France
is a land of fine things. The French pride themselves on their fine wine, fine
food and fine fashion. Unfortunately, as most of you have probably discovered,
the coffee in France is far from fine. It is indeed very much not fine. This
should not, however, come as a surprise. Nobody is perfect, and the French are
no exception. Sure, in France you might find 750 euro caviar, succulent boeuf bourgignon in five-star restaurants and
seafood platters fit for a king. However, you will also find that the French
are the second biggest consumers of McDonald's in the world and that most
people prefer powdered to real mashed potato.
So, like
me, you will also have noticed that the French have settled for second-class
coffee. Yep, that bitter, burnt, black beverage that you find in your cup after
ordering un café, s'il vous
plaît is French coffee.
Fortunately, Paris has been surfing the third wave of coffee for the past few
years. The specialty coffee business is in full flight in France's capital, and
it is no longer impossible to drink a decent cup in the City of Light.
The
aim of this site is to provide a directory of the places in Paris that, broadly speaking, fall into
the "specialty" or "third-wave" coffee category. Generally, this means that the café
uses a high-quality machine, non-UHT milk, freshly and locally roasted coffee
beans and employs well-trained baristas. The result is that the café serves
coffee that one might find in places like Sydney, Auckland, New York, or other
cities that have already adopted this kind of coffee culture.
As the number of such cafés in Paris increases, so does the variety of the cafés. Whether it's a specialty espresso bar, a restaurant, a cupcake shop or an art gallery, as long as they aim to serve the kind of coffee typical of the third-wave culture, they will be on this site. This means that the quality of the coffee may vary from place to place, but since my aim is not so much to critically review as to provide a list, I will leave the more subjective points for the comments section.
As the number of such cafés in Paris increases, so does the variety of the cafés. Whether it's a specialty espresso bar, a restaurant, a cupcake shop or an art gallery, as long as they aim to serve the kind of coffee typical of the third-wave culture, they will be on this site. This means that the quality of the coffee may vary from place to place, but since my aim is not so much to critically review as to provide a list, I will leave the more subjective points for the comments section.
Like
John Cleese (playing the Pope) said in Monty Python's Michelangelo sketch,
after being presented with said artist's latest proposal for the Last Supper in
which he had painted twenty-eight disciples, three Messiahs and a kangaroo:
"I
don't know much about art, but I know what I like!".
I'm
not a barista and I'm certainly no coffee expert, but I sure do love me a tasty
flat white.
All comments, suggestions and extra info regarding the cafés mentioned are most welcome. If you would like to contribute, feel free to get in touch. You can contact me here in English or French. I also have approximately zero knowledge of web design, so if you notice something terrible on the site don't hesitate to point it out.
All comments, suggestions and extra info regarding the cafés mentioned are most welcome. If you would like to contribute, feel free to get in touch. You can contact me here in English or French. I also have approximately zero knowledge of web design, so if you notice something terrible on the site don't hesitate to point it out.
