People from Amsterdam never want to travel outside the capitol of the lowlands. Everything you need is at a palm's reach. Although the Netherlands is a small, tiny country, everything outside of the ring is far far away land for the Amsterdammers. And so, most coffee places I know in the Netherlands are located in Amsterdam. Of course I can name others, but most I have never seen in real life with my own eyes. And so my friend 'B' and me decided to travel. Take the trains and discover all the lovely coffee spots outside of our hometown.
The second stop on our coffee crawl; Arnhem. Below you can read about our adventures. And adventures they were. Before sharing coffees with you, let me give you a summary on Arnhem. Normally it takes an hour to get to Arnhem by train. Now big city people all across the world probably do not think that an hour is a very long time. It takes more than an hour to get to the other side of London. But for small tinie tiny Holland, one hour is a long time. And this time it was even worse, it took me more than two hours. Shame on you Dutch railway system...
Having said that, I really enjoyed Arnhem, especially the Fashion Quarter. It is a city with lots of green, hills, big brick buildings and fashion. What is not to love? If you want to see pictures of Arnhem and the coffee places we visited, check out the album on the Coffee Strides Facebook page.
The second stop on our coffee crawl; Arnhem. Below you can read about our adventures. And adventures they were. Before sharing coffees with you, let me give you a summary on Arnhem. Normally it takes an hour to get to Arnhem by train. Now big city people all across the world probably do not think that an hour is a very long time. It takes more than an hour to get to the other side of London. But for small tinie tiny Holland, one hour is a long time. And this time it was even worse, it took me more than two hours. Shame on you Dutch railway system...
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Having said that, I really enjoyed Arnhem, especially the Fashion Quarter. It is a city with lots of green, hills, big brick buildings and fashion. What is not to love? If you want to see pictures of Arnhem and the coffee places we visited, check out the album on the Coffee Strides Facebook page.
Sugar Hill
address: Klarendalseweg 192
espresso machine: La Marzocco FB80
coffee: own blend, outsourced roasting
We started at Sugar Hill. At Sugar Hill you can get some amazing food. From cakes, to cheese, soup and hamburgers. The coffees are pretty good too. We had an espresso and a cappuccino. Later I went back for an espresso macchiato and cortado.
The blend consists of beans from Indonesia, Colombia, Guatemala and Ethiopia. The espresso was really tasty and well balanced. The downside, they use long life milk...a shame. But the foam is pretty good.
They also serve filter coffee, but take care though: the filter coffee is brewed using the espresso blend.
Sugar Hill is the perfect cafe around the corner. Although the wait can be a bit long the staff is really very kind. There are tables where you can eat, but also couches to lounge. The space is decorated with different bike, food and coffee books, strange posters and photos and inspiring wall art. Plus a little joke here and there.
Tape
address: Hommelstraat 66
espresso machine: La Marzocco Linea
coffee: Bocca
Stop two, Tape. I would go here every day if I lived around the corner. Tape uses beans roasted by Bocca. First time round I got an Ethiopian espresso. Second time a Brazilian flat white. I loved the espresso. The flat white could have been a lot better. The espresso was just a little too bitter, overruling the milk slightly.
Tape is an amazing place to hang. It is filled with funny and quirky bits and bobs. Has a lot of different and fun spaces and places to sit. All the furniture seems to be sourced from second hand stores. It has the underground vibe without being too scary to walk into if you do not know it. It reminds me a little of Berlin the city. Easy going, clean, friendly, but also just a, as the Dutch would say it, brought together little heap of messiness unmatchiness. I especially loved the loyalty cards hung and spread across the wall next to the counter.
Bart's Koffiekafeetje
no facebook
address: Hommelstraat 39
espresso machine: Kees vd Westen lever machine
coffee: Golden Coffee Box
Bart's Koffiekafeetje is much discussed online. Apparently it's the place to go early in the morning. Plus they serve coffee from the Golden Coffee Box. As I have never had coffee from the Golden Coffee Box, shame on me, I wanted to experience this. We ordered two espresso machiattos. The service was amazing, kind, friendly, warm. The coffee was warm as well. Not so much amazing, kind or friendly. It will however, wake you up in the morning.
It was a little watery, and somewhat overly bitter. The foam was a little to dry as well.
The shop itself, again (it seems people in Arnhem know something about interior design) really well decorated. A little bit more old fashioned. But filled with bigger and smaller coffee paraphernalia; old grinders, a coffee lamp and fun coffee slogans.
Josephine Coffee
address: Bakkerstraat 22
Espresso Machine: Della Corte
Coffee: Peeze
I was soooo looking forward to Josephine. I love the facebook page. When I stepped inside I loved it more. More standard cafe like, not like the other places we visited, however, with a small garden in the back, the atmosphere was really welcoming.
The coffee, again not so much. When walking in, we passed the bar, and got asked what coffees we would like. Without looking at the menu we ordered an espresso and a cortado. Yes a cortado. No there is not a cortado on the photos above. You can imagine my surprise when receiving the massive amount of milk in the above picture. Reading the menu, apparently a cortado at Josephine means an extra strong cappuccino, in other words a cappuccino with two shots of espresso. Although this is explained on the menu and you may serve what you want in your own cafe...I can guarantee all people ordering a cortado do not want a cappuccino, however strong it may be. So what is a cortado? Check out this previous blog post. That being said, I also did not finish my 'cortado-cino'. It really was not good. Neither was the espresso.
The espresso tasted of rice cookies. The cortado just tasted peanutty and rubbery. Looking up the espresso used on the Peeze website I was surprised again. The blend was 100% arabica. Flavour-wise I really expected the blend to contain robusta. Was it a fluke or one time thing? Maybe. After I get over the 'cortado-cino' and rubber-flavour trauma I guess I will try the blend again? Maybe not.
Babo Coffee and Cafe
address: Bovenbeekstraat 9 & 28
Espresso machine: La Marzocco PB/Kees vd Westen
coffee: own blends outsourced roasting
Babo Cafe has been around for a long time, however since this month they also have a coffee training centre and the whole coffee part has been upgraded. When we went the training centre had it's opening party. The space is amazing, with all the hardware you would like on this amazing emerald green tiled bar.
The cafe is a little bit more low profile on the coffee scale, but hey, it's a regular cafe. Of course the coffee there is not as amazing as at the training centre, but duh. At the cafe we had the house blend in an espresso macchiato. The basic espresso blend is pretty decent and the foam was a little brittle, but decent. The espresso was a little of balance, but otherwise as one would expect it to be. At the training centre we enjoyed an espresso from Kenian beans which was amazing (and hey, is it Belle behind the machine again? Perhaps we should start a trend; coffee crawl espresso machine take overs).
Clear winner of the day? As you cannot drink a cup of coffee in the training centre on a regular basis, it's a tie between Tape and Sugar Hill. Both I would visit again and enjoy.
Want to see more Coffee Crawl Arnhem edition? Check out the album on the Coffee Strides Facebook page.
Want to read about the Coffee Crawl Den Hague edition? Read it here.
Of course the coffee there is not as amazing as at the training centre, lol... (you fucked up...)
ReplyDeletego there again..