% Arabica (Monster Mansion) — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

Yick Fat Building, or famously known as Monster Mansion, is a special spot in Hong Kong that portraits the incredibly dense and stacked residential complexes. Being one of the most instagrammed spots in Hong Kong, this photogenic architecture has been featured in Hollywood blockbusters (Transformers: Age of Extinction) as well as Netflix drama series (Stranger).

Visiting the new branch of % Arabica in Monster Mansion gave me a chance to visit this famous building, which I actually walked pass a number of times without knowing when I hiked on a nearby trail. I guess this is why we are often told to notice the details?

And of course, % Arabica has its interior design matches up with Monster Mansion. The use of mirror has definitely promoted the coffee shop to a next level. On top of its signature simplistic design with a white colour tone, the mirror images and neatly stacked coffee bean bags have definitely caught the eyes (and cameras) of customers and fellow instagrammers.

However, it isn’t easy to take a good picture with a good angle, especially when the coffee shop is really crowded during weekends with local customers and foreign visitors. Visiting the coffee shop on a Monday late afternoon allows me to try capturing the beauty of it with my iphone, and chill with a cup of Green Tea Latte.

After taking a few shots, I just felt like my photo taking skills needed to be improved. So I stopped and started enjoying the coffee with a book in the relatively quiet % Arabica.

I know, the Green Tea Latte is out of focus, which isn’t quite fair to it. But I guess when people visit this Monster Mansion branch, they care more about the interior design?

Alright, let’s get back to the coffee (finally after a long description of the neighbourhood and design of the coffee shop). This is the first time I tried out their famous green tea latte, and the price caught me by surprise ($55 + $5 for switching to soy milk). It’s foamy and smooth with a strong matcha flavour. The portion is quite big too, which made me think that I should order a smaller one instead. It took me almost an hour to finish the whole cup (while reading, and occasionally texting and taking pictures).

After knowing it’s so close to gym, I guess I would visit it more often on quieter weekday afternoons, probably going with my all time...

Many people think that coffee must be bitter, but most do not understand where and why the bitterness of coffee comes from. Because of this ambiguity, some types of coffee currently sold on the market are “created” to be bitter by roasting the beans very dark (the stage where all types of beans turn a deep black color).

First of all, caffeine is one of the components that create the bitter taste in coffee (10%, along with another substance called trigonelline). Coffee plants produce caffeine to fight against insect attacks. Plants grown at higher altitudes produce less caffeine than plants grown at lower altitudes. Accordingly, Arabica usually has a lower caffeine content than Robusta (1.2%...

Quality every single time. You’ll never get a cup below 8/10 in any of the branches, sometimes you’ll have a barista with a particular passion and you’ll get one of the best cups around. It’s smooth, sleek and screams day time drinkable. The house blend caters to a wide range of tastes but if you’re after something a bit different then they do have some single origins that might interest.

Coffee - 8.0: the milk work is what makes the cup, it’s one of the smoothest and creamiest cups I’ve had in Hong Kong. The blend is a little bland and simple for my tastes but it’s a house blend for all of their Hong Kong branches and it...