Bordeaux's best cafes

La Pelle Café

"A specialty coffee is a quality coffee, whose producers are paid decently and work in good conditions, preserve the environment and operate in a short supply chain," details Carlos Pereira, roaster and founder of La Pelle Café, aux Chartrons. The coffees he selects from around the world have all scored over 85 out of 100 in the exam specific to specialty coffees.

We talk about terroirs as for wine, it's quite similar in terms of production and aromas, besides coffee has 800 aromatic compounds, compared to 500 for wine ! " Carlos Pereira, an enthusiast, has chosen to set up his roaster in the middle of his café. "Customers who drop in stay to watch, learn to smell and understand the different stages of production. Most of them have never seen a green coffee bean, so it's also our role to pass that on."

• Address: 29 Rue Notre Dame, 33000 Bordeaux
• Telephone:  05 56 81 69 24

The Black List café

At the entrance to the bright little café, located opposite the place Pey Berland, the welcome is as good as it is beautiful : the smells of coffee mingle with the view of the window display of pâtisseries maison : carrot cake, almond, quatre-quart, " everything is homemade " announces Thomas, serving a filter coffee, in a V60 carafe. The coffees, which change every week, come from Oven Heaven, the roaster based on Rue Bourbon.

"We offer two different types for espresso and two more for filters." It was in Australia, where the specialty coffee trend was born, that the young barista trained, with a roaster, before going on to work in Uruguay and Argentina. "From one country to another, whether you're a local or a tourist, you're sure to find the same kind of welcome in coffee shops, you feel right at home "

• Address: 27 Place Pey Berland, 33000 Bordeaux
• Telephone:  06 52 13 65 92
   

Oven Heaven - Goûtu

"Industrial roasting tends to cook coffee and standardize its taste, which is why I used to drink little of it. It was when I stopped for a coffee at Black List, in Bordeaux, that I got my first "taste slap", recounts Dimitri Grodwhol, now Oven Heaven's roaster and even Black List's supplier.

His light roasting "allows us to highlight the qualities of the coffee and the work of the producers" he stresses, happy to be able to offer "a different version of a product that everyone thinks they know." Oven Heaven's roaster, based in Bègles, also supplies the coffee at "Goûtu", which is accompanied by a home-made pastry or viennoiserie prepared by Kévin Grodwohl and enjoyed in a pleasant setting, ideal for starting the day off on the right foot!

• Address : 48 Rue Ferdinand Buisson, 33130 Bègles / Chez Goûtu 51 cours de la Marne, 33000 Bordeaux
• Telephone:  05 56 91 81 37
   

L'Univerre

A slightly eccentric piazza, acidic cushions and a enormous lagoon-colored La Marzocco machine that reveals its effluvia as soon as it's launched, it's a great place to stop at L'Univerre. For Pauline Savin, running a coffee shop without being a roaster would have been a shame, "mastering the raw material, green coffee was essential to be able to talk to customers about it." She gets her supplies from Belco, a coffee importer based in Mérignac.

Pauline Savin, who offers five kinds of coffee for sale, " one per continent ! ", has found roasting " a way to travel at home " even though she recently went to the source, in Ethiopia to meet one of its producers and observe the picking and drying stages. She will be exhibiting photos from her trip in her soon-to-be-expanded coffee shop.

• Address: 2 rue Ligier, 33000 Bordeaux
• Telephone: 09 86 61 57 45
   

L'Alchimiste torréfacteur

"Coffee has enormous stock market value but zero human value " laments Yohan Caunegre, one of the three partners behind L'Alchimiste torréfacteur, which will soon be opening a second workshop and coffee shop at Darwin. To remedy this, the associates work with a dozen farms around the world, paid more than market prices, in Guatemala, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Colombia and Ethiopia.

"We go there every year ", says Yohan, who selects pesticide-free produce. " We also try to explain the process because there are billions of coffee drinkers, but nobody knows where it comes from ! " To find out more, the Alchimiste torréfacteur proposes discovery workshops using the international tasting method, cupping. Register on the website alchimiste-cafes.com

• Address: 87 Quai de Queyries, 33100 Bordeaux / 12 rue de la Vieille Tour, 33000 Bordeaux
• Telephone: 07 64 83 76 68 / 09 86 48 37 93
   

Café Régus

Hard to miss this enormous machine visible from the street, a stone's throw from the streetcar stop. Red and gold, like the packets lined up at the counter, the roaster at Café Régus is over sixty years old. The family business is even older, says Jean-Phylippe Caunegre, the founder's grandson. "In 1936, fearing that their only son would go off to war, his parents opened this roasting workshop to keep it ! "

Today, the roaster supplies restaurants, businesses and individuals, offering six pure coffee origins and six blends. You can also stop for a coffee and watch the roaster turn, every morning. In Jean-Phylippe's family, drinking coffee is "an institution, a moment of reunion that's a bit sacred " smiles the young man, ready to take over.

• Address: 6-8 cours Portal, 33000 Bordeaux
• Telephone: 05 56 52 97 91
   

Café Piha

Don't be fooled by the old filter holder that serves as the door handle, or by its vintage decor. At Café Piha, it's the rolls royce of the coffee machine - a La Marzocco Leva chrome plunger worthy of a trip to the future - that awaits you to discover the coffees roasted in the back room. To source its coffee beans, the team calls on the Merignac-based importer Belco or works directly with farms, notably in Panama and Colombia, " allowing complete traceability of the coffee, from the coffee cherry still on the tree to the cup," explains Joachim Bouveron of Café Piha.

While roasting is the coffee shop's primary business, it also offers original pastries, burgers and brunches, always with coffee in the spotlight, as with these soft-boiled eggs... with coffee butter.

• Address: 69 rue des Ayres, 33000 Bordeaux
• Telephone: 09 67 80 83 42
   

La Brûlerie - Books & Coffee

The cozy armchairs, the books on the shelves and the sound of spoons swirling in cups... the felted ambiance of Books & Coffee wouldn't be complete without the smells of coffee and tea. Recently, the café created its own roasting workshop called " La Brûlerie " and set up across the street from Saint James. " With the same coffee cherry, you can have very different coffees from one roaster to another " points out Zoé Gonzalez, who can now " better advise customers since we did it ourselves ! "

To satisfy the regular customers, the coffees on offer change every week, whether filter or machine coffees. Zoé also knows her customers' tastes, and advises with a smile " With a tarte tatin ? A Guatemalan coffee, why not ? "

• Address: 26 rue St James, 33000 Bordeaux
• Telephone: 05 56 81 47 41
   

Chez VerdeNero

Tarik Saoui opened his specialty coffee in 2012, calling himself a "shaper of tastes and aromas" by roasting his own coffee in his boutique and atelier located at 51 rue d'Agen in Bordeaux. A fine selection of freshly roasted coffees, to be discovered on site before visiting the boutique, and then enjoyed at home.

In addition to coffee freshly ground by this master roaster and served by Alfredo the barista, VerdeNero also offers savory and sweet cuisine, homemade by chef Roham and Nayé the pastry chef, from breakfast to lunch and brunch.

• Address: 24 Rue des Ayres, 33000 Bordeaux
• Telephone: 05 57 34 46 41
   

Kuro espresso bar

A native of Bordeaux, Pascal Gabard studied hotel management before moving to Quebec. It was there that he hatched the idea of opening his coffee shop and decided to return to the region in 2015. At the time, specialty coffee was in the air of the times, and he came across l'Alchimiste, La Pelle Café and Pia Café, which were all in the same vein. In 2016, he opened the Kuro espresso bar (black in Japanese) where he invites his customers, to discover a wide selection of coffees roasted in Europe.

Expresso, allongé, américano, cappuccino, macchiato, mocaccino, cortado...Here coffee is served with an infectious passion !
Beyond the coffee, you can enjoy a tea served hot or iced, accompanied by home-made delicacies or good bread and viennoiseries from Qu4tre-Qu4rts, artisan bakers located right next door.

• Address: 5 rue Mautrec, 33000 Bordeaux
   

Comptoir ChocolaThé

For nearly 10 years, Anne-Lyse and her brother Daniel have been offering, in their coffee shop/bar, no less than a dozen specialty coffees for sale (in bulk or ground to order) or for tasting, all sourced in Gironde. " We consider coffee to be a fresh product, worked locally and we systematically display the provenance and roasting date ". In addition, the boutique offers coffee machines, accessories and tableware, with the idea of accompanying coffee lovers from tasting to making their own coffee at home. 

Manual or automatic espresso machines, gentle methods (V60, Italian coffee maker, chemex, syphon, aero-press...), the ChocolaThé counter advises each of its customers, beginners and experienced alike, in their choice, through their expectations and specific tastes. Indoors, or on their pretty terrace, take the time to enjoy this locally roasted coffee accompanied by a delicious walnut tart or homemade cake or muffin. 

• Address: 44 Rue des Trois-Conils, 33000 Bordeaux
• Telephone: 05 56 52 18 18
   

SIP, café bar

After much travel around the globe, Julie Fauran returned to Bordeaux in 2015 with the idea of participating in this new wave of specialty coffee. " At first I didn't like coffee " she confides, but it was tasting for the first time a Kenyan coffee, with delicious blackcurrant aromas, passed through a chemex coffee maker that clicked that she had the idea. She trained in Belgium and opened SIP in the process. For the past eight years, she has had her heart set on introducing cafés from around the world, roasted from her European and Bordeaux suppliers.

Here you can send yourself a Bolivian, Rwandan or Colombian expresso, indulge in an elongated coffee via a gentler filtration method, or enjoy a good hot chocolate and travel all the way to Japan with a matcha tea. And to accompany these delicious beverages, there's nothing like a patisserie or an Anglo-Saxon breakfast, made by the hostess.

• Address: 44 Rue des Trois-Conils, 33000 Bordeaux
• Telephone: 05 56 52 18 18