Chile Forum

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In the past few weeks I've sampled a few coffee places here (Coyhaique and Puerto Aysén). This doesn't pretend to be comprehensive - somewhat random but may be useful for someone who might end up here on holiday or working or whatever. And I have only sampled the equivalent of local "cortados" since I have not been able to teach anyone how to make a proper café con leche. None of these is world-class but some are acceptable in a pinch:


1. Café Ricer (also known as "Restorán Historico Ricer") . It is just off the main plaza in Coyhaique centro, off the south side of the plaza.

- A decent cup of coffee. I was told they grind their own beans but didn't see evidence of this.
- The fastest wifi of the coffee shops in town, or so it seems.
- The best pizza I have found in central or southern Patagonia, and reasonably priced. Not world-class, mind you, but for the Patagonia I was impressed.
- Decent pastry.

2. Café Oriente. On Condell about a block from main plaza.

- Decent coffee.
- Best pastry I have found so far in Coyhaique.
- Waiter (very chileno) said he thought they had wifi but did not know the password and made no attempt to find it (did I say very chileno?)

3. "Holzer" quite small place, neat and clean - doesn't look Chilean at all - located on Dussen 317 about a block from the main plaza. The clients seem to be above the norm. There has to be at least one German in the ownership of the place and the other is probably Basque.

- Best coffee I have found so far in Coyhaique area.
- Fair pastry
- Very good wifi.

4. "Te quiero café" also on Dussen, 360, practically on the plaza de armas. It's adult-only because smoking is permitted and this is therefore not a good option. The wifi is decent and there are plenty of outlets for plugging in, the coffee is not bad, the tortas and other pastry quite good.

Then down in Puerto Aysén....


Isla Verde is really a restaurant, not a coffee place, but both the lunch meal and the after-meal coffee were well above the norm for Puerto Aysén, which is literally a backwater. Located near the municipalidad, at Teniente Merino 710. I often eat here when in Pto Aysén - possibly the best restaurant in town.

Hotel Aysén Patagonia, Sargento Aldea 560
The "coffee shop" for the hotel has good wifi, decent pastry, and the best coffee I have found in Pto Aysén, though I haven't done a great deal of sampling.

Hope that may someday be of some use to somebody.

Juan Valdez and Starbucks

During our 2 1/2 mo. tour in the south recently, we looked for decent coffee and were happily surprised to find a few.

Valdivia - Isla Teja : on the main road just after you cross the bridge there is a place called "Donde La Negra" which has a fabulous pasteleria and drinkable coffee.

The famous "Entrelagos" Salon de Te was a complete 'flop'. Good chocolates to take home but not worth the trouble of eating there. I asked for a 'chocolate caliente' and they brought me a cup with hot milk and a chocolate bar (MILK chocolate, not even dark chocolate), on the side of the cup which was already melting obviously, and I had to try and get out of the utterly useless wrapping. In the end I had a semi melted piece of chocolate inside a luke warm cup of milk and a big mess on my hands.

Frutillar : In Cafe del Lago (Teatro del Lago) pretty good coffee and average food.

Pueto Varas : Cafe "El Barista" is the best we found in the lakes region so far. It is also a pretty good bistro restaurant with great WI FI connection. The staff are all young and the crowd is quite eclectic, most of them with their laptops under their arm. It's almost on the corner of Walker Martinez as you go down to the lake.

Also cafe Cassis. Just opened 6 months ago and their coffee is fairly good, but their hot chocolate is even better and pastries and ice-cream top class. Stunning view of volcan Osorno from the terrace on the 2nd floor.

Puerto Montt: Salon de Te Rhenania. Coffee = drinkable. Pastries = excellent. Situated two shops down from Club Aleman de PM. However, avoid this town is you can.

Osorno : Same as above, they actually bake everything in Osorno and take it down to PM. Half a block from the Plaza de Armas, I think the street is B. O'Higgins.

Everywhere else where we had good coffee were either farms or B/Bs.

Hope this helps.

A

MUSING....

Another Joe roasts his own beans. It's a fun and rewarding hobby that I've been doing for a few years now. I'm not the greatest barrista, but make a decent shot, cappuccino, Americano and other simple drinks.

Initial investment to roast berries commercially is about US$25k for roaster and accessories. A good roaster can be had for less, but that's a fairly close guestimate.

Is this something that's needed in the country? Is there a market for it? It's not something I'd entertained as a business venture before, other than a few pounds to sell to friends simply because it's good.

Just wonderin'....

Joe, if you read Spanish the cofibreik website is interesting. There are several places which roast their own. It is fun reading and they often have reviews of coffee places.
http://www.cofibreik.cl/tag/tostando

Donnybrook wrote:Joe, if you read Spanish the cofibreik website is interesting. There are several places which roast their own. It is fun reading and they often have reviews of coffee places.
http://www.cofibreik.cl/tag/tostando

Thanks Donnybrook. Can't read Spanish, but Google helped me out. Some good info, and an answer to my question.

Another Joe wrote:[about US$25k for roaster and accessories. ..

The hardware is one thing. Getting decent unroasted beans into the country can be a challenge, but it can be done and of course it is done, but you have to deal with the SAG regulations. There are some coffee growing regions that are recognised by the SAG as being free of some of the diseases the SAG is concerned with. Assume you have a supplier of really good unroasted beans that can be shipped to Chile. Take the bean cost plus transport, insurance, etc., add it up (CIF cost). Then calculate about 25 percent of that CIF as the Aduana fees. Now take about 4 percent of the CIF for the customs agent and port handling fees. Add that to the other costs. With extra foam.

The Coffee Club.....<EDITED OUT>. Take a look, it's supposed to be fantastic!

Thanks PX. I appreciate the dose of reality. Any business that relies on imports seems like a nightmare in Chile.

theMr. wrote:Whats the deal, it appears the only good coffee I can get is a single shot of espresso. The courtado, the cafe con leche, I cant seem to figure it out. Is it possible to get a nice regular cup of coffee preferably not from starbucks. Or something like an americano, espresso with water, are there such things as local coffee shops here? I am living in Providencia and would love to find a regular old gringo style coffee shop. Can't handle instant coffee or coffee from the lil machines at all of the corner stores. My office even just installed this massive coffee machine, with milk, coffee, sugar, even chocolate, and the thing is literally a square meter. You put your cup under it and tell it what you want and it literally just goes pfffuuut and drops a little bit of powder in your cup than hot water. Is this some kind of joke????

I brought 7,5kg of coffee with me in October, this will last until May ( I use 1kg per month) until I go back to Germany for the european summer.
(and return again with enough to get me over 8 month in Chile)

I agree with you, what I see in the supermarkets doesn't look like coffee to me.

http://www.good.is/post/the-end-of-cheap-coffee/
The End of Cheap Coffee: Why the Diner Staple Is About to Become a Luxury

<snip>
The price of a cup of coffee—whether it be a $6 pour-over, a $2.50 dark roast at Starbucks, or a $1.50 mug of diner swill—is being driven up by a complex combination of weather events, pest and fungus outbreaks, speculation on commodities exchanges, an unstable labor market in the developing world, and an unprecedented thirst for good coffee among a growing global middle class. The problem, in simple economic terms, is that supply has gone down and demand has gone up.

a MUST READ for coffee aficionados...
the bottom line, after some very interesting coffee news~gossip~facts~analysis...
...soon, you'll be drinking less - and/or paying more?

Actually, some of what is sold in the coffee section of the supermarket isn't all coffee. I started reading the labels one day and found some of it is "sucedáneo", faux coffee. I also spent an instructive time one day reading the labels on mustard jars.