’ve been along for the ride, offering my opinions (at Sara’s request, I hasten to add!), sticking my camera in at inopportune moments and generally documenting the whole process. So it was great to be able to go along on Saturday morning for the start of what will hopefully be a new era, not just for Bar des Arts, but for the whole Guildford coffee scene.
October 2015: Sadly Bar des Arts closed at the start of the month. I’m not sure what, if anything, will take its place.
You can see what happened after the gallery.
The launch officially started at 10.30 and was supposed to last a couple of hours. As it turned out, I eventually sloped off at around two o’clock, the event having been a great success! In attendance were Sara and her team, Bradley from Horsham Coffee Roasters and yours truly.
One of the great things about the new coffee menu is that it features a brew bar, complimenting the more traditional espresso-based range. I suspect that this may take a while to catch on, but if you are keen on your coffee and like to experiment, the brew bar is the perfect way to explore new coffee, particularly the more subtle and adventurous roasts.
The new menu features a subset of the coffee we’d tried at the tasting session. The Bar des Arts new espresso blend is 50% Brazilian Fazenda Pantano, 40% Guatemalan el cascajal and 10% Ethiopian Yirgacheffe (a slight modification on the blend we tried, which was 50/50 Brazil/Guatemala). There are also two single-origin beans for the brew bar, a Peru Tunki organic and a more adventurous (in my opinion) natural process Ethiopia Yirgacheffe. Finally, there’s a decaffeinated Peruvian Organic bean to round things off.
For the launch, there was also free cake (including one baked by my good self), brownies and pastries, which helped to ensure a steady stream of customer, some Bar des Arts regulars and some who had come just for the coffee. The most important thing is that everyone went away happy and all the feedback on the coffee was positive, with everyone finding something that they really liked.
The other new feature is that Bar des Arts is now selling 227gr bags of any of the coffee for you to take home with you. There was a brisk trade in beans, which was probably the most gratifying aspect of the whole morning. Nothing says “I liked that” quite like taking a bag of the beans home with you afterwards!
You can find the original Bar des Arts Coffee Spot here, including the complete write-up and an updated gallery.
MILLBROOK • GUILDFORD • GU1 3YA | ||||
www.bardesarts.co.uk | +44 (0) 1483 453227 | |||
Monday | CLOSED | Roaster | Horsham Coffee Roaster (espresso + filter) | |
Tuesday | 15:00 – 00:00 | Seating | Comfy Chairs, Sofas, Tables, Bar, Tables (Outside) | |
Wednesday | 15:00 – 00:00 | Food | Cake, Lunch | |
Thursday | 15:00 – 00:00 | Service | Table | |
Friday | 15:00 – 01:00 | Cards | Visa, Mastercard, Amex | |
Saturday | 10:00 – 02:00 | Wifi | Free (with code) | |
Sunday | CLOSED | Power | A few | |
Chain | No | Visits | Original: 19th, 28th September 2012 | |
Update: 20th July 2013 | ||||
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