Scandinavian Embassy, Amsterdam

I'm not yet in Nordics but still get my FIKA experience here!

Scandinavian Embassy: The Cafe

It’s quite easy to be misled by this clever name. There is no embassy by name Scandinavian 😊 You don’t get your Visa here but can certainly have a great FIKA time.

Perhaps, this is the only place in Amsterdam where you get to explore the most unusual Scandinavian dishes served alongside exquisite coffee and probably the best cinnamon buns in town.  And if you’re lucky you get an amazing treat called Øllebrød -It is a porridge or thick soup made of sourdough rye bread (rugbrød) and beer (often hvidtøl)

My Danish friend taught me this word : Janteloven and I really like it a lot! Janteloven is the law of Jante:  at its simplest describes the way that all Scandinavians behave: putting society ahead of the individual, not boasting about individual accomplishments, and not being jealous of others.

When a city’s specialty coffee scene skyrockets, you often witness a sudden wave of businesses that open up across different neighbourhoods, each with its own story and trying new spins. But in the end, they all offer similar things. Usually, a variety of espresso-based drinks, maybe some filter coffees, certainly carrot cake and banana bread and possibly some selection of sandwiches. That is what you will find across most of Amsterdam Cafes these days, with varying degrees of quality.

Then Scandinavian Embassy happened, blazing a new trail which is yet to be matched by anyone else in the city. Founders Nicolas Castagno and Rikard Andersson wanted to do something different, something extra ordinary, something that sets the bar higher.

They first met in Argentina many years ago when Rikard was there on a student exchange program and later Nicolas moved to Sweden where he became a barista and won the Swedish brewers cup in 2013. Shortly after, they moved to Amsterdam to set up Scandinavian Embassy (joined by Rikard’s girlfriend Dominika), in a city that at that very moment was discovering its specialty coffee soul.

These days, Scandinavian Embassy is widely regarded as one of the best coffee places in the city, regularly rotating its coffee menu from The Coffee Collective to Koppi and Drop Coffee. ‘Scandi’ as locals affectionately call it,is the only place in the city where you can savour the latest single origins from some of finest roasters in Nordics. Scandinavian Embassy popularised Nordic roasters in Amsterdam and was the first place where you could get fresh handmade cinnamon and cardamom buns.

The café’s interiors are completely based on Nordic design theme with accents on wooden finishes, clean white walls (mostly unfinished) and custom designed counters.

Koppi Roastery, Sweden

Located in the heart of Helsingborg, Koppi was founded in 2007 by Swedish baristas Anne Lunell and Charles Nystrand.

The core of Koppi's business is the coffee roaster and offering the best and most delicious coffee possible. In 2017, the café in Helsingborg and Malmö was closed, and the team behind focused on the roastery in southern Helsingborg. They still occasionally hold pop-up cafes, either in the roastery or at events around the world, but the focus is on roasting great coffee and high quality. Every year, you can meet Koppi at the Danish Coffee Festival in Valby.

For many, Koppi is synonymous with the best coffee produced in Sweden.

Kianderi Coffee Farm, Kenya

Kianderi is a cooperative of coffee producers located in the Kirinyaga district south of mount Kenya.  We've been buying coffee from them since 2016, and this year we had to purchase and import the coffee entirely ourselves, which presented a few interesting challenges! 

Kianderi is a washing station linked to the larger Inoi cooperative. About 500 coffee-producing farmers deliver their cherry to the washing station and are paid cash on delivery. Kenya coffee is usually produced by small-hold farmers, often with just a few hundred trees, who will harvest from their trees every few days and deliver to a centralized collection point or washing station for processing. 

Tasting Notes:

This is a great example of a wonderful Kenyan coffee with well-balanced, clean flavours. You can expect juicy fruit flavours that include blackcurrant, rhubarb, sweet citrus and wonderful brown sugar sweetness. 

• Roastery : Koppi, Sweden

• Coffee Origin : Kenya

• Region : Nyeri

• Variety : SL28, SL34

• Roast Type : Filter

• Roast Level : Light to Medium Light

• Process : Washed

• Flavour Profile : Redberry fruit, Cranberries, Juicy fruit

• Brewing Method : Aeropress, Chemex, French Press, Hario V60, Siphon