During the holiday season, some of the staff at Velasquez and Van Wezel saw the chance to travel to their home countries. Effy, one of our allrounders, went back to Hungary and here is her update on the Budapest coffee scene.

Effy on BUDAPEST:

In mid-December I travelled to Budapest, Hungary for the holidays to spend some time with my family and friends. Since the temperature was sub-zero, what better place is there than a coffee shop to catch up with people?

On a gloomy day, I visited Espresso Embassy. It’s just a few minutes walk away from Saint Stephen’s Basilica, so a perfect spot to rest after a long sightseeing tour. It was early in the morning, so I decided to have a flat white and a jalapeño Danish for breakfast (can you tell I was missing VvW’s jalapeño cornbread!?). They had a wide selection of pastries and toasties and even freshly squeezed juices. After ordering my flat white, I realised they had two types of beans displayed in front of their espresso machine, so I asked the barista about them. He explained that firstly they rotate their beans seasonally, and always have two types of beans on for their espresso-based drinks, with quite different flavour experiences. If one of the bags is available as filter as well, they usually have that on batch. I decided to go with the one from Rwanda, called Mahebe, by local coffee roaster Casino Mocca. It had very nice, fruity flavours with rosehip, cranberry, and lime notes. For me, the cranberry and lime came through and were very refreshing.

Later that day I met my sister for a coffee at My Little Melbourne, which I am 100% biased towards as it was the first specialty coffee place in Hungary and my usual place to have coffee with friends. It is right by the metro in the centre so a great meeting point. It is great to see how they have expanded over the years to their neighbouring shop spaces. They now own a brew bar where they hold trainings and tastings. My sister went for the batch which was a Colombian coffee by Workshop Coffee called Los Naranjos. The reason it might ring a bell is because Workshop is a London-based roaster. She said the name wasn’t disappointing at it felt very fruity. I once again had a flat white, but this time the dominating flavour was chocolate. I have to admit I did not detect the lime which was one of the notes on the bag. The beans were from Guatemala and roasted by a Budapest-based company called Racer Beans. It was so freshly roasted that when the barista looked at the bag, he mentioned that he was probably the one who roasted it a week prior. My Little Melbourne also rotates its beans seasonally and they own a stake in Racer Beans, so usually their espresso-based drinks are made from Racer.

My final visit was to Fekete, which is also a staple on the Budapest specialty coffee scene and is incredibly popular with students as it is only a few minutes walk from three major universities and their libraries. It is easy to miss, as it is located within a block of flats and opens from the inner courtyard. It is great during the Summer as they have seating in that inner courtyard hidden from the busy road. My mum and I shared a pistachio blondie which was delicious. They had a few cakes, including a GF and vegan one, but this was the most intriguing to me. During the morning they also serve pastries. To be predictable I ordered a flat white. As at Espresso Embassy. Fekete also uses Casino Mocca. The current rotation was from Ethiopia, called Bedessa. It was very nice, with fruity flavours including cantaloupe, lemon zest, and jackfruit notes. For me, the dominant note was definitely jackfruit and for a few minutes it felt like I was on a nice warm holiday.