The latest on what's happening in the Paris specialty coffee scene.

Paris: Coffee, Wine & Much More At La Fontaine de Belleville
Jordan Michelman, Sprudge, May 2016
"Exciting news out of Paris, where our friends and partners at Belleville Brûlerie have debuted a new coffee bar serving all-day coffee, beer, food, and wine. Located between the Canal Saint Martin and Belleville neighborhoods, La Fontaine de Belleville is the first-ever coffee bar for the Paris roasting brand served in top cafes like Holybelly, CREAM, Melali Coffee Riders, and many more places." See full story.

The artisanal coffee movement has arrived in Paris — but with a French twist
Emma Jacobs, The Washington Post, May 2016
"People would walk in and be, like, ‘What are you?’ ” David Flynn recalls of the early days after he opened a coffee shop called Télescope in Paris. “Vous êtes quoi exactement?" Four years ago, customers were confused not just by the spare decor, nothing like a traditional Parisian cafe, but by the concept: a place focused on the coffee, really good coffee, with just a few pastry options on the side. In fact, the phrase “coffee shop” has yet to get a French translation." See full story.

A Thirst for Good Coffee Transforms Paris Cafe Culture
Amy Reiter, FN Dish (Food Network blog), May 2016
"Paris may be synonymous with café culture, but artisanal coffee shops are apparently another matter entirely. That distinction may now be diminishing, however, as expat entrepreneurs from the coffee-loving United States, Australia, New Zealand and beyond are bringing to the city on the Seine their taste for boutique beans and bespoke brews, offered up lovingly amidst a spare aesthetic some describe as “Brooklyn." See full story.

Coffee in Paris: 5 New Shops Shake Up the Coffee Scene
Yanique, My Parisian Life, May 2016
"Will there be a burst in the Paris coffee bubble? I hope not! Recently there seems to be a coffee shop craze in Paris, far from the meager beginnings that I reported over four years ago. As a lover from the days with Telescope in the south and Blackmarket in the north, Paris has moved on up, cherie. So in keeping in line with all that’s fit to eat, drink and wander and coffee shop hopping is one of our favorite pastime. So here are some new kids on the block, proving that despite what others may think, Paris really loves coffee." See full story.

The Paris Coffee Revolution
Anna Brones, Fresh Cup Magazine, April 2016
"But while Paris had a robust café culture, until recently the city did not have a coffee culture, at least not one focused on the quality of what was in the cup. Shots were harsh, bitter, and over-extracted, made of coffee sourced from French industrial coffee giants. In a culture known for painstakingly focusing on the food served on a plate and the wine poured into a glass, how could the quality of the coffee be so bad?" See full story.

Paris’s Growing Coffee Scene and the 5 Best Places to Grab a Cup
Sarah Moroz, Vogue, October 2015
"Paris has always had a discerning take on food and beverage, yet it’s only recently that coffee has been included in that infamous savoir faire. Over the past few years, the caffeine scene has grown both more ubiquitous and more sophisticated. Just in time for Paris Fashion Week, here are some of the chicest places throughout the city to grab a boost between shows and take in clean, airy design while you sip." See full story.

The 'French New Wave' of coffee lands in Paris
Kenny Mah, Malay Mail Online, September 2015
"The French New Wave (or La Nouvelle Vague) refers to a band of radical, experimental French filmmakers in the late 1950s and 1960s. François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer and their peers revolutionised French cinema forever with their stylistic innovations. Today, in the French capital, there is a new “wave” of coffee bars that bucks the trend of classic Parisian cafés. Forget sullen French waiters; chat with some friendly baristas instead. Forget French roast; try some single origin brews. Forget café au lait; flat whites and Third Wave Coffee are here to stay." See story.

Jet-Set Bohemian: 5 Craft Coffee Cafes in Paris
Lane Nieset, Paste Magazine, September 2015
"A cooler crop of cafes has blossomed over town these past few years filling the gap the craft coffee set were searching for: artisan coffees made with premium beans served in a space just as chic as the crowd that gathers there. This long overdue coffee revival is blessing for both locals and visitors like myself who have been searching for that perfect cortado—and better yet, in a to-go cup—at a café that is soon to become our home-away-from-home." See full story.

10 Remarkable Cafés in Paris
Staff, Sprudge, July 2015
"Once a wasteland for good coffee, the city of Paris is today home to one of the most vibrant specialty coffee scenes in the world. From the Left Bank to Canal St. Martin, we’ve covered the Paris coffee scene extensively on Sprudge, with content directed by our Paris staff writer Anna Brones. Our Paris tag is a wonderland of content from this marvelous city, but here’s 10 of our most favorite Paris features pulled from the Sprudge archives—a great place to start for visitors and coffee enthusiasts alike. Merci!" See full story.

How to Discern an Exceptional Cup of Coffee in Paris (or Anywhere)
Lindsay Tramuta, T, New York Times Style Magazine, March 2015
"The coffee climate in Paris has changed. In the last two years, the caffeinated brew has evolved from much-maligned to much-adored by a burgeoning set of specialty coffee aficionados. But with new openings every few months, it’s ironically becoming a greater challenge to seek out an above-average cup in the rapidly maturing market." See full story.

Paris's First Outdoor Specialty Coffee Shop
Lindsay Tramuta, Food Matters, New York Times, February 2015
"Take a quick scan of one of the many maps plotting out Paris’s specialty coffee bars, and you’ll notice the movement’s glaring absence in the Eighth Arrondissement. With Honor, the city’s first independent outdoor specialty coffee shop, opening today on the well-heeled Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the English-Australian barista couple Angelle Boucher and Daniel Warburton drop a new bean on the map — right there in the upscale, highly-manicured Eighth, in a cobblestone courtyard, abutting Comme des Garçons’ flagship shop and museum." See full story.

10 Spots for Coffee Lovers in Paris
Anna Brones, Paste Magazine, January 2015
"For years, Paris was the brunt of any specialty coffee joke. While you can easily get a café au lait and some excellent Parisian people-watching at any corner bistro, if you came to Paris in search of a quality cup of joe, you would have been disappointed, until now. Thanks to an upswing in specialty cafes and roasters in the last few years, the tide is quickly turning." See full story.

One Perfect Coffee Day in Paris
Victor Frankowski, Sprudge, January 2015
"Living over the channel in the opposing great city of London, I have been hearing of the slow and steady evolution of Parisian coffee since 2011 when Café Coutume first made its appearance. Since then, a steady flow of café names has been heard making their way around Europe. Café Lomi, Télescope, Ten Belles, Fondation Café and Holybelly. Recently though one roaster, Belleville, has particularly been making its mark." See story.

Giving the Paris Cafe Scene a Jolt
Seth Sherwood, New York Times, September 2014
"A decade ago Channa Galhenage, a Londoner, moved to Paris to work in human resources. A longtime coffee devotee, he was shocked by the espresso he tasted in French cafes. 'It was putrid,' he recalled on a recent afternoon, echoing an oft-heard sentiment from expatriates." See story.

Bad Coffee Is Dying a Slow Death in Paris
Anna Trattles & Alice Quillet, Vice.com, September 2014
"People in Paris had no idea that the coffee here was bad. There was a post on the New York Times coffee blog a few years ago with the headline, “Why Is Coffee in Paris So Bad?” Loads of people were outraged, saying, 'No! It’s great!' because they associate drinking coffee in Paris with the whole experience, which in itself is nice. It has a kind of romance to it. But no one really realized how bad it was until people started opening coffee shops, or until people traveled and tasted coffee elsewhere." See story.

More Great Coffee in Paris?!? It's Too Good to be True
Carin Olsson, Condé Nast Traveler, May 2014
"We can’t believe it either. Paris—once notorious for its watery, tasteless java—now has little coffee shops manned by hip, talented baristas popping up on every corner." See story.

A Local Moveable Feast: Notes From Paris
Modern Farmer, May 2014
"In France, the pejorative phrase for French drip coffee, jus des chaussettes, translates literally to 'sock juice.' Anselme Blayney, who co-owns the Paris coffee roaster Belleville, says this bad reputation is well deserved." See story.

At A Delicious Coffee Cupping In Paris (Of All Places)
Anna Brones, Sprudge, February 2014
"It’s Saturday morning and I’m biking across Paris to get to a cupping at Belleville Brûlerie, a roaster that opened late last fall and is already supplying some of the most popular cafes around town. There’s a lot of talk about the growing coffee scene in Paris right now, and the guys behind Belleville are doing their best to make sure the movement really takes a firm hold, instead of remaining a mere trend." See story. 

Why Is Coffee in France La Merde? 
Anna Brones, Slate, January 2014
"There is one thing the guidebooks, the Francophiles, and the blissed-out romantics never tell you: The coffee in France is lousy. Paris is a city of café culture, not a city of coffee culture. That may come as a shock to those who believe the sophisticated French palate extends across the entire food and beverage spectrum." See story.

Coffee in Paris: The Coffee Revolution Continues in the City of Light
Kim Laidlaw, Hip Paris Blog, December 2013
"Paris: capital of a country whose gastronomy is UNESCO classified, populated by people with palates refined enough to distinguish multiple tasting notes in wines, to appreciate numerous subtleties of cheese. And yet, when it comes to coffee, nuances of taste seem to go out the window." See story.

Percolating in Paris: A New Coffee Scene
Catherine Down, Paris By Mouth, November 2013
"For a long time, the prevailing opinion of visitors to the French capital has been that the coffee in Paris is terrible. Well, it may be time to revise this long-running truism to “coffee in Paris was terrible.” This Fall has seen a veritable avalanche of openings (Holybelly, Belleville Brûlerie, Fragments, Fondation, Coutume Lab) that have enriched the city’s specialty coffee scene." See story.

A Guide to Paris' Best Coffee Shops
Staff, Eater, October 2013
"The majority of cafés in Paris, France, still treat coffee as an afterthought: an early-morning caffeine delivery mechanism whose flavor is described solely as "strong" or "mild." It was never supposed to taste good; coffee in Paris was always about the experience of drinking coffee — lingering in a wicker chair with a cigarette and croissant — rather than the flavor of the coffee itself." See story.

Build Outs Of…Paris? Meet 5 Brand New Cafes Opening This Fall
Staff, Sprudge, September 2013
"What makes a zeitgeist? How many shops or photos denote a “cavalcade”? A cafe boom? A moment of precipitous growth? By any metric, in any system of measurement, there’s something very special happening right now in Paris." See story.

Cafés Chic Très Parisien
Sarah Allen, Barista Magazine, June 2013
"...I’m unofficially starting une célébration de café en France (that means a celebration of coffee in France. I’m not that bad.) because in my opinion, based on lots of conversations with Frenchies and cafe visits in Paris last fall, things ’bout to blow up in France!" See story. 

For the modern coffee experience, Paris looks to America
Cody Delistraty, Today.com, June 2013
"Cafés are a centerpiece for daily life in Paris, as integral to French culture as a fresh baguette, a glass of wine, or, at least according to Americans, a black beret. Yet somehow, coffee in France is almost uniformly bad. Beans are left out in the open air, machines aren’t properly maintained, and the act of pulling an espresso is done without care, as perfunctory as a dry kiss on the cheek." See story.

Coffee in Paris: What's Happening Now
Liz Clayton, Serious Eats, March 2013
"Paris has very few things about it that inspire pity, and until recently, coffee was one of them. What a shame that such a city of beauty and food beauty would linger in the depths of darkness. What a travesty of taste that in a place where the sidewalk cafe and all its attendant idle pursuits have been perfected, what's inside the cup has been, until recently, so very poor." See story.

Paris is Brewing
Oliver Strand, New York Times, September 2012
"Finally, Paris has a coffee scene. The city has always been the paradox of the industry, a great cafe town where an otherwise discerning audience happily throws back watery shots of ashy swill." See story.

Coffee Cafés
Jennifer Ladonne, France Today, August 2012
"There’s a new revolution underway in Paris, and like most French revolutions, it began in a café and confronts an injustice: the very bad coffee." See story.

Tastemakers: The Men of the New Paris Coffee Culture
Lindsay McCallum, Lookbooks, May 2012
"In the city that’s known for having a sidewalk café on nearly every corner, you would think that this place had mastered the art of making coffee by now. But an espresso machine does not a barista make. And even to call this new generation of coffee makers in Paris ‘baristas’ is an understatement. Coffee artists, gurus, revolutionaries might be more correct." See story. 

Trail of the Unexpected: Paris' Coffee Culture
Tilly Culme-Seymour, The Independent, July 2011
"Almost a decade ago, I was living in Paris as part of a university exchange programme. And if one thing was synonymous with la vie française (alongside eating tartine, drinking beaujolais nouveau and smoking) it was drinking strong, very bitter coffee." See story.

Coffee in Paris? Finally, Coffee You Can Drink in the City of Lights!
Erica Berman, Hip Paris Blog, April 2011
I don’t drink coffee in Paris. Why should I? It’s expensive and mostly bad and the waiters are often surly and unfriendly.  No self-respecting coffee drinker should have to subject themselves to overpriced Parisian sludge served with a sneer. See story.

Is Coffee in Paris Improving?
Oliver Strand, New York Times, January 2011
"Last year, I wrote a column that wondered why Paris doesn’t have better coffee. Or, to quote Duane Sorenson of Stumptown Coffee Roasters, "Why does the coffee in Paris suck so bad?" The flurry of comments that followed was split between agreement and outrage." See story.

Why is Coffee in Paris so Bad?
Oliver Strand, New York Times, April 2010
"I just came back from Paris, a city where the cafes are as central to daily life as running water and perfectly knotted scarves. And yet the coffee is almost always disappointing.” See story.

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