cafēn

Light roasts with the producer detail left in

The brew bar on Dundas Street in Edinburgh is the public end of a roastery, and the roasting is deliberately light: brightness, fruit and florals left in rather than pushed out. The coffees are sold with real detail attached, not just a country name. Las Hermanas Red Catuaí comes from the Tarrazú region of Costa Rica, grown at 1,625 metres, naturally processed and roasted as an omni. Baragwi Kariru sits in a fruit and caramel register. Megadu Anaerobic Natural runs toward blackberry, coffee blossom, lemon, lime and red grape. Solstice is rounder, with milk chocolate, raspberry, orange and blackcurrant. There is no fixed house flavour for every coffee to hit, which is rather the point of roasting this way.

A quiet bar where the coffee does the work

The room is restrained: minimalist, modern, and organised around the bar rather than a broad café menu. That makes it a good place to compare what is on espresso against what is being brewed by hand, which is more or less the purpose of the counter. There is no theatre involved. The work is in the dose, the grind, the water and the pull, and the room leaves space for it. Service is counter-led, so the useful move on arrival is to read the coffees rather than scan for a food case. cafēn also runs bags, subscriptions and wholesale from the same roasting operation, and the bar was named in the 2025 European Coffee Trip awards.

Order the Las Hermanas, then compare the hand brew

Start with Las Hermanas Red Catuaí if it is on. It is the clearest first order because it shows the house style without asking for a leap: caramel sweetness, dark chocolate, ripe winey fruit and a citrus lift inside a light-roast frame. As an omni roast it also shows how one coffee is meant to behave across more than one method. If Megadu Anaerobic Natural is being brewed, take it second, since the blackberry, floral and red-grape end is where the roasting gets expressive. Baragwi Kariru is the steadier fruit-and-caramel choice and Solstice sits closer to chocolate and berry. Food is not the argument here. The order is coffee, chosen by lot and then by method, and the staff will tell you which of the two is drinking better that day.