Espresso Alchemy

Roast-to-order beans behind the bar

The beans are roasted to order, which is a rare thing to find behind a café counter in a shopping centre. Espresso Alchemy began in 2011 when a Melbournian brought coffee and café culture to Hong Kong through a small roastery and café, and it now runs as a multi-branch specialty roastery group with cafés, wholesale supply, coffee classes, drip bags, equipment and tea. The Mira Place shop in Tsim Sha Tsui follows the same model: a café supplied by its own roastery rather than a counter built on guest beans. Named lots have included Colombia-Montoya, Ethiopia-Tadelech Lole, Ethiopia-Abera, Colombia-Erazo, Brazil-Hervaz and Indonesia-Rahmah, and the bar pours espresso, flat white, cappuccino, cold brew, single-origin brew coffee, matcha and a few sweeter signature drinks.

A sit-down room in Tsim Sha Tsui

This is a coffee-and-meal stop rather than a three-minute espresso window. The Mira Place branch offers a calmer pause from the intensity of the surrounding shopping and hotel district, with counter-based ordering and then a proper table to settle at. The current first-floor room replaced an older basement unit and is prettier, more spacious and considerably easier to sit in, with plants and orange-red tones warming it up. That matters because the proposition is not only espresso: the kitchen turns out wholesome cooked meals and health-conscious plates, desserts and vegetarian breakfast options, so a mixed table can come for coffee, matcha and something more substantial than a pastry.

What to order first

Start with the single-origin brew coffee, which gives the clearest view of the roasting. The bean list leans heavily on Ethiopia and Colombia, with Brazil and Indonesia alongside, so ask which lot is open rather than defaulting to a blend. A flat white or cappuccino is the first milk-coffee route, and cold brew is the obvious chilled order in a Hong Kong summer. For a non-coffee path, matcha is part of the conversation here and the wider range includes tea. The café was placed thirty-first in The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops for 2026, a list judged on coffee quality, service, atmosphere and food, and the founder is Hong Kong's first CQI Q-grader and a judge at World Barista Championship and World Brewers Cup events, which explains why the safest first order remains coffee.