Coffee Lab 'Academy' — Restaurant in Winchester

As a coffee enthusiast, I was very excited when I stumbled upon this place yesterday, I ordered two flat whites to go, and then watched like a hawk to see how my coffee was made, this was when I became quite disappointed. Yes it was busy but a good barista should always be able to keep their countertop clean. Nevertheless you can have a dirty countertop and still make great coffee so there was still hope. Then I spotted cardinal sin number 1, not cleaning out the basket fully between shots. It’s not enough to just bang out the puck, take a tea towel and just wipe out all the old excess coffee, it takes an extra five seconds but makes such a difference, and when you are using tens of thousands of pounds of equipment to control all your variables so well, it kinda makes them all abit pointless if you are going to tarnish your freshly ground coffee with old fully extracted coffee grounds which are now burning their way onto your basket. A very light tamp and into the group head it went. It was hard to tell how light but you really do need to exert some pressure to your puck otherwise what’s the point. Anyway at least it was consistent across all tamps. I then moved over to the milk steaming side of things as I lost sight of the brewing process. The head barista was definitely the one pulling the shots as she barked orders over to her colleague who was steaming milk. Milk steaming was good. Barista 2 took her time and was creating some excellent designs and created excellent quality milk. But then cardinal sin 2. I watched as she forgot to wipe down the steam wand and milk slowly started to encrust itself on to it. Barista 2 did notice just before steaming the next pitcher of milk and gave it a wipe down before steaming, but not fully and a large amount of milk stayed encrusted to the head of the wand. Again when you go to so much effort of using all this equipment, and take your time over pouring excellent designs don’t undo all your hard work by staining your milk with burnt slightly curdled milk sitting on the end of your steam wand. It takes an extra 10 seconds to wipe down that wand properly with a wet cloth and it’s so worth it. Our drinks hadn’t come after around 20 minutes and so my partner enquired. Again giving the shop a bit of leniency as it was incredibly busy, but I was disappointed when the response was “oh I made them, someone else must have taken them” which was just an outright lie, as I had been standing there watching the entire time. Our drinks were then made by the head barrister who unfortunately used far poorer milk steaming techniques, it takes 2 seconds to rinse out the pitcher between milk steams and had no interest in wiping down her steam wand. They steamed the milk for both our drinks in the same pitcher, which is a tricky technique to do right and at this point I wasn’t hopeful. I received what was essentially an incredibly frothy strong cappuccino and my partner received a very very flat white with no foam density what so ever. As I sipped my flat white on the way to the car I sighed as what still could have been an enjoyable drink had a burnt bitterness to it leftover from old coffee grounds left inside the basket. This is when I get annoyed. Yes the shop was busy, yes the toilet broke, this isn’t the shops fault, but when you charge £3.20 for a flat white you are making that a premium product, and for that price I’d expect almost flawless and certainly just hygienic coffee practice. The icing on the cake was we were lied to about why it had taken so long. Honesty is always the best policy. Maybe I’ll venture back in for a filter coffee at some point as this is a different art but I have no desire to order a cortado or expresso. As a coffee enthusiast I am fully aware the fine line between enthusiastic practice and obnoxious practice. I fear this shop is on the wrong side of that line. If you are going to charge premium prices for your drinks, they should be made to a premium standard, no matter how busy you are, and I fear lazy practice has found its way behind their very...

Honestly wish we could rate more. My partner and I are obsessed with coffee and stumbled across Dhan Tamang at the London coffee festival and have been huge fans ever since. We made the trip to Winchester yesterday solely to visit coffee lab - and honestly it was a really disappointing experience. I understand that DT is the latte art champion not the coffee shop but I was excited to have latte art better than what we can achieve at home - this was my first disappointment. Second disappointment was it being served in a paper cup when I can see the ample china cups atop the spectacular coffee machine - not only does it affect the taste of the coffee - it’s also bad for the environment. Third disappointment was the coffee. The milk was not right for a flat white (it was airy and foamy and not incorporated well), the strength was not right it tasted as if maybe a single shot? So the ratios were just off. Admittedly we set the bar high with it being founded by DT - but this was no better than high street coffee chains. I did try to message on Instagram to provide the feedback privately but unfortunately didn’t...

Not doubt coffee is good, nice atmosphere n staff is nice BUT it’s not enough.

Dirty & bad quality food ingredients Really poor in cleanliness. OVER PRICE for what they r offering u. Poor in hygiene.

All u can see in my pics attached.

Clearly said on menu board Salmon bagel with watercress but there’s just spinach. They served in much dirt plates full finger prints of last couple of customers n staff. Chipped plates. Seems like i was watching crime drama. Table was full of hairs n sticky stuff. Even request 2 times for table cleaning but who cares. When at the end I asks for manager, a tall young guy told he is on break if he can help. When I told him all the story, all he reply I’ll tell him when he back. NO SORRY OR ANY APOLOGY. When I said do u think it’s good for business, he replied what u want me to do then 🤐😳🤯 At the end when I checked on council web for hygiene rating. It’s 1 with recommendation for more cleaning required 😣 Not recommend this cafe if u like to go then please check all the things before u play with ur health even we need more cleanliness now a days than ever...