Paris Insights - The Blog

I stopped at Café d’Auteur about a week ago to see what kind of espresso they were preparing.

They were brewing two types of coffee beans: one called Kenya Gichathaini and the other called Costa Rica El Salitre.

I ordered a cup of espresso prepared with the Kenya Gichathaini grain.

Served with a packet of Gavottes, the espresso exhibited a fine crema. Its flavor was full-bodied and I thought that I detected a note of tomato.

I purchased a 200g bag of the Kenyan coffee beans and took it home to prepare an espresso with my 9Barista stove-top espresso machine.

However, when I passed the beans through my Delonghi grinder, it stopped abruptly. This was due to the characteristics of the beans: they were small (1cm X 0.8 cm) and brittle. I had to remove them from the grinder and restart the process. This time, I fed a few beans through at a time, rather than dumping the normal batch of 18 grams into the hopper at once. The grinder sounded as though it was grinding little pebbles, but I succeeded in achieving a fine grind appropriate for making an espresso.

After I finally figured out how to grind the beans without clogging the grinder, I succeeded in producing an espresso that tasted much like the coffee that I had tasted at Café d’Auteur. However, the espressos that I prepared never exhibited the fine crema that I had experienced at the café.

I was left thinking that perhaps the roast had surpassed the date by which its quality was optimal for producing a crema. (There was no production date indicated on the bag.)

Café d’Auteur is a pleasant place in which to enjoy an espresso. The waitstaff is friendly and comfortable warm brown tones dominate the décor. Edison lights hang from the ceiling and framed drawings of wildlife hang on the walls. Jazzy singing and mellow saxophone played over the sound system while I sipped my coffee.

Café d’Auteur
39 Rue Mazarine
75006 Paris

I recently entered Crible Café near the Jardin des Plantes to purchase a bag of roasted coffee beans and to drink an espresso.

Samah was at the counter preparing beverages. She produced an espresso made from Natural Red Bourbon beans from the El Sunzita farm in El Salvador.

I sat at the bench next to the window and sipped the coffee, trying to determine what flavors I could detect. Samah said that one of the notes was apple. I thought that I could detect that.

The label on the hopper of the coffee grinder indicates that Gala apple, fresh hazelnut, and red grape notes are predominant. Later, while doing some research on the Internet, I learned that prune is also noted as a flavor.

The café is tiny, but its small size did not discourage customers from stopping by for coffee. Cappuccino seemed to be the preferred beverage.

I purchased a 250g bag of Natural Red Bourbon roasted beans, took it home, and prepared an espresso with my 9Barista stove-top espresso machine. The quality of the espresso that I produced was much like the espresso that I tasted at Crible. I later determined that the most predominant note was prune.

Samah told me that the beans are roasted at a coffee roasting facility located near place de la Bastille.

Crible
75, rue Buffon
75005 Paris

I recently went to a small café called Ten Belles, located in the 6th arrondissement, to purchase some roasted coffee beans.

I asked the barista which espressos they were preparing that day. She mentioned two single-origin and one blended coffee. When she said that the blend, called Le Mixtape, had notes of chocolate, I decided to order that.

Le Mixtape was a combination of beans from Brazil and Colombia, specifically, Rio Brilhante and Huitaca. The coffee is roasted at the company’s coffee roasting facility in the 20th arrondissement of Paris.

As it was lunchtime, I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich, called Veggie Toastie.

I ate the sandwich first. It consisted of grated Comté cheese prepared with parsley and sliced and cooked button mushrooms between two slices of grilled wheat bread. It was wonderfully flavorful and it satisfied my noontime hunger.

I then took a sip of water and tasted the espresso. It did indeed have chocolate flavor, just as the barista had proclaimed.

I purchased a 250g bag of the Mixtape blend, took it home, ground a portion, and then prepared an espresso that tasted much like the one that I had experienced at Ten Belles. I also noted that the brew was unctuous with rich, full-bodied flavor. The brewing process produced a robust crema.

The interior of Ten Belles is small, with seating available at four small tables. (There is additional sidewalk seating.) I was able to get an inside table at the window, with a view of the interior of the shop. I felt lucky to get a table at all, because there was a constant flow of customers coming in to place orders. I believe that most of them were there to order takeout, so the tables did not fill up quickly.

The personnel behind the counter were helpful and answered all of my questions. They did not serve customers at the tables. Rather, they called the customers to pick up the order at the counter once it was ready. I was called to the counter twice: once for the espresso and a second time for the grilled sandwich.

Ten Belles
53, rue du Cherche Midi
75006 Paris