Kul Coffee at 15 Elm Row is an impressive new coffee spot on the fringes of the city centre. My initial impressions of the coffee and the general vibe of the place were very positive. What drew me in was the abundant sense of energy and the airy spaciousness of the place. The volume of the chatter reminded me of a bar on a Saturday evening, rather than a café. This is in line with Kul’s ‘motto’ – ‘where coffee brews community’.
Generous seating
One common criticism made of specialty coffee places is their small scale. With fewer than a dozen customers, many are pretty much full. This can help create a nice intimate atmosphere but can also mean that tables are hard to secure at busy times, causing customers to move on elsewhere, disappointed. Kul, with space for about 40 customers, has the scale of a chain with the minimalist aesthetics and seriousness about coffee of the best specialty places. Kul, which has taken over the shop unit from Thirsty Pallet café and sandwich bar, is certainly larger than most specialty coffee places in the city. In that sense, it’s representative of a mainstreaming of specialty coffee, no longer the preserve of the coffee geek. It could be compared with Cairngorm with their spacious café in the West End.
Well oiled
It was packed on the bright Saturday morning I ventured into Kul. Fearing I might have to settle for a takeaway, the barista told me I could use the last ‘solo’ table in the back corner. Kul has a variety of setting options; for groups, pairs/ couples and a couple of small solo tables. The back corner gave me a good view of the action. After a few minutes observing the baristas in action, I was pretty sure they’d be serving top notch coffee. I could also pursue the menu. This offered a range of interesting coffees for ‘pour over’, for the real coffee geeks, for whom espresso is a little passé.
Notable was that, though the place has only been going for a matter of weeks, the team running it is well oiled (in the sense of operating smoothly, not drunk!). I recognised a couple of the staff members from other specialty coffee places. This gave me a sense that I was in good hands. The coffee that arrived on my table confirmed this. Though a ‘mere’ decaf, it was brimming with flavour. The barista had promised that they had ‘an excellent decaf’; she was not wrong. A testament to the skill of the baristas, as well as the seriousness with which decaf coffees are now treated. Until relatively recently, they were not considered something of an afterthought. No longer.
Complex and fruity
Keen to hear the views of others with a keen interest in specialty coffee, I recommended Kul to a contact. They reported back noting the ‘excellent coffee’ and ‘very efficient’ staff. As he noted ‘they have to be. It’s hectically busy.’ As to the coffee he mentioned the ‘delicious’ house Colombian which was ‘complex and fruity’. He also remarked favourably on the guest Indonesian which was ‘completely different; much softer, almost like a tasty pour over’. His conclusion tallied with my own; ‘for me they’ve added a lot to the Edinburgh coffee scene. I hope they can keep their team’.
My contact’s succinct report encapsulates several key aspects. Notably, you need a substantial team of capable people to keep such places going smoothly. Often, café work is considered low level employment. This overlooks the highly skilled nature of making good coffee.
Professionalism
While there are plenty of places in Edinburgh serving ‘artisan’ or ‘speciality’ coffee, having good quality beans and a good coffee machine are necessary but not sufficient conditions for good coffee. What actually ends up in the cup depends so much on the skill of the barista. Initial impressions suggest that Kul’s team is a skilled and experienced one. As noted earlier, a number of the baristas at Kul have previously worked at other highly rated places. This is common. Baristas often deliberately move around, keen to soak up up new knowledge. In short, such baristas are professionals who take their work and their development seriously.
The team at Kul is also sizeable. I spotted at least nine, with the manager acting as they should; managing the seating, spotting issues as they arise and stepping in to assist their colleagues during intense waves. These are common at Kul. Being able to produce the goods consistently when under pressure is a sign of a top barista. To produce good coffee consistently in busy places, you need a team. The type of large team I saw operating at Kul was reminiscent of some of the places I saw in London (such as Origin, Shoreditch), which had high volumes throughout the day, not just the typical 11 am wave.
Worth the price
One aspect that needs to be mentioned is price. Kul is not, by any means, inexpensive. Most espresso-based drinks hover just below the four quid mark. In their defence, and good speciality coffee places more generally, this is not that much more than the chains and other places which usually serve mediocre (at best) coffee. The average price of a coffee in the UK is £3.35. At least in Kul and other high calibre coffee places, you can be assured that what you drink will be good.
KUL COFFEE, 15 Elm Row, EH7 4AA
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