Cool Coffee Bars in Downtown Athens

First of all, Athens and its surroundings have numerous great cafes and the coffee culture is very vivid. Two exceptional coffee bars stand out in the city centre of Athens: Tailor Made and Taf Coffee. These two coffee bars are very cool and modern yet still have a unique local atmosphere and most importantly they serve high quality coffee.

Tailor Made Micro Roastery and Cocktail Bar

Plateia Agia Irini 2, Monastiraki
Athens, Greece

www.tailormade.gr/

Tailor Made is an absolutely cool coffee (and cocktail) bar – a place for afternoon coffee and snacks during the day and cocktails at night. The place is beautifully made with natural colors and elements but what was in my opinion the absolutely coolest element was the brown leather aprons the baristas were wearing! The leather aprons highlighted nicely the craftsmanship of the barista work and I must say they looked very sexy too.

On our visit to Tailor Made we had ice-coffee, a regular cappuccino (fabulous!), a sandwich and a delicious raspberry cheesecake (in a jar). All of them tasted just right and were soon gone. Tailor Made also has its own micro roastery and I bought some coffee beans for home as well – I just could not resist their pink coffee packages of Ethiopian beans. You’ll see the pink coffee package soon on my Instagram and perhaps here on the blog as well.   

At Tailor Made's bar on the wall there is a carved mural of a man’s face. Later I found out the man is architect Ernst Ziller who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a major designer of royal and municipal buildings in Athens. 

Taf Coffee

Em. Benaki 7-9
Athens, Greece
www.cafetaf.gr/

Taf Coffee is famous for their roastery and baristas who have done well in the international coffee competitions (World Barista Championship and Brewers Cup). But that’s not all - the founder and CEO of Taf Coffee, Yiannis Taloumis, has received SCAE’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. Based on all the recognition they have had they are truly committed to coffee at Taf. Naturally, when visiting Athens a cup of cappuccino at Taf was on my list! I visited their coffee shop right in the city center. Their roastery is located outside of Athens in an industrial suburb – hopefully next time I have the chance to visit the famous roastery as well.

Helsinki Coffee Tour 2.2.2014

On the first Sunday of February I took part to a coffee tour in Helsinki organized by Hanna-Maria Huhtonen from Mustana blog. The program of the tour was packed with the trendiest coffee shops in Helsinki and a visit to a coffee roastery. The tour started with morning coffee at Johan&Nyström's coffee shop by the sea in Katajanokka. I was there a little early and had time to enjoy a morning cappuccino and read some magazines before the tour started.  Other coffee shops on the tour were Fratello's siphon coffee bar in central Helsinki, Good Life Coffee in Kallio and Freese Coffee Co in Töölö. Most of the people on the tour moved from one place to the other by bicycle - even the snowy roads did not bother thirsty coffee fans.

Coffee made with the siphon was on the menu at Fratello Torrefazione. The video on Fratellos’s website shows what happens in siphon coffee making - it is like a visit to chemistry lab.

The tour also included a visit to Kaffa Roastery's roastery at a temporary location in Teurastamo area at Helsingin kahvipaahtimo's facilities. At the roastery coffee roaster Michael Akins introduced how the system of coffee roasting works and what happens to the beans in roasting. He also gave a demonstration by roasting one batch of beans. At the roastery we also tasted a new roast of Bolivian beans and got some samples to take home.

The party really got started at Freese's where we tasted three different coffees prepared by Finnish barista champion Kalle Freese in frespresso style (filter coffee made on the espresso machine). After all the coffee drinking people had a cheerful feel and caffeine levels hitting the roof.

The tour gathered around twenty coffee enthusiasts to learn about coffee roasting and brewing, spend time together, talk about coffee, and of course drink a lot of coffee. This was a first time for a coffee tour like this but hopefully more is to come. The participants seemed to be locals but I think tourists visiting Helsinki would enjoy this kind of program as well. The café culture definitely belongs to the top reasons to visit Helsinki.

POC People On Caffeine

POC People On Caffeine and CaffeCouture (pictures of CaffeCouture in this earlier post) – coffee bars in Vienna - have been nominated in the category for "Best Independent Coffee Shop Europe 2013" by the European Coffee Awards. According to the European Coffee Awards this year the awards especially recognise and promote company and individual excellence across the sector. POC definitely fits well in the category in terms of individuality. POC is a third wave coffee bar and represents the young independent trendy coffee culture in Vienna.

On my resent trip to Vienna I had a chance get a cup of POC caffeine. My dose – a cappuccino – looked in the cup so good that I would have not wanted to break the art on top. Taste of coffee is naturally the most important thing and this cup was of top quality.

POC coffee bar is actually located in a corner basement of a church.  The place itself is small and their bar design is very rough and unconvential compared to traditional cafes. If you wish to sit down to enjoy the coffee there are only a few chairs available. The location is close to the University of Vienna and I guess their customers are mostly young adults taking their coffee on their way to school. The place is a must for coffee geeks but if you are looking for traditional Viennese coffee houses, this is not the place. I will publish a review of in my opinion the best traditional coffee houses in Vienna here later.

The coffee bar is almost hidden in this quiet street corner. 

POC People On Caffeine

Schlösselgasse 21

Vienna, Austria

ADD Café brings light to poor coffee scene in Otaniemi campus

ADD Café is the first espresso café in Otaniemi campus area in Espoo, Finland. The Cafe is run by Aalto university students and located at the lobby of Aalto digital design laboratory. Opened in January 2013 Add café is a long waited alternative for all the lunch canteen cafes serving only regular coffee and coffee from the coffee machines. I wonder how it has been possible for all this time that the busy campus area has not had a single proper café serving speciality coffees?

The location of the café can be somewhat challenging and does not really attract people to stop by accidentally. On the other hand this makes the place feel even more special and underground I would say. The interior of the café is all white with very modern wooden chairs and tables. It looks actually very nice and has somewhat a futuristic feeling in it. Maybe a cosy sofa would make it even better and I am pretty sure the students would like it too. Their cappuccino tasted good and smooth and also the cranberry cookie I once had there was good. Still, I would prefer a wider selection of pastry – chocolate pralines could be a good alternative to start. Anyway, if you are in the Otaniemi area this is practically the only place for decent coffee.

ADD Café opens again after summer break on 2^nd of September!

Suomeksi: Otaniemessä on tarjolla muutakin kuin automaattikahvia!

ADD Cafe

Sähkömiehentie 4G, Espoo, Finland