People from Amsterdam never want to travel outside the capitol of the Netherlands. Everything you need is at a palm's reach. Although the Netherlands is a small, tiny country, everything outside of the city centre is far-far-away land for the Amsterdammers. But there are a lot of amazing cities and coffee spots to see all across the country. And so friend 'B' and I decided to put on our walking boots and 'travel'; take the trains and discover all the lovely coffee spots outside of our hometown.
Finally, after months of trying -I don't exaggerate, first it was the Reco symposium, then a sick pet, a sick human and some inconvenient calendar mix up- we made it to Leiden. Leiden, a city in South Holland, holds the oldest university of the country. The old centre is beautiful with canals, small courtyards and multiple monumental buildings. But we weren't there for all that. We wanted coffee.
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Chummy Coffee
address: Breestraat 97
espresso machine: La Marzocco PB
coffee: Caffenation
Chummy was the inspiration for our visit to Leiden. I spotted the place on instagram and wanted to check it out, and it was a good thing I did. The owners are very kind and warm people, serving a very good cup of coffee. We enjoyed a fruity Kenyan coffee brewed with a Cleverdripper, a well extracted espresso and a home made soda, with a lovely piece of chocolate-cookie like something on the side.
The atmosphere is very chilled, clean and laid-back, with lots of light wood and chalkboard painted walls. Basically, good coffee and a great place to hang out, alone of with friends. I would say my Leiden favourite. And definitely the best tasting coffee in town.
Grand Cafe van de Leur
address: Breestraat 117
espresso machine: La Marzocco FB80
coffee: White Label
The atmosphere of van de Leur is amazing. The lounge chairs in a space filled with quirky nicknack's, make it feel like the best place to hang out with friends or lovers. The high ceilinged space looks out over a courtyard, making it light and airy. The staff is super friendly and the food looks extremely tasty.
They serve beans from Amsterdam based roastery White Label. We enjoyed a somewhat milky, but tasty cappuccino. The espresso was a bit too tight, making it somewhat unpleasant to drink.
ROOS, taste and smile
address: Botermarkt 12
espresso machine: La Marzocco Linea
coffee: Single Estate
ROOS has that cafe-around-the-corner vibe, where you run in to all your friends and neighbours and have a laugh. It's a very homely and colourful place with friendly staff, and the pumpkin bread, salmon, avocado sandwiches are some of the best I've had in a while.
They served us two espresso macchiatos roasted by Single Estate. The milk looked bumpy, but tasted alright. The espresso, all though not too big in volume, tasted a bit flat and watery, but not under extracted. Not sure what happened there? Maybe it was the beans?
Borgman Borgman
address: Nieuwe Rijn 41
espresso machine: La Marzocco Linea
coffee: own roastery
The last place we visited was BorgmanBorgman. A small space with simple but well thought out and functional decorations. They roast their beans themselves and the roaster is dominantly placed in the front of shop. It was very hot inside, can't imagine what that's like with the roaster running, good thing they have a lovely terrace outside on the canal next to the Saturday market.
During our visit the sun was blasting heat on us and the city, so we ordered an iced washed Yirgacheffe drip coffee. I could have sat on that boat terrace all day and then some and have really enjoyed myself, just looking at the bustling people passing by, on either side of the canal and in boats on the canal. However the coffee was in my opinion really underdeveloped in roast, tasting mostly of grains.
Want to see more Coffee Crawl Leiden edition? Check out the album on the Coffee Strides Facebook page.
Want to read about the other Coffee Crawls? Check out the other editions.
A correct footnote "my dad was born here" 😊🏡
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