A profile of a Café Kaffismiðja Íslands
Posted by Rúna Vala - 22/10/09 at 08:10:59 amI enter Kaffismiðja Íslands and ask for Sonja Björk Grant, with whom I have already made an appointment.
I’m directed to her as she is working in a back room. We sit down in the office and she brings me a delightful Chai latte.
Rúna Vala: What was the reason you came up with the idea?
Sonja: There was the two of us, Ingibjörg Jóna Sigurðardóttir (Imma) and me, that thought that Iceland needed a little extra color to the café flora in Reykjavík. We have both been doing this for a long time. Imma has competed in barista competitions, and I have been training and judging in such competitions. We were on crossroads and wanted to roast my own coffee and play a little with it. This seemed the logical next step.
RV: What’s so special about this place?
S: Everything is so visible. The customer sees when we roast the coffee and grind it and where we store it. We have two grinders by the coffee machine, each with different coffee. Instead of an already made blend, the barista needs to tend to and blend each cup to a perfection. This is our way of adding to the diversity of cafés and it is a challenge for the barista each time.
The windows are big, so you can clearly see the weather outside which is very cozy in bad weathers. The furniture is all from friends and family. When we started we almost only used money to buy equipment, the rest we got for free. We don’t advertise. If someone really wants to come here they can just look for us.
This place is more a workplace than a café. It’s a place for experiments, as there is no school to learn more about coffee, this is the place to learn.
RV: What is the place specialty in eating and drinking?
S: The coffee is number one, two and three, but we also have white and black tea. We have the basic expresso drinks, but no syrups or coffee cocktails. Then we have chai latté that we brew every morning in a pot with all sorts of spices and soymilk.
We don’t serve big sandwiches or lunch, but we have cinnamon scones and croissants. We get them from a baker who makes it with icelandic butter. He is the only baker in Iceland that makes his own butter dough pastries. We also have porridge with jam, it’s very popular in the morning.
RV: What kind of people come here? Are there stereotypes that specially drop in?
S: The morning traffic brings in a lot of young designers that work in the neighborhood, clothes designers, architects and such. Media people come here to prepare themselves for the day and to find out how the downtown politics look that day. A lot of young parents bring their children here, mothers and fathers on birth leaves. The other day I think I counted seven strollers outside the house. Older women come here with their girlfriends and have a coffee and pastries and talk about the old days when this used to be a milk store.
RV: What kind of music do you play here?
S: We have a vinyl player and records that span a wide range of eras: classical, 50’s, 60’s American Graffiti, Elvis Presley, The Smiths, U2, The Kinks, The Beatles, etc.
Yesterday a young boy was here who was going for tryouts for Oliver Twist and we put on the music for him. We have a regular couple from Mexico that put on The Cool and the Gang because that’s something they have in common. The people who sit at the tables closest to the vinyls usually control the music.
When it’s ten minutes to closing time we put on Daddy Cool with Boney M. Then people know that we’re closing.
Before I leave I take a few pictures inside. I leave this vortex of people, friendliness and experiments knowing that I will be there again soon.
Kaffismiðja Íslands (Iceland coffee factory) is located at #1 Kárastígur, down townReykjavík.
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Only the two best café baristas in Iceland, it was only a question of time when they’d make use of their talent to create something unique.
Þetta er kúl hugmynd hjá þeim, maður veit hvert maður á að fara til að fá alvöru gæði.
Comment by Kristín Rut — October 26, 2009 #
Alvöru gæðin felast náttúrulega í því að fólk þekkir þær frá Kaffitár, sem er það næst-besta
Comment by Kristín Rut — October 26, 2009 #