Intense Coffee

Specialty coffee and a fully vegan kitchen

Intense Coffee runs on one line: specialty coffee and housemade vegan bites. Everything in the case is plant-based and made in-house, which puts it in a different category from a coffee bar with a token vegan cake at the end of the counter. The coffee gets the same seriousness, beans ground to order, water temperature watched, extraction taken slowly, with Kaffeekirsche supplying the roast. Filter coffee and pour-over both appear alongside the espresso, so the counter is not a milk-drink operation with a bag of beans behind it.

Matcha as a second anchor

The matcha has become as much of a draw as the espresso, to the point that regulars rank it above anything else in the city. It sits beside a cappuccino that gets the same praise and a pour-over that extends the offer past milk drinks into something you sit with. Between filter, espresso and matcha the drinks list is compact but genuinely three-way, which is unusual for a café this size.

The two branches, in Limpertsberg and Bonnevoie, run the same programme. Limpertsberg is the sunny yellow one, bright and modern, and it is the address most people mean when they name the café.

Order matcha with the vegan carrot cake

The first order is matcha with a slice of vegan carrot cake. Both are the things people come back for, and together they show what the café actually is: drink-led, but with a kitchen behind it that can hold up its end. If coffee is the priority instead, a cappuccino or a pour-over is the better read on the roast and on what Kaffeekirsche is sending across.

Beyond the cake the counter carries cookies and a savoury side, including a hummus sandwich, so a visit can be a snack or a light lunch. Cakes, cookies and sandwiches all come out of the same in-house kitchen, which is what the housemade half of the strapline is actually promising. Service is warm and genuine in a way that guests keep on mentioning, and the rooms get loud when they fill, which is the trade-off for a small café that people have decided they like. Bright, plant-based and busy is the honest summary, across the Limpertsberg room and the Bonnevoie one alike.