Belleville Brûlerie sees specialty coffee as a pleasure drink, easy to make and accessible to all, to be enjoyed without rules or dogma. It has a soft spot for filter coffee and for blends, thought through, researched and tested. As roaster and master blender it has a precise idea of each coffee’s profile, favouring sweetness and body in the cup and developing roasts to the second and to a tenth of a degree. It works with its exporters, importers and producers over the long term, with visits to Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Kenya and Rwanda to taste new harvests together.

Since the summer of 2017 its headquarters in the 19th arrondissement has been the Brûlerie itself, where the coffees are roasted, blended, checked, bagged and shipped. The shop there sells the coffees, and visitors can watch the roasting from the shop floor. A tasting space serves the blends and single origins as filter or espresso, online orders can be collected in the shop, and the headquarters holds the largest stock of the Collection Belleville, from the “Bleu de Belleville” workwear to the “Château Belleville” tote bag and socks.

The Brûlerie also runs workshops: a cupping session, an espresso class on making a good espresso at home and a filter class on slow brewing methods, alongside tours of the roastery and the cellar. The range is split into blends and single origins, with blends such as Château Belleville, La Pantoufle and Le Mistral.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Belleville Brûlerie