Exotica is a little café located in my old stomping grounds of Westland.
They serve Lavazza coffee which I was pleasantly surprised to find here in Kenya. Reason being that even in Seattle, there are less than three places I can name off head that also serve Lavazza coffee beans and all three do a really lousy job of it. Now Exotica used to serve Dormans coffee beans but after the owner started traveling more and finding other coffees around the world especially in Italy, they decided that they would import Italian coffee and sell that instead.
The reason for this decision was to simply bring something different to the table. This was not a condemnation of Dormans coffee beans which the folks there agreed was pretty good coffee but many places in the city served that and they simply wanted to offer something different.
I asked them about Java House. They were really polite but frank with their answer. The reason they used to use Dormans instead of Nairobi Java House is that they felf that Nairobi Java House’s coffee was not to the same standard as that of Dormans. This statement once again confirmed what I have heard from others about the fact that Dormans is a much better roaster than Java House.
The barista at Exotica made me a nice strong latte that I enjoyed. This was a big surprise to me because of my past experiences with Lavazza lattes in Seattle. I have had Lavazza coffee before in a couple of places in Seattle and I have always been disappointed… in that the lattes I have previously gotten have been pretty bad. Therefore it was a surprise to me that the barista at Exotica actually made me the first Lavazza coffee bean latte that I have actually enjoyed drinking.
Exotica used to have two locations. Their flagship store was located downtown Nairobi but that had to be closed down due to problems with the building in which they were located. They are now looking for another location downtown for their flagship store.
