Paris Insights - The Blog

We Love Coffee is a handsome modern coffee shop located on the corner of rue Pascal and rue de Julienne in the 13th arrondissement. I stopped here to try its coffee of the day and to purchase a bag of whole beans.

Hughes was behind the counter. He prepared a cup of espresso from the coffee of the day (Cantui variety from Honduras) for me.

I did not experience any of the flavors that were listed on the package in which the coffee was presented (see the photo below),

Nonetheless, I purchased a 250-gram box to take home and prepare myself.

Back home, I ground 17 grams of the coffee beans and prepared an espresso using my 9Barista stove-top espresso machine. Over the following days I tried different grinds permitted for espresso, from the finest to the most coarse.

With each cup, I identified the taste as an agreeable sour cherry flavor.

The beans in the box are the Catuai variety, the same one that I had purchased the week before from OH LA at place Maubert. (See my review dated September 17.)

The flavor that I identified from the beans that I purchased at We Love Coffee is similar to that of the beans I purchased at OH LA. This is no surprise, given that both the variety of the bean and its means of production were the same.

The following notes were indicated on the box:

Hazel Nuts
Catuai, Natural
Chinaola, Honduras
Hazelnuts, cacao nibs, blackberries
Espresso
Roasting date: August 25, 2026
Produced by Dak Coffee Roasters in Amsterdam

We Love Coffee
52 rue Pascal
75013 Paris

Passing through the market at place Maubert on a recent Thursday morning, I came upon a stand called OH LA, where freshly made coffee was being served. I had the pleasure of meeting the proprietor, Nataly Losada, who was serving coffee beverages—hot and cold.

The coffee that Losada serves is produced from beans grown on her father’s domain in El Arrayan, Colombia.

The variety produced on the plantation is called Catuai. After harvesting, it is prepared in three different ways:

• Natural – Workers dry whole cherries in the sun before removing the outer dried fruit.
• Semi-washed – Workers remove the outer skin and pulp but leave some sticky fruit layer (mucilage) on the bean while it dries.
• Washed – Workers use machines to remove the skin and pulp right away, let the beans ferment in water, and then wash and dry them.

When the beans are received in Paris, Nataly takes them to a collective to roast them according to the way she wants the flavor and aroma to develop.

I requested a cup of the espresso of the day, a brew that was prepared from beans that had undergone the “semi-lavé” process at the plantation. I found it to be quite bitter.

I asked Nataly if she had a bean that tasted less bitter. She indicated that the beans that had undergone the “natural” process were less so.

I purchased a 250-gram bag of the recommended coffee beans and took it home to prepare espressos using my 9Barista stove-top espresso machine.

This time, instead of bitterness, an agreeable flavor of sour cherry came through, cup after cup.

The following information appears on the bag of beans that I purchased:
Variety: Catuai
Altitude: 1,800 meters
Drying method: Natural
Tasting notes: Red fruits, panela (cooked sugarcane juice), peach
Region of origin: El Roble, Oporapa Huila
Date of roasting: September 1, 2026
Specialty coffee notation: SCA +85
Roasted in Paris

OH LA
Place Maubert in the 6th arrondissement
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.