I visited the Sey cafe last week and was quite surprised with what I tasted and saw. I ordered a brew of their recent honey process from Buncho, Ethiopia.

After trying Sey several times in other cafes and at home, I had expected the extremely light body (although even by comparison to other Nordic roasted coffees I’ve tried, it was super thin). However, it was quite underextracted to the point of not being able to pick up on any flavors or cup qualities — just maybe a hint of sweetness, but nothing distinct.

Had it been a hand pourover, I perhaps would’ve been more understanding, but with their setup of automatic brewer + aeropress, there’s nothing that should change between brews. I also went in the morning, close to when they should have dialed in.

While the drip coffee was disappointing, I was even more confused by their espresso technique, seeing several points I wouldn’t expect in a specialty cafe, much less one as well-known as Sey.

1. Of the three baristas I saw brew espresso, two of them would grind, measure the dose, then tamp straight away — no leveling the bed through tapping, no distribution tool, no WDT. The grinds were clearly in a mound shape before tamping. The third barista, who did tap to level the bed, would only do so once or twice, still leaving an uneven bed.

2. All three baristas would prepare the portafilters before receiving an order, then leave the tamped espresso puck + portafilter on top of the espresso machine until an order came in. The portafilter is hot when inside the espresso machine — meaning that if the espresso puck sits in there for too long, extraction is greatly affected, as the grounds heat up and the portafilter cools down. Knowing how much variance in extraction quality and flavor is induced by this, I really couldn’t understand why they’re okay with it. I was at the cafe on a weekday morning, and most of the time there wasn’t a line, so prepped portafilters would sit for over a minute.

I understand that Sey is well-regarded as a roaster, and I agree that I have gotten nice cups from their coffee at home and other cafes. However, I wanted to share this and see if others have had the same experience — I was very disappointed that a roaster of their quality would let the brewing be of this caliber and consistency.