Wild Flavours: Why we had to visit this Leicester based coffee shop

Discovered at Nottingham Coffee Festival and with competition grade coffee on the menu, within one week we found ourselves on the train to Leicester, excited to try more of the unique taste we had sampled at the festival.

While attending Nottingham Coffee Festival, we stumbled upon a special stall about half-way through our morning. Highly caffeinated and seeking the weird and wonderful, we were instantly drawn to the unique flavours they were brewing up, one of which was an award winning coffee that had people queuing up to sample. The following weekend we were catching the train to Leicester, blown away by the coffees we tried and the warmth of the baristas we encountered.

Saints of Mokha - a name which seeks to tie the present back to the birth place of coffee as we know it today, to the port town of Mokha in Yemen. This Leicester based roaster and coffee shop, situated on the corner of Belvoir Street, has all the good trade marks of a great coffee shop- a diverse menu, informative baristas and a unique aesthetic. This was proven to us very quickly, as we stepped into the coffee shop on a busy weekend. Saints of Mokha’s presence on a street corner gives the shop an abundance of natural light which illuminates the indoor tree set into the floor of the space, its upper branches reaching towards a second level upstairs where there is additional seating. There is a natural earthiness to this coffee shop enhanced by this tree feature and seeping upstairs with the wooden panels set against the walls. Downstairs a few counters line the windows for people to sit, while the back of the room has some books and coffee beans on display.

As we set our attention to ordering, indecisive as usual, one of the baristas was on hand, giving us his time to talk us through the different offerings. Knowledgeable and passionate, his enthusiasm left us sure of our choices.

Coffee Jargon

Passionfruit Co-Fermentation? Take my money.

It is fair to say that a fruity coffee is what we favour- those sweet and surpising notes drawing us in, in a way no other type of coffee does. Spotting what the guys at Saints of Mokha had on offer at the festival, we had take a stop and sip. We tried two different Colombian samples, one which was a passionfruit co-fermentation (Brayan Alvear) and the other an award winning naturally processed Pacamara varietal (Jhonathan Gasca). Placing first and second place at the Australian and world barista championships, is there anything more to say about this coffee? Brewed as a pour over, the notes of cherry and raspberry really come through with clarity. The other sample was served up with milk as a flat white, the passionfruit flavour was unlike anything we had tried before. As someone who was trying a co-fermented coffee for the first time, initially I was taken back, unsure what to think. By the second and third sip however we were planning a trip to Leicester. The tartness from the passionfruit could be overwhelming if it didn’t mellow out across the mouth. The sweetness that emerges is nearly identical to the flavour of a yellow starburst.

During our visit to the coffee shop in Leicester, we couldn’t resist trying the passionfruit coffee one more time, again as a flat white. For the pour over we opted for another Colombian coffee, the El Jaragual thermal shock. Served up on an elegant wooden tray, there were delicate notes of mango and nectarine throughout.

Summary

With baristas who take time to explain the coffee jargon, Saints of Mokha is a place where people can begin their speciality coffee journey with ease. They offer a range of world class coffee carrying different tasting notes, with everything from toffee and chocolate, to yellow starburst. From Yemen to the midlands, we too felt like we discovered something special.

Where to find Saints of Mokha:

51 Belvoir St,

Leicester

LE1 6SL