Espresso Bar Run : Mucho Gusto Hasselt

The current Belgian cup tasting champ is called Roel Driesen. And the bar he opened in Hasselt, Limburg is called Mucho Gusto.

At the Zuivelmarkt 44 we encounter this passionate coffee professional. Since 3 or 4 years we meet one another in bars or at cupping tables and we quickly found out that our taste buds were matching.
The same thing happened today at Mucho Gusto. The moment the coffee aroma's are touching our nostrils and tongue we go searching for tastes and have a fun time doing so.

Test results : The Los Lajones on V60 was a joy. The decision to keep extraction around the 2 minute mark seemed to be the right one for this small cup. Yes, a 15cl filter coffee is kinda small and maybe it would be wiser to enlarge this. The work load is the same, but the joy of a 25 or 30cl cup is bigger.


It was very clean and fruity and the cooling down just brilliant. Excellent job Roel.
The Sidamo (Operation Cherry Red) was good but not very good. I can't tell why but the finish was a tad to bitter for me. Not bad at all, but compared to the Panama....

Also his Barista techniques at the espresso machine (Della Corte - combed with a classic Mahlkonig K30) were good. You can see this man prepared himself really well for the job.


The interior was a bit too posh for my liking. Besides of some old brown cafés and Shanti Beans I think all Hasselt bars are too clean and shiny and not very personal. I heard you have to do it this way in Hasselt. Pffff, don't believe the hype Roel and gimme some more of this vintage Jazz and coffee house feel.

So one more excellent espresso bar (with some Caffenation beans) in Belgium to discover.