Search for the Great South African Cup of Coffee: Arabella Sheraton

by Fred Roed on 25/03/07 at 10:51 am
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I got stood up the other day.

At the Arabella Sheraton no less. Not a place to be seen wandering around with a lost look on your face and checking your watch. The Arabella is for people who know where they are, and know where the hell they’re going. The trick, I observed as the Armani-clad clientelle whisked past me, is to be in a rush – whether you’re on your way to close a million dollars or clean your gold cufflinks.

A non-arrival is a pretty crappy way to start a morning, but fortunately there was an upside. The Maitre-D felt sorry for me, so she delivered me a cappuccino – on the house. I’m not sure if she would’ve been as keen had she known I was a impulsive coffee reviewer. For this simple act of kindness alone I wanted to give it a 10, but, since Ideate is an honest blog, I have to be impartial.

I wanted to like it, I really did, but unfortunately it didn’t quite cut it.

Good marks for presentation, with a great looking sugar-coated swizzle stick, but it just couldn’t escape that Wimpy flavour. I’ve written about it before: that conveyor-belt ‘ordinariness’. It’s drinkable, but coffee is supposed to be strong and imposing, not light and frothy. Larry King; not Will & Grace.

Anyway, I’m grateful for the experience. I have to say that meeting in a place like this has merit. Definitely a ‘deal clincher’. Breakfast looks awesome too, but at R140pp you’d expect that…

In a last sad attempt at survival, the sugar clung tenously to the spoon

Location: Arabella Sheraton, Cape Town International Convention Centre
Lower Long Street
Phone: 021 4129999
Internet: Wifi, iBurst 100%
Plugpoints: one – tucked away in the corner
Cappuccino price: R12

Meeting potential out of ten: 9
Coffee rating out of ten: 5

Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.

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