Maja Coffee Roastery

A one-kilogram roaster does the work here, and the room around it holds about ten people. Maja is a Helsinki nano roastery run by a Finnish-Japanese couple, roasting its own coffee, pouring it a few metres away, and selling the rest to other cafés.

A quiet counter with the roaster in the room

Come for coffee, not a long meal. The café is very small, with two tables inside and one out, and the scale sets the tone: relaxed, attentive, and willing to spend time on what is in the cup. Two or three coffees are usually on, brewed to order hot or iced, with or without milk.

The roastery side is the point. Maja roasts in small batches on a one-kilogram machine and runs an active retail and preorder list alongside the café: Kenya washed AB Thaita, Kenya AB TEGU, Rwanda natural Gitesi, Rwanda 1000 Hills natural, Ethiopia washed Bensa and Uganda extended-fermentation natural Kihuhire. East African coffees and processing detail are clearly where the interest lies.

Nordic and Japanese cues, and a lot of daylight

The mood carries as much as the menu. Wooden chairs and tables, good glassware and a stripped-back arrangement keep attention on the cup, with Nordic and Japanese design cues meeting in a warm, minimalist room. Large windows bring in the light, and the roasting is visible while you drink.

The location does the rest. Maja sits off the busiest café routes, in the north wing of Kulttuurisauna in Merihaka, which gives it a destination feel rather than passing trade. The tone is calm rather than work-focused; it suits lingering and conversation, and the staff will talk coffee and tea and point you at other places in the city.

Order the Ethiopian pour-over first

Start with the Ethiopian pour-over. It is the signature order and a natural fit with Maja’s Ethiopian lots, including the washed Bensa. From there the Kenyan and Rwandan coffees show the same preference for clarity, and milk drinks and iced coffee are both available if filter is not the mood.

Tea has a smaller but real place, with a short selection from the German house Paper & Tea and staff happy to talk it through. Food is deliberately limited: raw cake and toasted sandwiches are the clearest named items, with pastries, a cinnamon bun and homemade apple pie also turning up. Treat it as an accompaniment, something sweet with brewed coffee or a toasted sandwich for savoury.