Will This Cafe Be The Start Of A Coffee-Drinking Revolution In Malta?
Last year Lovin Malta spoke to Calyton Xuereb about Lot Sixty One – a new cafe opening on old Theatre Street in Valletta serving beautiful, freshly roasted coffee made by professional baristas.
Xuereb founded the Speciality Coffee Association in Malta after travelling to Milan to learn all there is to know about coffee roasting. He later met the Lot Sixty One franchise owner – Adam Craig – who was on holiday in Malta. They decided to set up shop here; and the rest is about to become history.
Lot Sixty One will officially open on the 1st of March. Right now their doors are unofficially open to anyone who wants to pop round and provide some feedback on the coffee-drinking experience.
“I don’t think people expected speciality coffee to arrive in Malta so soon,” Xuereb told Lovin Malta when we caught up with him to discuss the opening. “Our roastery should be up and running in about two weeks, and then we can actually start roasting in Malta. After that we plan to start running courses, and making our coffee available to buy as well.”
The roastery will be the part of the cafe where professional process of hand-roasting beans on a Probat L12 roaster takes place. Xuereb tells us that the team’s plan is to develop the perfect coffee for Maltese drinkers.
“We’re trying to find the ultimate coffee extraction – from roasting to actually serving. What we did was to roast some coffee in Amsterdam and bring it back to Malta to let people try it. We’re trying to find the perfect roast for Malta,” Xuereb tells us.
“There are different roast profiles – there’s a light roast and a dark roast. We’re used to darker roasts in Malta, similarly to Italy. But we’ve looked into a roast that it less dark than usual, using beans from Brazil which have a natural chocolaty and nutty taste. But we’re constantly trying new things, and new blends.”
So chances are that this new coffee destination, and the devoted team behind it, may become responsible for a shift in the local coffee-taste-palette. We’ll have to wait and see to find out, but so far the Lot Sixty One team’s aim is more about delivering an authentic coffee experience to the islands.
“We want to create a coffee community, teach people about the full circle of coffee. We’re organising events for people to join in, and we’re constantly talking to people about coffee. We’re organising cupping sessions for people to really understand the process of drinking good coffee.”
Exciting stuff! Have a look at their Facebook page if you want to know more about Lot Sixty One’s events and general updates.