Grindosetamp Cafe: Baguio City’s Newest Gourmet Coffee Destination

Attention, coffee aficionados, and coffee lovers! You haven’t had a real gourmet coffee experience in Baguio City if you have not been to Grindosetamp Cafe. Grindosetamp or GDT for short is not your usual cafe that serves up good coffee. If you are all about knowing your coffee beans and your brews, then this is the place for you.

Check out our review of this new kid on the block and find out why it is a must-go spot for coffee lovers.

Grindosetamp Cafe Baguio brings ‘Brew It Yourself” Experience

The name says it all – it is a combination of the stages in preparing excellent coffee: ‘grind,’ ‘dose’ and ‘tamp.’ According to Manager Ricca Concio, making good coffee means doing each stage properly. The first step is to grind the beans to the right size. Secondly, one must grind the right ‘dose’ of the beans that is just right for the amount of coffee one is making. Lastly, to ‘tamp’ is to apply the right amount of pressure on the beans before extraction.

Grindosetamp is the first to offer a Brew It Yourself experience in Baguio City. You get to choose which type of brewing method you would like to do: immersion, pour-over or vacuum. During this review, their baristas demonstrated the immersion and the vacuum methods. This writer was lucky to try the pour-over method herself.

Coffee lovers will surely love this hands-on experience. The barista guides you through each step and you learn more than a thing or two about how to brew the perfect cup. For the vacuum method, they used a coffee siphon. As for the immersion method, they used the trusty French press.

For the pour-over method, it involved dousing the paper filter first with hot water to wash away any impurities. Then, the ground beans were placed in the filter as evenly as possible. Then came the hard (but fun) part – pouring the hot water over the beans. The trick was to do it slowly until all the beans are wet. Then you need to wait for the coffee bloom – which gives the beans a chance to let out its full flavor. After which, you will continue to slowly pour over the water until you reach 2 minutes and 15 seconds mark on the timer.

The ‘Brew It Yourself’ experience is only PhP 120 per single cup.

Locally Sourced Coffee Beans Make A Whole World Of Difference

GDT prides itself on sourcing its coffee beans locally. Their best selling bean is the Atok, sourced from Benguet. They also have beans from Mindanao like the Hinelaban from Bukidnon. The Cordillera proves to be a good source of good coffee with the Ampucao and the Tuba beans.

The beans sampled during the review were Tuba, Hinelaban, and Ampucao. It’s difficult to pick a favorite as each bean had its own distinct taste and flavors. The most unique however is the Smokin’ Rosemary Iced Coffee (PhP 140) which was iced coffee made from Tuba beans, with a sprig of burnt fresh rosemary. The smokey rosemary flavor added a hint of character to the drink, best enjoyed as it is, without any sweetener.

GDT Is More Than Just Coffee

If you are not a coffee lover, don’t let this stop you from coming over. There is more to GDT than just coffee.

Beat the summertime heat with their flavored Lemonades (PhP 70 to 80 per glass). They are not only lovely to look, they also deliver its own unique refreshing taste. We tried the Pina Colada, which was a thirst-quenching blend of pineapple and lemon. The Spiced Chai is a good balance of spiced tea and lemon flavors. The Mixed Berries is the most colorful of the lot, and the sweetest because of the berries.

For starters, we sampled the GDT Salad (PhP 150), which is a bed of salad greens, strawberries and olives served with their homemade Strawberry Vinaigrette. The vinaigrette was the highlight of the dish as it was a perfect blend of tangy and sweet.

From their choice of Sandwiches, we tried the Beefy Burger Twinnies (PhP 230) and the Chicken Pork Adobo (CPA) Sliders (Ph120). Both sandwiches were served with a side of homemade potato chips. The CPA Sliders were made of flavorful chicken and pork adobo flakes on perfectly toasted mini bread buns. You will want to eat all four mini sandwiches in one go.

The Beefy Burger Twinnies will satisfy any burger lover. GDT offers a flavorful twist as it tops the homemade burger patties with a fruity and savory blend of mangoes and caramelized onions. It offers a good flavor contrast to the strong beefy taste.

Dishes With A Cordilleran Twist

Among the pasta dishes, we tried the Arrabiata Con Cordillera (PhP 150). The dish gets its name from the very Cordilleran ingredient used in it – kiniing or etag, which is smoked and cured pork done the Cordilleran way. One would think that the kiniing would have an overpowering flavor in the dish, but GDT was able to balance it with the tomato-based sauce. The smoky taste was subtle, but the dish itself was so full of flavor and perfectly seasoned.

Another dish to help you beat the summer heat is the Baguio Halo-Halo (PhP 135), topped with strawberry ice cream, instead of ube ice cream, naturally. It also has flambéed strawberries and chocolate-coated cornflakes.

The next time you are looking for that unique gourmet coffee experience, head on to Grindosetamp Cafe, Ground Floor, Albergo Hotel, 1 Villamor Street, Baguio City. Visit them on Facebook at Grindosetamp Cafe.