Cafelogue No.49 & this time the scene shifts to the Capital of Central & Eastern Europe: WARSAW it is

CoffeeDesk Kawiarnia, Warsaw, Poland

CoffeeDesk : Super impressive name for a coffeeplace, which for a difference encourages its customers to check-in with their laptops and literally use the place as Coffee Desks. It’s more like a cross over between a nice café & a co-working space.

The sprawling place I visited was in Warsaw city center.  However, CoffeeDesk began its journey almost 8years ago with their first specialty coffeeplace in Kołobrzeg, a small town on the Baltic Sea. Back then, they were also running  one of the biggest online stores in Europe with all types coffee equipment. They chose the current location in the Capital of Poland as it was close to many other restaurants, bars, offices, main streets and tram lines. People just drop by all day long to grab a coffee, do business meetings or just chill with cold brews 😊

This place sports a bright, peppy design with accents of wood, comfortable seating of different styles which are good for working as well as relaxing. The spacious café gets great amount of sunshine with outdoor tables and low garden armchairs. While you can relax and chill happily, this place buzzes with people all day long adding the vibrancy.

CoffeeDesk serves a wide selection of international roasters, giving space to many small & big roasters from around Europe. Five Elephant, Johan&Nystrom, Gardelli Specialty Roasters, Hayb, Flow, Father’s Coffee Roasters are few of the roasters they were carrying this summer.

Over the bar counter, you can’t help but notice the beautiful turquoise La Marzocco Strada machine, dishing out espressos and other espresso based drinks to the thirsty public. The other equipment on the bar is a Mahlkoenig grinder, couple of Eureka ATOM grinders and a Bunn batch brewer.

Good to know that their online store is still running very well. I witnessed quite a lot of people who ordered online picking up their coffees and gear at the store.

The staff is very well trained and offer a 5-Star experience with their hospitality. We tasted Ethiopia Biftu Gudina Organic from Five Elephant Roasters, Berlin in Chemex method.

Ethiopia Biftu Gudina Organic from Five Elephant Roasters, Berlin

Five Elephant Roastery is a specialty coffee roastery, artisanal bakery, and small group of Berlin neighborhood cafes located in the heart of Germany’s capital. More on it when I visit the beautiful city of Berlin.. But for now, I’ll talk about the coffee farm in Ethiopia.

Biftu Gudina is a special coffee at Five Elephant. They started working with Biftu Gudina in 2013, just a year after they began, and when they were still in the process of construction. Over the years the cooperative has moved through different export unions, which has had a detrimental effect on the quality of the coffee. Now with two washing stations and more than 600 members, the quality is returning to that of its stunning past.

This lot is part of a small and carefully curated selection of coffees from the west, which Five Elephant has sourced with their long-time export partners at Nordic Approach. The cooperative was established through an NGO called Technoserve. They are located in Agaro, close to Jimma in the west of Ethiopia, known lately for very flavor-intense, floral, and spicy coffees with extraordinary complexity and uniqueness.

Before these cooperatives were established, the farmers were mainly producing lower-grade naturals sold as Jimma Grade 5. The coffee cherries are chosen from smallholders with less than 3 hectares per farm. All coffees selected are grown around and above 1900 meters above sea level. The cooperative is using Penagos eco pulpers, which contribute to the coffee's brilliant clarity of cup, it is hardly fermented during processing. After pulping, the coffees are often soaked under clean water overnight before they are dried on raised tables.

• PRODUCER : Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union

• FARM : Approx. 130 smallhold farmers

• REGION : Agaro, Kaffa, Ethiopia

• VARIETAL : Ethiopian Heirloom

• PROCESS : Washed & sun-dried on raised beds

• ELEVATION : 1800 - 1900 masl

• FLAVOR: Magnolia, red plum, and earl grey tea

P.S: Kawiarnia in Polish language means Cafe’