Kawa

22 Av. Victoria, 75001 Paris, France

Click right to take a look around…

Sometimes it isn’t about extravagance. Rather, it’s about peace. It’s not that there are plants and hippie mechanics. It’s that pouring, shifting, and conferring are happening—all at medium—under flat, natural light panels between oversized wood, ceiling slats. Simple stools recalling paintless torii gates are the only ways to sit at the coffee bar or in the “shop,” shelves of coffee equipment, brewers, and bags, that stray a bit in size and primarily sport a cara orange color. The frosty green glass along the bar wall and hiding the stairs resembles what I’d imagine replacing your ice cube tray with a Connect Four game board might produce. Plus, there’s a courteous confidence in the metal letters acting as the menu on the wall behind the bar, a slipping an arm over one’s shoulders and proposing with no provocation that coffee is cool. It might seem like the stools and the outdoor metalware are the only places to sit. But, head downstairs, and there you will find a cooler basement with an acid-washed grey carpet, some exposed brick, and furniture expressing a minimal whimsy. Plugs make it easy to plop down—from the Earth’s surface and onto sittable rattan skin—for a length of time of your choosing. However, this subterranean space is not for evading the world: the proximity to the bathroom is the sibling or funny friend constantly giving your hiding place away. In accordance with your cup of several degrees, only one of these degrees gets to be of separation. That is unless you give the cold brew or iced latte a spin.

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Drink: Filtre - Equateur Hacienda La Papaya

While I wouldn’t write home about this drink, it’s a fine enough cup of coffee. That being said, the 180 ml volume (just under 2 cups), in the Kalita is extremely small. Perhaps I wouldn’t have felt it as much if the coffee was more pungent, but it isn’t. The body is oddly thin. With a natural coffee, I expect a lot more cherry and fruit. While these aspects are present, aromatically it is white chocolate and marmalade on the tongue. I would even go as far as to say that it’s a rind filled marmalade, a sourness the creeps up from the throat to the front of the mouth much like with an orange rind. Now to look at what they describe the tasting notes as: pomme cuite, creme brûlée, glace malaga. In English: cooked apple, creme brûlée, Malaga ice cream. I think that there should have been more creaminess on the nose for those last two notes, but Malaga ice cream, rhum raisin, is an interesting consideration. The atypically planar nature of these three flavor notes does make me wonder whether my tongue was less on a quest for body, and more for dimension. It amount to mixing peach, nectarine, and persimmon. They are all different flavors, but none of them announce themselves among the crowd. From the coffee’s elevation, I expected more complexity. However, if for no other reason, in a ceramic aroma cup on a mini metal bonbistro tray is probably the better way to drink it. 

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Price: Filtre - Equateur Hacienda La Papaya (Typical Natural)=9€

Hours: Monday–Friday {918}; Saturday {1019}; Sunday {1018}

✓ WIFI*

Extra Notes:

*At first the WIFI didn’t work. The barista explained to me that it has something to do with Android capability. After a few more tries while in the basement, I got it to work! So, don’t give up. Being in the basement though, the signal is weak and goes in and out. But, by choosing to be underground, I take full responsibility for connectivity hiccups.

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