La Caféothèque

The state of coffee in France today is like that of the phone system a quarter of a century ago: one of the worst in Europe. So a place like La Caféothèque, near the Hôtel de Ville, is a relief as well as a pleasure. It’s an artisan café, much like the artisan boulangeries you see everywhere in Paris, but with a mission to educate people about real coffee. They talk about terroir; could I describe it better than by saying that?  It’s a connoisseur’s café, where you get a glass of water to cleanse the palate before the coffee and a chocolate to sweeten it afterwards, and the only food on the menu is croissants and some other viennoiserie. This morning the café de jour was Plantation Chitul-Tirol from Guatemala, full-bodied, sweet, a little acidy. The barista gave me a second espresso because the first wasn’t quite right – the second had the same flavours, only more intensely. Nom.