Bryggen Coffeeshop

Café Bryggen is one of the cafés in town where you can sense the morning pulse of Copenhagen. Sitting on the bar-stools next to the floor-to-ceiling windows, you have a clear view over the morning busy Fiolstræde. Some people are coming in for a quick take-away coffee, some stroll straight by the cafe at a high pace, and yet others are taking a seat to read the newspaper and steal a quiet moment before going back into the street.

Everything in Bryggen is ecological - milk, juice, coffee, pastry... Our first impressions are that "ecological" seems to be the trend these days in Copenhagen. 
But what are people sitting in the café this morning drinking?

Surprisingly enough - it's tea! Wonder if the tea is better here or is it just a coincidence?Are Copenhageners substituting their coffee with tea? Is it because they believe it is more healthy? Or it warms them better in this endless winter?

Intermezzo

Hello our faithful readers :)

We have been a bit slow posting this past week, but don't get disheartened, we are here and we are determined, more than ever before, to seduce you with our writings!
(Casper hates my announcement-with-a-drum style)
To bring you up to date:
There have been lots of discussions and wishful thinking behind the scenes. And while we were trying to figure it all out (in between the occasional emotional and technical break-downs), we have realized that we can't figure it all out. At least not beforehand.
So to calm down the more anxious ones among you (and us..ok, me), here is what you can expect in the nearest future:
- A coffee break. Morning, afternoon, nice, quick, long, relaxed, energizing, sensual...a stolen moment in a busy city, in a busy life...
- Around 3 posts per week. Truth is, we have lives to squeeze in, so for now, this is the most we can commit ourselves to.
... And by the way, it seems we are going to live up to our "discovering hidden places" promise. Well, we have stumbled upon at least one. Very charming place! More about it, coming soon :)

P.S. If our posts get boring, please, say so! Tell us what you think! After all, it is YOU we are writing this blog for...among other things :)

Coffee culture in the Copenhageners' homes (Part 1)

I want to start a small series of postings about Danish coffee culture, as it is in the homes of the people I know. I have taken upon me this small task because Di and I want to map at least a small landscape of the home coffee culture in Copenhagen to be compared with the coffee culture outside the homes of Copenhageners.

When thinking about it, I realize that when drinking coffee at home, the people I know drink coffee in very different ways.

Let’s start with a student I know. He, as many other students in Denmark, lives in a student residence hall. He is somewhat of a connoisseur when he drinks his home coffee.

First of all, he has a coffee mill, which in my experience is not a very common tool in a Danish student’s kitchen. He buys his coffee beans whole and brings them home to this finely tuned coffee grinder. Of course he only grinds the exact amount of beans that he is putting to immediate use, in order to preserve the taste and aroma of the coffee beans left in stock. Afterwards, he uses his Bodum French press (Bodum is a famous super cool Danish designer brand), adding water with a temperature at around 85 ⁰C, which is supposed to be the right temperature for this kind of coffee. 4 minutes later he serves a very tasty coffee.

His affection for coffee is at a rather high level, therefore he does not mind his slightly prolonged coffee producing ritual. It is nothing compared to a Japanese tea ceremony, but some kind of perfection has been mastered in this shared students’ kitchen in the center of Copenhagen.

In general, this French press guy is not a very good example of a typical home Copenhagen coffee culture. He is somewhat of an exception. But he definitely deserves some credit for his brewing skills on this blog (I’ll have to introduce Di to his crafts one day).

What about you? Do you have the pleasure of knowing a coffee connoisseur? Are you one yourself?

P.S. Pictures are coming soon.

Café Sommersko

“Girl from Ipanema” is flowing from the speakers. According to the old “flip” clock on the wall it is a (perhaps warm) Thursday summer morning in Copenhagen, more precisely June 12th, 8.10 am. This computer however, tells a whole different story - Friday, February 12th, 9.43 am.
Copenhagen fashion week has just started and Café Sommersko is located in the heart of Copenhagen, close to some of the hottest Danish clothing designer brand headquarters - Bruuns Bazar, Heartmade...

An unexpected coffee delight

In Copenhagen the metro is running all night long. There are no drivers because the trains are operated by a fully automated computer system. Nonetheless, regular maintenance of the tracks is necessary, especially, during this very cold weather. Hence, traffic gets interrupted for half an hour or so, most often during the night.

It happened that I got to Kgs. Nytorv station right at the beginning of this maintenance time. 1 o'clock in the evening, I'm tired and I just want to go home. There are about 10 people scattered around, waiting patiently. I guess they must be feeling content they are inside the station and not outside freezing their butts on -4 °C .

I have a book in my bag, but taking out my hands, hidden deep in my pockets, out of their warm, soothing gloves feels wrong. So I choose not to. Anyway, staring at people is always more fun :).
Half an hour goes by and the train arrives. However...(yes, however..) All passengers have to switch trains at Christianshavn. Mood: slightly annoyed, but still happy that things are moving forward.

2 min later, Christianshavn. Doors open, I get out and find myself in front of a trolley packed with thermoses with hot water and coffee, plastic cups, tea bags, sugar and cream. On top of that, a smiling ticket controller offering us to help ourselves. I don't think I have ever felt such positive feelings towards a ticket controller in my whole life!

So I poured myself a cup (coffee of course), thanked the controller and decided to walk the rest of the way home... And it was a wonderful night: glittering frozen lakes under a starry sky and I had my coffee to keep me warm...

Brainstorming, Headquarters

Morning. Freezing cold. We are on our way to our first writing location. I took the metro, while Casper, as a true Dane, came by bike :). Regardless, we are both equally frozen. Café Paludan?

Café Paludan is placed very centrally, just about 2min walking distance from Norreport station, right in the heart of the Latin Quarter.

The Idea

Two coffee enthusiasts with bohemian inclination join forces. What's it all about? It's all about coffee!

One winter morning there is a mail in Casper’s inbox:

Di: "I have an idea! Want to write a blog with me about coffee culture in Copenhagen"?

Having caught the future co-writer having a swell morning, the decision is not hard to make:

Casper: “Of course”…
and just like that the coffee blogger team came to being!

Casper: “Where is this idea coming from”?

Di leans back, taking a philosophical pose, throws her hair backwards, with one hand scratching her chin and begins:

“How does one reconcile one's need for freedom, the desire to feel carefree and have fun on one side, and the expectations of the surrounding for you to behave as a responsible and productive person, on the other?
Well, we live in times where we are made to believe that having it all seems possible. Even if it is not, it seems worth trying. I want to be part of the urban life here and now, I want to observe, indulge myself in soul searching and come out of it a better person…or not :)”

(“Yeah, yeah right whatever “- thinks Casper, with a puzzled look)
Casper summarizes what he makes immediate sense of: “Ok… So we are writing a blog. I suppose you imagine writing about something like:

Which cup of coffee is the Copenhageners favorite cup?
Do Copenhageners take pleasure in the smell and taste of big cups of filtered coffee served early in the morning?
A big cup that prolongs the drinking experience and makes the morning pass at a slower pace? Or an espresso that gives a quick kick to run from an errand to an errand? Do they prefer cappuccino or latte? Or…”

Di: “Yes, something like that. To find out how Copenhageners drink coffee!
Why do they drink coffee? Where do they drink it? What kind of coffee do they drink? Do they have company when they drink coffee?”

…

So, how hard can it be? On this blog we will try to answer these questions, and thereby try to draw a picture of the coffee culture in Copenhagen. In doing so we, of course, have to visit a lot of cafes in Copenhagen and drink a loooot of coffee. Lovely!