KAUFLAND supermarket coffee adventure - part 8

From 100% Robusta to ''breakfast'' and ''standard'' coffee

This time we are gonna look at Kaufland supermarket, a brother of Lidl chain owned by same Schwarz group. Probably less numerous than chains like Carrefour or Biedronka, yet definitely present in the city and media. I was reminded of it by my car radio and radio at work. Yet, somehow I didn't see any of those on my rout to work or down town. So I googled it on the map as the time came to see what kind of coffee they offer.

 Not bad, ha? This very night I was actually looking for coffee to brew on ROK hand espresso machine that was kindly landed to me for about a week by my espresso coach Krzysztof from Kawa-Warszawa.pl. My original goal was to find dark enough yet little sour beans. Let's see if I succeed.

Even though Kaufland is related to Lidl, they are totally different. Coffee wise as well. If Lidl on most days has a very short line of coffee available and some premium stuff on occasions, Kaufland meets you with quite a choice.

How about that? 100%...not Arabica but Robusta! I am surprised to see such honesty or is it a marketing trick? Robusta is rarely associated with tasty coffee, yet maybe in this case it is rather '100%' that stands out than the coffee plant type.

In case those numerous brands confuse you, there is simply "standard" coffee on the shelf. No need for extra info or details. Not my case, but somebody might appreciate such an approach.

Kaufland keeps surprising with items available. Cereal instant drink is something I never tried before. I'm guessing it is intended for coffee substitution. In the mood for something healthy and experiment? There is more!

How about malt coffee with zinc and vitamins from Anatol? I found one more items worth attention. It has both coffee and chicory (30%/58%). Claimed to be cellulose and magnesium source for you. It looks like instant coffee and substitutes have quite a share in the coffee market here in Poland.

As I was looking for espresso roast, my choice fell on Columbia by MK Cafe. It smelled gourgeous. When you press the pack a little, nice tempting flavour of roasted coffee is too strong to ignore.The price was not bad also. Around 15 zł (4$) a 250 gramm pack.

Overall, Kaufland has a decent coffee offer for common drinker. Also some fun and extravagant options of coffee substitutes. Not much to choose from for coffee freaks though.

P.S. After trying various grinds and temperatures, I still got too sour a coffee from ROK hand espresso machine with this MK Columbia. Now it is time to experiment with filter methods...

Monique Bakery and Wine

The coffee, the view, the atmosphere

Weekend, no hurry anywhere. Perfect time to slow down, relax and have a bite. After having lunch in the food court at Galeria Mokotów my little son was 'strongly persuading' me to find a place for desert. We passed Starbucks, I even paused for a moment thinking of getting a muffin or Belgium waffles. Yet, decided to explore the area and found a nice, busy, promising bakery+wine cafe.

Those colourful Macarons desert caught my attention as well as pies/buns with cherry filling. After couple minutes of figuring out which table to choose we ended up sitting on a couch in a cosy outside area protected with glass.

On spending several hours inside the mall not seeing any sun light, this felt like a breath of fresh air! I can see the sky, people, buildings, cars. High five goes to designers of this comfort. Tall glass windows are rather walls than actual windows. In couple weeks when it gets warmer, I bet the doors will be open and it should be even livelier with the fresh air and some light street noise.

 You are basically on top of the building where one of the parking lots is. Anyway, it feels great to see the sky, don't you think? Or one can simply park nearby and watch their expensive Porsche :).

Never knowing what kind of coffee you might get in a new place I went for a double espresso and milk 'on the side''. Crema looking pretty much like tiger skin, dense body, nutty/caramel notes... I am well pleased! Love, love love! The waiter told us they get coffee from a small roastery near Lublin city. Good to know the owner/manager cares about coffee even though it is a wine +bakery restaurant.

My cappuccino expert confirmed her drink to be decent, tasty with rich milk foam. Macarons had various tastes so some colours deserved more attention than others. Tastes would be very individual here. Overall, Monique is a success to me. Coffee was great, deserts too. Atmosphere was simply contagiously inviting. I could spend 2-3 hours straight just sipping coffee and watching people pass. There is more to try here, maybe other bakery products and wine as it is something they advertise.

BIEDRONKA supermarket coffee adventure - part 7

Survival mode

Warsaw seems to be pretty developed in matters of shopping with main European supermarket chains present. Groceries, shoes, jeans, fashion items know no shortage. How about something more local? Are there still some polish chains not bought by big fish?

Check out Biedronka. I don't know who owns it, but these are smaller grocery stores with a name that definitely sounds polish and translates as 'lady bug'. Biedronkas are not big in size or have a super wide choice of products, but they are all around the city. Remote districts and down town. Probably due to their reasonable size they fit almost anywhere.

Ok, cute little store, have you got coffee? Anything worth trying? Can you satisfy millions of Varsovians craving for coffee when they are short on time and go shopping to the nearest grocery store?

Looks like coffee offer here is not very rich to say the least. Definitely not a first priority. It is ok taking into consideration the size of the store. In case you are low on coffee and need it right away, there is some instant and ground coffee here. I even found a fun glass cup of coffee. Cream/milk additions to coffee are situated here also.

Biedronka will help you survive if you are slumming. That makes sense to me even though I expected to see more. Numerous offers and shops all around make us a bit spoiled. To sum it up, Biedronka wouldn't be my first choice when I got time and gas to drive extra 5-10 minutes to a bigger grocery store. However, it could help a student study through the night with some rough instant coffee.

Nastrojowa Cafe - sweet place for a chat and coffee

Comfy, quiet and old style

Friday, lunch time, half day till weekend left. What could be more positive? Add coffee and good people. Now you got it all to be happy. Nastrojowa Cafe was our target destination today. Thank goodness, traffic was ok and my pretty french car delivered us to pasaż Ursynowski 9 at Ursynow district of Warsaw quickly. Unless you live or work somewhere nearby, you probably wouldn't know about the place. Tourists would be rare guests here. Yet, if you are close, give it a shot.

You can't but notice drawings on all possible walls inside. Nastrojowa has a mix of things: coffee, gallery of drawings, deserts, Moka pots and even cute old style cups! A memory came up to the surface of my mind. I was in a similar place on my first visit to Warsaw. It had same atmosphere. Just a different location, somewhere down town. Here you are given a choice of various coffee options by origin and flavour. It can be a standard espresso blend or more premium single origins.

Two opposite emotions I have in Nastrojowa. Enjoying great atmosphere, small red armchairs and dim light on one hand, and my soul demanding better coffee on the other. Jonny and I had Peru and Kenya espresso. It wasn't bad, yet not perfect. Lacking body and thickness in crema, to my mind. However, I enjoyed my several sips by adding a little sugar to it.

Hard to tell if the place is very busy or not, for it was middle of a work day. While we were chatting, a lady with an adorable baby in a sling came in for a coffee drink with whipped cream to go and went on her way.

This is a perfect place for conversation. You can either sit next to the window and watch the life happening outside or go up to kind of a inside balcony with several tables there with even more intimate atmosphere. Nice place to stop by after work with colleagues for tea or coffee and desert. Here you can discuss the day or all of your boss's actions))). I am nostalgic when remember such chats at a coffee house with my reception team after night shifts at Alfavito hotel in Kyiv (decent place for a night actually). Good old times indeed.

No reason of being too picky with Nastrojowa. It is not intended for coffee freaks who would turn around on simply seeing grinded coffee sitting in the grinder for more than 5 seconds. This cafe gives you right setting and mood for an open and maybe long conversation.