Blur Coffee

White Label beans on a Black Eagle

The espresso comes off a Victoria Arduino Black Eagle, and the beans are White Label from Amsterdam, poured exclusively, alongside coffees roasted for Blur by Foundation Coffee Roasters in Odessa. The choice on the bar tends to run Colombian or Kenyan, with a Tanzanian on cold brew. The full range is there: espresso, ristretto, doppio, cappuccino, latte, flat white, pour-over and cold brew. Blur was set up as a modern coffee bar in Kyiv by an owner who had spent time in the cafés of Berlin and Amsterdam, and the format follows them, with Ukrainian hospitality and Ukrainian products folded through it.

A bright room with several kinds of regular

The room is the other signature: bright, spacious and minimal, with plants, exposed brick, a green leather couch, a communal table and a patio outside. The layout sorts its regulars by zone, laptop workers at the communal table, people in for a quick cappuccino at the counter, smokers out on the patio. It is popular enough to be crowded much of the time, and self-service keeps it moving without making it feel rushed. It is a photogenic room, deliberately so, but the coffee is not an afterthought to the look.

Start with the flat white

The flat white is the easiest first order and the drink the café is most praised for; the Black Eagle and the White Label beans do the rest. If you want the coffee to show more, take a pour-over, which gives the Amsterdam and Odessa roasts room to say something. Cold brew is the third route, and the Tanzanian is the one to ask for. Food is an all-day companion rather than the main event: toasts, smoothie bowls, granola with yogurt, cookies, pies and cakes, with breakfast running through the day rather than stopping mid-morning. Order coffee first, then decide how hungry you are.