Paris Insights - The Blog

Terres de Café at 14, rue Rambuteau
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net

Back in January, I posted an article about a great blend that I enjoyed called Mélange Parfait Expresso, which I had purchased at Terres de Café located on rue des Blancs Manteaux.

On Tuesday before last I went to their store on rue Rambuteau to see what they were brewing. I learned that they sell an espresso of the day for only 1€, a good price if ever there was one. The coffee on that particular day was Brésil Monte Alegre, an estate-grown coffee from Minas Gerais, one of the 26 states in Brazil.

I purchase a cup at the counter and carried it to one of the two tables on the sidewalk terrace. There, I drank the espresso without adding sugar so that I could distinguish its qualities. I found it to be strong (as an espresso should be), full-bodied, smooth, and fruity with no bitterness. No sugar needed to bring out the flavor!

I returned to the counter and purchased 250 grams of the same coffee, whole-bean, for 7.40€ and took it home to brew it in my French coffee press. I was never able to recapture the full flavor of that espresso using a coffee press—after all, how could I? I was using a different brewing method! But still, I was able to produce a cup of coffee with a strong, pleasantly smooth, slightly fruity, slightly-sweet flavor.

Terres de Café now has a third store, located at
13 rue d’Aligre
75012 Paris
Tel: 01.43.41.88.57

Brézil Monte Alegre Served As Espresso at Terres de Café
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net

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Nouvelle Torréfaction
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net

Recently, I stopped by the Nouvelle Torréfaction coffee-roasting boutique while doing research in the Goutte d’Or neighborhood for a guided walking tour.

Prices of fresh-roasted coffee here are quite reasonable compared to the prices that I have been paying at other shops around town. I purchased 250 grams of whole-bean Ethiopian Mocha Sidamo for 3.20€. At the shop in my neighborhood where I normally buy coffee, 250 grams of Sidamo costs 6.80€.

Curious as to whether there might be a difference in quality between the lower-priced Sidamo and the higher-priced one, I purchased the same amount from my customary shop. Taking both back to my place, I brewed them separately in a French press and tasted them. Both have a full-bodied bitter-chocolate flavor. The only difference that I could detect was that the Sidamo from Nouvelle Torréfaction tasted slightly sweet, not at all unpleasant.

Naturally, I favor paying the lower price over a higher one for what seems to be the same coffee, but, alas, the savings in price is defeated by the length of time that it takes to get to the Goutte d’Or neighborhood—45 minutes by metro!

Coffee-Roasting Machine
at Nouvelle Torréfaction
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net

Nouvelle Torréfaction
14 Rue Poissonniers
75018 Paris
Telephone: 01.46.06.01.57

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Jean-Claude Lesage, Proprietor
Cafés Estrella
(c) Discover Paris!

Cafés Estrella is a coffee-roasting facility located at 34, rue Saint-Sulpice, right across the street from Saint-Sulpice church. I have often passed it by without paying too much attention until, just recently, I noticed that the store received a mention in the book Les Meilleurs Commerces de Bouche de Paris (Impalla Editions, 2011). And so, I decided to drop in and purchase some fresh-roasted coffee.

The proprietor, Jean-Claude Lesage, was busy filling orders when I walked into the store. At the same time, the blade in the cooling tray of his coffee-roasting machine was churning freshly-roasted beans to bring them down to room temperature.

I spotted Rwanda coffee among the coffees that he was selling and purchased a 250-gram bag of the medium-roast, whole-bean product for 6€. After taking it home, grinding it, and brewing it in my French press, I tasted it and imagined that its rich flavor was similar to bitter chocolate. So, on the very next occasion I went by the Michel Cluizel chocolate shop on rue Saint-Honoré and purchased a 30-gram tablet of “Noir Infini 99%” chocolate. Back home again, I brewed another batch of Rwanda coffee and compared its taste to the dark chocolate from Michel Cluizel. To my mind, they have a similar bitter, robust taste. Though neither of these products will please those who require sweetness in their coffee and chocolate, I find their flavors quite agreeable.

As well as a dozen varieties of coffee, Cafés Estrella also sells tea, honey, confections, artisanal spice bread, and cookies. The store is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 2:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Bonne dégustation!

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Brûlerie Artisanale
(c) Discover Paris!

The Brûlerie Artisanale is a coffee-roasting facility located at 7, rue du Rendez-vous in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. As well as fresh-roasted coffees, the shop sells a great variety of teas, chocolates, and confections. The proprietors are a husband and wife team; their names are Jacky and Clotilde.

Clotilde, who hails from Spain, took time to tell me about their selection. Many of their coffees are single-origin, including beans from Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, Hawaii, and New Guinea. I selected 250 grams of whole-bean coffee from the Dominican Republic, selling for 21.60€/kilogram. The chalkboard on which they had written descriptions of the different coffees indicated that the flavor of the Dominican Republic coffee was “intense” and “explosive,” with notes of “prune and zest of citrus.”

Back home, I brewed the coffee in my French press. Upon tasting it, I found its flavor robust and intense. The aroma of the coffee is quite sweet, and while I agree that it has the fragrance of prune, I could not detect zest of citrus. Nonetheless, it is a smooth, rich, and fully satisfying coffee.

Jacky (left) and Clotilde (right)
(c) Discover Paris!

Jackie told me that he roasts his coffees until the beans display the color of “robe de moine” (medium roast).

The Brûlerie Artisanale is a great place to shop for small gifts of chocolates and confections to take to the folks back home, as well as for single-origin coffee from different parts of the world.

Bonne dégustation!

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Lapeyronie
(c) Discover Paris!

I stopped by Lapeyronie, a coffee-roaster and vendor located at 9, rue Brantôme in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. Eager to try a single-origin coffee, my eyes alighted on a jar containing Galapagos coffee beans. The price of this coffee is about twice what one would pay for a good-quality coffee, but I threw caution to the wind and purchased 125 grams for 6.85€.

Galapagos Coffee
(c) Discover Paris!

The coffee comes from the Galapagos Islands, an archipelago that lies off the coast of Ecuador. These are the islands that Charles Darwin explored in 1835.

From the information that I have been able to glean from the Internet, the coffee comes from a specific island named San Cristobal and is an original Bourbon variety brought from Panama and planted by a certain Manuel Cobos. After his death in 1904, the trees continue to flourish in the island’s rich micro-climate. During the 1990s, a family purchased the land and, realizing the quality of the coffee that the trees produce, re-established the plantation.

After grinding a small quantity of beans, I brewed them in my French press. The aroma that rose from the press as I poured in the hot water was sweet and, to my sense of smell, malty. Upon tasting, I found the coffee to be medium-bodied with no trace of bitterness and to have the flavor of sweet, dark malt. A number of coffee aficionados on the Internet have described the taste as caramel. However one describes it, the coffee has a smooth, rich flavor and is a pleasure to drink!

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Roasted Coffee Display at Hédiard
(Coffee Roaster in Background)
(c) Discover Paris!

I stopped by the gourmet food emporium Hédiard at place de la Madeleine recently to see what kinds of tempting sweets I could find. This store carries an amazing variety of confections, spices, spirits, wines, fresh fruits, cheeses, teas… I could go on and on, because it’s a gourmand’s paradise! But what caught my eye on this day was the store’s display of a wide selection of coffee beans and its fire-engine-red coffee roaster.

The store clerk told me that Hédiard roasts four of the coffees that it sells. Presumably this means that it gets its other roasted coffee beans from an outside source, but no matter. I selected 250 grams of the in-store-roasted, whole-bean Mélange Hédiard, a blend of Arabica coffee beans from three countries: Brazil, Ethiopia, and Burundi. When I took the coffee home and brewed it, I found the store’s description of the product to be accurate: “strong, dense, and aromatic.” I would also add “full bodied with a slight note of cinnamon.”

After I paid for my purchase, I walked to the coffee roaster to take a picture of it. The clerk waited patiently, then, as I was leaving, hit the start button to begin the process of roasting a new batch of coffee beans. I wish I had had the time to linger awhile to smell the wonderful aromas that must have wafted from the machine!

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Panama "La Torcaza&#34
(c) Discover Paris!

In 1880, August Woehrlé opened his shop Verlet at 256, rue Saint-Honoré selling rice, spices, teas, and coffees. In 1965, his grandson, Pierre Verlet, began stocking and roasting single-estate coffees. Eric Duchossoy, who was born into a family of coffee roasters, took over the direction of the shop in 1995. He proposes a wide variety of fresh-roasted coffee beans from locations around the world, including Asia, the Americas, and Africa.

I stopped by and purchased 250 grams of whole-bean Panama “La Torzca,” which I took home and brewed in my French press. The coffee comes from the Boquete growing region in the Chiriqui province of Panama. Verlet describes the coffee as fine and fruity, and balanced with notes of roasted peanut, currant bud, and dark chocolate.

I find the flavor fruity and slightly sweet with no bitter aftertaste. However, it lacks the robustness and depth of the Mélange Parfait that I reported in my blog of January 12. Perhaps that coffee will be the standard by which I judge all other coffees, be they single-estate or blends!

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Terres de Café at 32, rue des Blancs Manteaux
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net

While we were looking for a bakery from which to buy a galette des Rois last week, we came upon a smart-looking shop selling fresh-roasted coffee beans called Terres de Café. The store sells only café de terroirs—coffees coming from specific regions of specific countries, such as Ethiopia Anfiloo or Guatemala Attila SHB Huehuetenango.

The shop is rather small, but the owners have found room to install a counter from which they serve espresso coffee. When we entered, a few customers were enjoying their cup of java there.

In response to his question about what kind of coffee I was looking for, I told the clerk that I was looking for a coffee that was not too strong…but not too weak. He replied that I was trying to do a grand écart, implying that it would be impossible to bring the opposites together in one brew! Then he took a giant step and stood legs wide apart (a grand écart), showing how awkward this was. I suspect that some customers might have felt put off by this response, but having lived in France for eighteen years, I am used to the French expressing their ideas in ironic, sometimes oddly humoristic ways.

He proposed a house blend called Mélange Parfait Expresso consisting of four cafés de terroirs: India, Sumatra, Brazil, and Ethiopia.

Selection of Coffees
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net

I purchased a 250-gram bag of whole bean for 6.50€ and took it home to try it out, using my French press to brew the coffee. I found the aroma slightly sweet, and the taste to be full-bodied, smooth, and slightly sweet with no bitter aftertaste. Neither too strong nor too weak, it is a perfect grand écart!

The clerk told me that I should try the bakery Pain de Sucre for the perfect galette des Rois. I blogged about the bakery and its galettes last Wednesday. He also mentioned that Terres de Café has a larger shop next door to the bakery, where there is more room to enjoy an espresso at the counter.

Terres de Café
32, rue des Blancs Manteaux
75004 Paris
Tel: 01.42.72.33. 29

14, rue Rambuteau
75003 Paris
Tel: 01.42.78.49.79

Mélange Parfait Expresso
Photo by www.DiscoverParis.net

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Brûlerie Daval
(c) Discover Paris!

Passersby on rue Daval will not readily spot this shop selling fresh-roasted coffee. To find it, they have to turn down cour Damoye, a beautiful little passageway that leads to place de la Bastille.

Madame D’Amico opened the Brûlerie Daval with her husband shortly after the end of WWII. It has an old-time look, with open bags of roasted coffee beans on the counter displaying signs with hand-printed labels indicating the names and prices of the coffee. Bins of tea rise up on shelves behind the counter. Inside the shop there is a small table that can accommodate two coffee drinkers. A few tables and chairs stand on the sidewalk terrace in front of the store.

Madame D’Amico sells mostly blended coffees. She states that it is almost impossible to find an unblended coffee that is perfectly equilibrated: these may have too much perfume or too much acidity; if they have good flavor, they are not strong bodied; if they are strong bodied, they don’t have enough flavor; and so on.

I purchased 250 grams of “Nouveau Mélange Corsé” for 3.60€. Madame D’Amico would not divulge the specific coffees in the blend, stating only that one of the coffees was from Central America and the other was a Moka. I can understand her reticence at revealing the recipe. After all, top chefs do not want to reveal their secrets either!

Madame D'Amico
(c) Discover Paris!

Nouveau Mélange Corsé is an Italian roast—its beautiful dark-brown beans glisten with oil. Back at the apartment, I ground the beans and prepared the brew in a French coffee press. The coffee had a bold, robust flavor. As I drank it, I remembered learning that when coffee beans are dark roasted—as these are—it is mostly the roast that one tastes, not the beans themselves.

The second time I went in to buy coffee, Madame D’Amico quoted a few lines of poetry from Rimbaud and expressed her admiration for Beaudelaire. I ordered the “W. goût délicieuse,” which is a lighter roast than the Nouveau Mélange Corsé. I asked Madame D’Amico what the “W” stood for. She said that it is simply the name that she gave it so that customers could identify it if they wanted to order it again. I have not had a chance to brew and taste this one, as I have not yet finished drinking the Nouveau Mélange Corsé.

Madame D’Amico told me that she gets lots of customers from Japan. Apparently, her shop has been listed in Japanese guidebooks and reviewed in the Japanese press. She also said that a number of customers have requested that she ship coffee to them.

Brulerie Daval
12, rue Daval
75011 Paris
Tel.: 01.48.05.29.46
Open every day except Mondays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Nouveau Melange Corsé
(c) Discover Paris!

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