My finds from Le Paris Café Festival

Disclaimer: I received a press accreditation for Le Paris Café Festival. However, I purchased all coffees from this review with my own money.

A week ago, I visited the Le Paris Café Festival to check on the latest trends and developments in the French coffee industry (and taste a lot of coffee, of course!). Now I want to share some of my thoughts and finds with you. Please note that this is a completely subjective set of observations rather than an attempt to create some sort of a comprehensive review of everything I saw.

Brewing methods

It's always cool to see people brewing with something else than V60. On Paris Coffee festival I saw people preparing coffee with Hario Switch, Origami Dripper, exotics like Pulsar brewer and even Clever Dripper!

Hario Switch recently became one of my favorites due to very interesting and experimental Tetsu Kasuya recipes. I also hold Clever Dripper in very high regard because I think it's one of the best ways to start brewing good coffee at home, it's very forgiving and produces nice soft cup.

Coffee #1: Colombia Bubblegum by Olivio Coffee Culture

Co-fermentationCo-fermentation in specialty coffee is a processing method where ingredients like fruits, spices, or specific microbes are added during fermentation to create unique and enhanced flavor profiles. is one of the most popular trends in specialty coffee for the last couple of years. I, of course, tried quite a few "funky" coffees, but this coffee roasted by Transylvanian Olivio Coffee Culture is something else: it has a distinct smell and taste notes of watermelon, but it's also balanced perfectly – not too much and not too few. I tasted their other coffees too, and they're also great; however, this one is my favorite. I brewed it mostly with the Ja Ning Du Origami Dripper recipe, as it produces a very clear cup.

Coffee #2: Colombia Vagabondo Chiroso by Il Manovale

Chiroso is a rising star among coffee varieties. I liked its complex flavor profile with hibiscus and fruit notes. Highly recommend if you're already a bit tired of Geisha or Pink Bourbon. Brewed with new Hario Switch recipe by Tetsu Kasuya.

Coffee #3: Brasil Silvio Roberto by Manhattan Coffee Roasters

To be honest, I’ve always had a hard time finding a good Brazilian coffee. It’s widely available, but the taste was either too bland or had some notes that I didn’t particularly enjoy. This one is different: it has a great, interesting, and balanced taste (chocolaty and not too acidic!). I brewed it with Tetsu Kasyua 4:6 Method which allowed me to try different combination of sweetness and acidity to choose the one I liked the most.

Coffee #4: Geisha Carmen Estate by Kaffeelix

Well, you can't go wrong with Geisha from Panama. What I liked here is the form factor: I often found myself in the situation where I want to buy some exquisite coffee, but it's quite hard to pay 3x the price of what I usually pay for (also very good) beans. However it's much easier to pay something like 6 Euros (if I remember correctly) for 18 grams which is still expensive, but it's still cheaper than getting a hand brew in most coffee shops.

Coffee #5: Colombia Bucamaranga Drips by Fresh Black

This one is sort of a special nomination – you don't need any equipment or recipes from Timer.Coffee to use drip bags. I particularly like the idea of mobility and ability to enjoy great coffee everywhere. And Fresh Black – roasters from Ukraine nailed it. As one of the guys on their stand said – in Ukraine, if you don't make drip coffee, you're not really a roaster. I would love this trend to move to rest of Europe as well!

P.S. Let's make something together!

If you’re interested in becoming a guest author for this blog, we’d love to have you! You can write about your coffee brewing experiments, share your impressions from coffee events, or cover any other coffee-related topic. Please send your pitches to anton@timer.coffee!