A coffee house called Kafka

Gone are the days in Latvia where a traditional cup of black tea with a slice of lemon and a spoonful of honey were ordered at a local cafe. Nowadays, coffee is likely to be the beverage of choice. But in a burgeoning market where milky recreations attempt to pass themselves off as a proper cup of java the trained baristas are digging in their heels, remaining faithful to the old “true brew” methods.

Zane Abele-Ploks, owner and manager of Kafka, situated in Old Riga, was taught the process at an early age.

“As long as I can recall, I’ve always been quite sensitive about coffee. If we’re to blame previous generations for how we as individualities turn out to be, then certainly this passion for coffee has to do with “make some coffee”. [My parents] had instructed me in the process of making Turkish coffee. Someone would grind the beans in a manual copper grinder for me, and then I’d do all that [ibrik] magic on my own as the grownups laughed through their conversations in the living room. A bit lonely, but certainly it paid well in compliments and extras I could exchange for this coffee service of mine. At that age just like most of kids, I wasn’t a coffee drinker myself, so the only quality control I could do was olfactory. I loved the aroma of the drink, but strongly disliked the sludgy texture of the coffee made by Turkish tradition.”

“As time went, my parents dropped the time consuming ibrik tradition in favor of a fancy drip coffee machine from Germany and a rather stinky coffee blend from some non-identifiable place in the world. I hated the stuff, and, feeling there’s more to coffee than I see around me, begun my adult life with an even more fancy home espresso machine and an Illy blend. Sometimes coffee was great, but mostly a sheer disappointment, and what I disliked about the home espresso the most was the enormous amount of time and energy I ended up investing in cleaning the equipment, and how random the pleasure of the well-made espresso really was. For a long time I blamed the coffee blend, not the machine, and so the great big search for the most delicious coffee beans begun. It could’ve gone on forever, but somewhere on my way I was introduced to the Aeropress – an ugly duckling of a coffee brewer. It’s all manual, requires almost no cleaning at all, takes up almost no kitchen space and basically I get the cleanest, most balanced and enjoyable coffee experience with the least effort. Love at first sight…”

But she said everyone has a personal preference when it comes to how they enjoy their java. “I think Latvian taste for coffee is quite all right but it‘s different from the taste of those coming from what I call “starbuckised” cultures where coffee is mainly consumed with a lot of steamed milk and all kinds of fancy syrups and additives. We’re a conservative nation, so a lot of people stick to the safe choice of a black long coffee, perhaps with some milk on the side. Though there’s a difference between coffee taken as a comfort drink – and in that case it’s most likely going to be some kind of a coffee based milk drink, and coffee taken as a taste experience or a stimulant – for those occasions straight black stuff certainly wins.

“Regarding the local taste for coffee – good coffee is one of everyday luxuries a lot of people could afford, if only they wanted to. Not everyone has enough time and money for cafes, but quality coffee – one with a traceable past, origin, freshly roasted and preferable ground just before brewing – it’s not really that much a question of budget as an issue of mindset.”

To learn more about coffee production she travelled to different coffee origins, learned from roasters both in Europe and USA and trained in Germany and Austria. She regularly attends seminars and events to get inspiration and “energy” which enable her to explore more. A month ago she was in London for that reason, but realised “the whole scene is dominated by Aussies and Kiwis”. She said the disappointing thing is everyone is doing the same thing with their coffee because it’s trendy. “It seems for such a big market it should be more experimental.”

She said the larger coffee chains don’t affect her business negatively just because they are bigger. “Latvians have a saying “kur ir, tur rodas.” I strongly believe in competition. Only if there are different options, different places and traditions and brewing methods available is there’s an opportunity for public taste to evolve, develop. There are still very few places in Riga where one can taste coffee brewed in any other way but espresso – so from coffee perspective I wouldn’t say there’s really an issue of competition.”

However, Zane said she doesn’t get to visit other cafes as often as she would need to comment on whether coffee houses overlook these important aspects. “Constant perfection is something to strive for, but keeping common sense – no one can be perfect all the time, right? As much as cafes can keep striving for consistently good quality, customers can really help by demanding the best, and saying it aloud if they’re not happy with what they’ve been served. Only if they don’t “keep mum”, the coffee, service or just about anything can be improved, right?

“The most universal rule for great coffee experience lies in knowing what you want – just like with anything in life, I believe. From a more down to earth perspective: properly stored beans with traceable and preferably not too distant roast date; clean, well-maintained equipment. That applies to home coffee connoisseurs as much as professionals. Most often overlooked are water kettles, grown in scale, dirty jugs and poor quality water. Another thing is that over steeping coffee to supposedly make it stronger – it just doesn’t really work that way. The best balance of taste and aromatics can be achieved in less than four minutes of ground coffee contact with water. Usually even less – like espresso is a matter of seconds, Aeropress – a minute of ground coffee and water contact, drip and French press – a bit more than three minutes.”

She sources her beans mostly from suppliers and roasters in Estonia and Lithuania so she has more control over the quality of the coffee she serves. In time she hopes to hold more “cupping sessions” where people interested in coffee can come and taste up to 12 brew profiles. “You’re not actually drinking a lot of coffee but it is a lot of sensory experience. You can smell it – figure out what you feel.”