Café-Guide #1: Kaffeesaurus, cologne, Germany
Kaffesaurus, a comparatively young brand in Cologne, located directly on Friesenplatz between shopping and popular gastronomy. It constantly offers new things that go beyond specialty coffee, which is exactly what you need outside of cities like Berlin.
The advantage of an in-house roastery, with all the effort, with all the costs, seems obvious to the coffee nerd. You can smell and hear as soon as you enter that this is coffee with a purpose, roasted for your own needs and not necessarily for industrial sale (they do sell and ship it though via their online store of course). Roasters in the middle of cities and shopping districts are rare as most prefer a cheaper location where they can focus on the production. This ‘all-in-one’ space benefits from the big open, very much inviting, vibe.
The last two espresso roasts,which I tried as Flat White and single Espresso, were consistently good. Not quite as chocolat-y and malty as one might expect from Coffee Gang, but also characteristic enough to stand out from Heilandt & CO. In addition to the beans they use in their most common servings, there's also a whole line of roastery products available via the store, with and without local references. In cities like Cologne, Munich, or Frankfurt, I always find it particularly praiseworthy when the beans offered are not only designed as a mass product with the broadest possible flavor profile for large customer groups, but also come in rarer bean roasts with small runs. If you have an idea about Single Cask Whisky, the concept should sound familiar.
The coffee thus functions similarly pragmatically, which is absolutely meant as a compliment here, as the furnishings reminiscent of a Scandinavian co-working space: You feel comfortable, you find your way around and still get the feeling of standing out from the cold, smooth-ironed variants that you usually find in the glass offices of the Cologne rings. The limited edition roasts are an added bonus not forced on the customers, many of which just enjoy the atmosphere and not necessarily visit for the specialty coffee experience. There used to be a second location under the name Kaffeesapiens in Deutz at the office complex near RTL, but it has, presumably, been sold and is running under a different name. Instead, they are expanding along the Rhine and opening a new branch in the city of my Alma Mater, Bonn.
/jf
