MONO is a coffee bar in Berchem that serves only single origins, “to provide a clean and balanced cup”. Its coffees of the month are all roasted by Assembly Coffee, an independent roaster in London, and the selection changes with the season, bringing different taste notes, processing methods and varieties. MONO’s close partnership with Assembly lets it pour the roaster’s newest coffees.
The house espresso stays the same through the seasons: the Mono Espresso, a red honey Catucai from Mio Fazenda in Monte Santo de Minas, Brazil, a family farm that works with government and university research teams. Its notes run from milk chocolate and praline to a berry-like sweetness. A suggestion espresso sits beside it.
The hand-brew menu changes every three to four weeks and has two halves: a classic menu of familiar origins and processes, and an experimental menu of rarer origins and more adventurous processing. Each half lists two or three coffees, so up to six are on offer at once, and every filter is brewed on an Orea or an AeroPress. Coffees and brewing gear are sold at the bar.
MONO has its own kitchen and bakery, which make the pastries in house, and it takes no reservations.
Coffee on the shelf
- Assembly Coffee London roaster of the coffees of the month
Photograph: MONO Coffee