Constant Gardener Coffee @ Lebuh Light, Penang

The millennium era has witnessed a paradigm shift of the people mindset in different aspects, and one particular changes would be the ways people are relishing on coffee. Of hundreds of cafes in Penang, almost all serve a cup of coffee which cost nothing less than RM 8 per cup. A few definitely stood up, and one being Constant Gardener Coffee, tucked within Chinese Chambers of Commerce Building at Light Street. Most importantly, Constant Gardener Coffee serves topnotch quality at a real affordable price.

The forte of this cafe definitely is their coffee. Constant Gardener has gained big thumbs up from coffee connoisseurs in Penang. We heard from peers that the baristas here put multiple factors into consideration when brewing a cup of coffee - from water filtration, grams of coffee beans, temperatures and many more, just to ensure their patrons would enjoy a great cup of coffee.

The brewed coffee here could be differentiated mainly by its beans' origins, and they further classified it based on their taste - dynamic, bold or floral. On the day we were there, both of the bolder taste coffee were unavailable, thus we settled for the floral TRT Ethiopia Konga (RM 16). We are no coffee adept to tell in details and technical how good was the coffee, but definitely the smoothness, aroma and taste were well appeasing.

If you would like to sample coffee in different settings, check out their Espresso Tasters Menu (RM 23.00). It comes with a cup of Americano, a cup of Espresso and a cup of White Coffee. The coffee beans used vary from time to time For instance, during our visit our brewed coffee were of Colombia origin, from the microlot of Buenavista - Tolima farm, and obtained #1 score in 2015 Cup of Excellence. How lucky we were to able to taste such outstanding coffee beans.

If the owner of Constant Gardener Coffee is present during your visit, consider it as your lucky day. You shall be impressed by the passions, enthusiasms and knowledge on coffee beans demonstrated by the owner. He is no sharing-shy and willing to divulge the information he possesses, as long as you are keen to know. From time to time, do not be shocked if the owner walk over to your table, checking on your feedback on their coffee and initiate a casual chatting with you.

As we were there during the third day of Chinese New Year 2017, the owner treated us on a Ethiopia origin filter coffee.

In fact, the cafe is good at brewing a cup of good chocolate drink as well. We sampled their Single Origin Madagascar Chocolate, and fall in love with it. The elusive taste had complex fruity and small hint of herbal taste, which marked the uniqueness of it. Thus, it will be a hassle free day for non-coffee drinks when joining a group of friends over here as you still can opt for a cup of chocolate drink.

The Chicken Mushroom Pie (RM 10.00) here was much appeasing to our appetite. It was served hot upon microwaved, and slicing the crusty outer pie layer will induce the mushy mushroom cream oozing altogether with small chicken cubes. While enjoying the natural scented mushroom cream, be careful with the piping hot temperature. You might not be able to enjoy the crust and mushroom cream as a whole upon slicing them but the taste is irresistible.

There were no mains serve in Constant Gardener. In order to stuff our slight hunger, we ordered Croissant Ice Cream Sandwich (RM 16.00). Two scoops of Ice Cream are available for pick. Our advice - settle for the Haegan Dazs Ice Cream as it never go wrong. The other variant of ice cream we had - Belgian Chocolate was full of ice crystals.

The environment of Constant Gardener is cozy and well suited for a slothful evening. Sofa and couches in the cafe made us feeling reluctant to move elsewhere once seated. Coupled with a cup of coffee and a dearest company, an evening could be spent here literally just sitting there enjoying life. I would regard it as sitting there and reflecting back my life instead, so much I have missed in the process of growing up.

On a personal level, we have total admiration on the passion and knowledge shown by the owner during our random encounter, and we look forward to come here often in near future.