For me, the first two months passed by in a flash, but all throughout my adventures in Europe, there was always one thing that was a consistent companion: coffee. Yes, I have dedicated an entire entry to (mostly) coffee because I love it so much. You could call me a coffee snob and you wouldn't be wrong at all. With my knowledge of biking reinforced again, it was only natural for me to rent one (which I got from Swapfiets) and explore the city. Of course, along the way, I encountered many a coffee shops.
To explain, during the COVID-19 lockdown, I got into specialty coffee as a hobby; hell, I even got myself a pourover dripper, an Aeropress (basically a fancier version of a french press), a coffee scale, and a fairly fancy hand grinder. The thing is, Hawaii isn't exactly known for specialty coffee, save for a few cafes (shoutout to The Curb in Kaimuki), and with the state of COVID-19 at that time, I pretty much had no one to talk to about my growing interest. With Copenhagen, however, coffee culture was everywhere. In fact Danes, are the fourth largest coffee consumers in the world, and I loved them for it. I could finally obsess about the "acidity" or "body" of a certain coffee and compare different origins and processes with others, but I doubt anybody wants to hear about the jargon. Instead, I want to talk about a few encounters I had scouring the city for good coffee. My first encounter with a specialty cafe in Copenhagen occurred not too long after I landed; there was a coffee shop named "Impact Roasters," which was merely a 5 minute walk from where I lived in Flintholm. When I found out that CBS was hosting a coffee tasting event for less than $5.00 USD, I jumped at the chance, both to meet new people and to taste coffee. I was surprised to discover that the owner of this chain was a previous CBS student, who had come to Denmark from Ethiopia and wanted to share his coffee drinking culture with the rest of the world. Not only did I see a live coffee roasting machine and saw how it actually worked, I also participated in the traditional way of drinking coffee in Ethiopia--that is--with a side of popcorn. After a short little lesson on how to taste coffee, our small group were finally treated to a coffee "cupping" session, in which we were challenged to correctly identify the roast levels from dark roast to light roast, from three different coffees. The winners would receive a free bag of coffee. Out of our group of around 25, only four of us got all three. Thankfully, I was one of them because I definitely would have gone through a mini-existential crisis if I didn't. With that, experience, I think my coffee journey officially began. Another coffee chain which is nostalgic to me now is "Coffee Collective," probably the most well-known specialty coffee brand in Denmark. I remember spending many afternoons and mornings studying and socializing with my friends at these shops which were scattered across the city. For me, Coffee Collective was pretty much the quintessential cafe experience. The shops were quiet, but not too quiet. They all had sleek, modern looking interiors, but were cozy enough to relax in. They each had varied menu for the coffee enthusiast, but it was approachable enough so that your friends wouldn't get freaked out. And most importantly for me, they always had new beans available every few weeks which I eagerly bought once I ran out of a bag. From Ethiopian coffees, to Kenyan coffees, to Columbian coffees, to Guatemalan coffees, it was an absolute utopia for me. They were perfect for the cold fall and winter days. My most memorable coffee trip actually occurred near the tail end of my stay in Copenhagen, on the second to last week. I decided to visit April Coffee, which was a coffee shop that's been on my radar since I got into the hobby because of their coffee brewing videos and guides. I wanted to get a bag of beans and their pourover dripper to bring back home, but I also wanted to try out their handpoured coffee. It was was definitely the priciest coffee shop I've been too, thus, the fact that I kept it for last. Funnily enough, the reason why this visit was so memorable was because while I was waiting for my coffee to be finished, I noticed another person who asked the barista for three different coffees. "And don't tell me which one is which. I want to try to figure it out myself!" To my surprise, I decided to strike up a conversation with this man, who introduced himself as Evan. And to my even greater surprise, we had a conversation that lasted nearly two hours discussing everything from how we got into coffee as a hobby, to where we came from and what we were doing in Copenhagen. He said that he was born in Israel, but mostly worked in his home state of California. He also told me that he found out about April Coffee from YouTube videos, just like me! It really was one of the most interesting conversations I had with a stranger while abroad. Needless to say, my overpriced coffee wasn't the highlight of that visit at all. Throughout my semester, I wanted to summarize what I learned into a short entry in my journal, and I think that these encounters got me closer to what I was looking for. A theme started to emerge.
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Matthew Calulot
Aloha! I am a fourth-year Marketing and International Business student currently studying at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. I have never been to Europe before, which is exactly why I wanted to study abroad as a student from Hawai'i. Archives
January 2023
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