Brûlerie de Belleville

There are people who hit the button on their Nespresso machine for a caffeine hit (or even the office coffee dispenser, yikes), and then there are people like the founders of the Brûlerie de Belleville, whose coffee is the result of experience and training, tasting and smelling, investment in hardware and in relationships with producers, even the art of decorative coffee foam. The three young entrepreneurs who set up the Brûlerie have travelled the world for the expertise to create a sophisticated Parisian coffee brand – one that can banish Paris's association with industrial coffee providers who demand a 20-year contract with their outlets. The Brûlerie therefore counts on the rash of new coffee shops for much of its business (Ten Belles and Téléscope Café are even owned by Brûlerie boys), and it's doing very well with its seasonal blends, fresh aromas, quality and variety of sources. The carefully selected beans, roasted on site in Belleville, come from small and medium-sized producers and are sold in 300 gram packets for between €15 and €20 (supposed to last six aromatic weeks for a regular coffee user, unlike the everlasting but flavourless industrial versions). On Saturdays, you can book ahead online for an hour-long €20 coffee 'dégustation', which includes a bag of beans to take away.