Substance Café, Paris

Substance Café is a small specialty coffee shop and roastery in Paris. Joachim is the owner and the only barista and roaster, and he does as much as possible in front of guests, latte art and V60 included, at the counter they share. Eight years ago he chose to roast very lightly to keep the character of each coffee’s terroir, a style now known as ultra-light roasting. He roasts on a Loring S7 at the back of the shop, in small volumes, and the shelves carry the coffees alongside equipment and accessories for brewing at home.

Seating is around the bar only, by reservation. There are no takeaway cups, no sugar, no pastries and no music, so that good coffee is savoured slowly and as it is. Slots run mostly two hours with a maximum of five seats, each guest is asked to take at least one drink, and buying beans needs no booking. A main menu uses the coffee of the moment, and a board lists more special and competition coffees, most of them vacuum-sealed, blast-frozen and kept in the freezer until they are brewed. Guests order à la carte or ask for an omakase, where Joachim asks about favourite fruits and ice-cream flavours and builds a tasting course from the answers.

Espresso comes from a two-group Slayer and filter from a V60. Both recipes and the water recipe behind them are shared: 12 g of coffee to 200 g of water for the V60, 20 g in and 44 g out for espresso, and a mineral target of 90 GH and 40 KH. Coffee is sold online through an order request that the café confirms by hand, with the list updated after each roasting session.