There is no such thing as too much coffee, right? Well, Aisling and I decided to test that theory by overdosing on caffeine while visiting some of the most promising coffeeshops of Budapest. And yes, there is such a thing as too many coffees, but where that line can be drawn depends on the individual. I have a huge caffeine tolerance, but 9 shots of espresso in various drinks over the course of 4-5 hours with little food definitely counts as too much…
Aisling and I do at least one hike per week these days, but we thought we’d do something a bit different on Tuesday. Instead of walking 10 to 15 kilometers in the forest, we decided to walk that much through the city, hunting down some old favorite and new-to-us cafés in the city center of Budapest. Naturally all had to be specialty coffee places, because we are picky hipsters with sophisticated taste buds. Or we are just wannabe coffee snobs, you decide!
Due to covid, all places are takeaway only of course, so we drank the coffees as we walked. To turn this into a semi-scientific experiment I got a cortado in each place, while Aisling experimented with a variety of drinks. By the end I drank 8 cortados and an espresso, while Aisling had 1 latte, 1 pumpkin spice latte, 1 chai latte and 1 cappuccino, as well as of course taking a sip of all of my drinks.
Unfortunately, this experiment created a lot of waste, but we wouldn’t have been able to wash our keepcups between coffee shops, plus many places are reluctant about the use of those due to covid anyway.
Mesterbike
Mesterbike is a place which brings together two things that I love: beautiful bicycles and fancy coffee. Really, it’s a dream come true. It is a place I have enjoyed visiting for years. They stock high-end BMC, Cannondale and Specialized bikes (if you don’t speak bike-lingo, these are really damn good bikes), have their own cycling apparel and are involved in the Hungarian cycling and racing scene. They also have their own blend of coffees supplied by the Awaken Coffee Roasting Company, which they turn into lovely brews while you gaze at bikes you will never be able to afford.
The Mesterbike cortado was the perfect way to start the route, it is a very light coffee, with no excessive acidity or bitterness. It was just a subtle, creamy coffee. In fact, as a latte (which Aisling was drinking), the coffee flavor gets lost in all the milk, so if you want more character in a latte, go for a double shot.
Double Shot
Our second coffee shop was a 2020 favorite, which had a lot to do with their fantastic chai lattes. One of the baristas developed their own recipe for the sticky chai mix and we’ve asked them to start selling it to us during the summer. Finally, they listened, so now we can buy their chai for home.
Although at this point I must confess that I deeply dislike chai, but Aisling loves it… Luckily, their coffee is great, with a strong citrusy, new-wave coffee taste. The coffee I had was supplied by Caravan Roasters and as usual, did not disappoint. They also get plus points for the great design of the place!
Arch and Beans
Well, well, this is a new one. It was the first time for us visiting the place, which opened fairly recently near Astoria. The design is great and they roast their own coffee on the spot, which is impressive. Especially considering real estate prices in the neighborhood, that is a serious commitment.
My cortado was from the Astoria house blend, which tasted fairly plain, maybe a bit more Italian-style than most new wave coffee places these days. The barista said Aisling’s cappuccino was from a Honduras single-origin coffee, although I couldn’t find that on their website – maybe it was actually the Copa America blend they do, or a new experiment or a guest coffee? The taste of that was a bit confusing – fruity, but also very sharp taste. We don’t really know what they were going for with that roast, but they need to work on it a bit. They are a new place and seem very cool, so we will give it another shot later, but they are in an area with tough competition. Just a few blocks away there is Fekete, Coffee Stand and Kontakt, all of which offer great coffee.
Kontakt
Ah, Kontakt! I’ve heard so much about this place, but I’ve never visited. They are purists – don’t dare ask for sugar in your coffee, or milk in your drip coffee. While that aspect is a little bit much for me, I will also have to say that they probably make the best damn coffee in the city. I was seriously impressed and now I know why Aisling and many other coffee-drinking friends were enthusiastic about it. The cortado was bloody brilliant and we also got into quite a long chat with the barista.
We talked about coffee machines, the development of the Budapest coffee scene and his work. He also wanted to show us how their coffee tastes in an espresso, so he invited us for one of those too – as if we weren’t already hyper-caffeinated. Naturally, they do their own roasting and one of their bags of coffee is sitting on my table, ready to be tested soon. The coffee we had there was from their Peru blend, which is super fruity and vibrant. The bag at home is from the Ethiopian blend, which should be exciting in the V60 and the mocha pot too.
Espresso Embassy
Espresso Embassy is an old favorite. In fact, it is probably the first specialty coffee shop I started visiting regularly, even before I knew what specialty coffee was. I’ve spent many hours there working away on my laptop, editing photos, doing meetings and uploading huge video files. Obviously now it’s takeaway only, like all other places, but I still visit whenever I’m in the area.
The baristas are really nice and got super excited when they heard about our caffeine-crazed city tour. They even recommended more places to go to, but that would have been a little too much. Next time, next time… The cortado, as usual, was that light, new wave, citrusy flavor with a nutty aftertaste. Aisling also tried their homemade pumpkin spice latte. That tasted very nice as well, although it was more like a cinnamon-y chai latte or dirty chai with a little pumpkin. Usually we are not ones to go for flavored coffees, but a good friend recommended it, so we thought we’d give it a shot. We had already tried every regular coffee Espresso Embassy offers anyway.
Madal
Madal is a chain of cool cafés that have been popping up around Budapest in the last few years, offering great coffee and baked goods. They were one of the early adopters of the specialty movement and roast their own coffee under the name “Beyond Within”. They are currently in 3 locations, with the massive Alkotmány utca one being our favorite, but to get some time for the previous coffees to settle down, we walked a bit more to the one in Hollán Ernő utca, near Margit híd this time.
Admittedly, the coffees were starting to get a bit much by this point, but Madal didn’t disappoint. Their cortado had a nice reserved taste with a hint of berries. My only criticism is that they didn’t let me use their toilet and all the nearby public toilets were shut… Oh-oh…
Steamhouse Café
Over to Buda now. We walked along the Danube to Batthyány tér into the old, now renovated market hall. Unfortunately, most of the market hall now is a Spar supermarket, but upstairs in a pretty epic location sits the Steamhouse Café. It is right at the end of the hall with big windows looking towards the parliament. The coffee was very nice too, nothing too fancy, just a good cortado from Guatemalan coffee. They also roast their own coffee and have adapted to the covid situation by selling nespresso-style capsules in a variety of those blends.
Bányai By Beans
Wow, our final stop! By this point I could certainly tell that the coffee was getting to me – not the caffeine, that had very little effect on me, but just the sheer amount of coffee sloshing in my stomach was getting a bit much. Top tip, if you ever do something like this, do it slower, with proper food stops along the way!
Now, Bányai By Beans is tucked away in the back of the market in a corner of a remarkably ugly building (the market itself), but the design of the shop is 100% on point. Lots of cool coffee machines, accessories, and kit on sale in a nice, hip little café. The coffee I had was from the lighter house blend, and it wasn’t bad by any means, but we didn’t feel like it stood out among all the other coffees I tried that day. Again, just like Arch & Beans, we will definitely give it a second shot at some point, but it won’t go on the list of favorites just yet.
Conclusion
I hope this little tour gives you some good ideas for trying coffee places in Budapest. But a word of advice: unless you are immune to caffeine and have guts of steel, don’t try recreate this the same way we did… Also a few other places to check out in the city center: Fekete, Coffee Stand, Dorado or WayCup. And if you are out in Wekerle, A másik bolt (The Other Shop) is a unique experience.