Counter café is situated by the canal overlooking the back of the Olympic stadium, inside a creative arts studio building. As I walk in the feeling is very light and earthy with its wooden furniture and warm sunlight shining on the outside patio by the canal. It kind of feels like I’m walking into a cool, folk music video. They’re playing Cinematic Orchestra and Bonobo.

I’m here to see head roaster, Howie Gills who is a self taught roaster. Talking to him, he admits it was a big risk for Kiwi owners Tom and Jess Seaton to take when he pushed for the business to expand, but one I’m sure they haven’t regretted.

Howie’s genuine enthusiasm for coffee and hospitality in general is refreshing. He’s pretty real about coffee, and doesn’t discount the importance of what a café is all about – “not just about wanky espresso.”

Having said that, Howie has done his research. Having previously cut his teeth in a few small cafes in Bath he was inspired by and learned a lot from meeting Maxwell (UK’s current barista Champion) and the people at Colonna and Smalls in Bath.

Counter Cafe uses probably the smallest commercial roaster I’ve seen of all my visits to roasteries, and it’s by far the best looking one. Its super cute! It’s a 6lb San Franciscan that they bought from Notes Coffee who also helped teach him a lot about roasting.

We talked about small batches versus larger batches and I wondered whether he ever had problems with roast evenness, but he seemed to think not so much. He definitely has to keep a constant close eye on every roast so there is definitely more manual attentiveness involved and I guess a higher reliability on intuition as its not hooked up to a computer that has an electronic roast profile to follow. Howie does all the profiling himself and has four other baristas who roast as well.

They mainly source their coffee from Falcon (a well known, ethical green bean agent) and often do blind cuppings hoping that the chosen beans won’t break the bank! Focusing on sweetness of a bean, they use two different blends/beans for espressos and milk-based coffees. At the moment a washed Santa Maria de Lourdes, Nicaraguan for espresso and a washed Agustino Forest, Columbian with milk.

Howie is really into natural science, which seems to make sense to me regarding his enthusiasm towards what he does. The latest thing he was testing when I visited, was a deconstructed latte – of course I jumped right on this, and needed him to tell me more! He calls it “spherification” where he combines cold coffee with a substance that gels together in the form of a ball when it hits cold water. Sort of like a bubble tea I suppose – but with coffee. Deconstructed because you can see the milk and coffee separated. He was yet to play around with different coffee profiles and a recipe where the gel agent doesn’t affect taste or texture and how to get a good consistency in these as well as aesthetic shape. It was a bit weird but fascinating so if you are there, be sure to ask him about it. It’s pretty fun and goes well with the bohemian and creative nature of the café and Wick.

You may also find yourself with a special edition hand-stamped coffee bag commissioned by an upcoming artist or a roast that is like music to your taste buds - after all, they name their coffee blends after musicians. At the moment they have Prince, Patti Smith, James Brown, Phil Collins and Joni Mitchell on rotation… oh and their food…

Peace out. x #Wong #TGITC

@the_girl_in_the_cafe