Te & Kaffi Laugavegi

A roaster’s café on Laugavegur

Cappuccino is what this branch is known for, and it comes from a company that has been roasting in Iceland since 1984. Te & Kaffi began after its founders came back from Sweden wanting a shop built on fresh specialty coffee and loose-leaf tea, and it grew into a roastery with its own production. The Laugavegi branch is that story reduced to a working city café: espresso drinks and filter coffee, a wide tea selection, iced tea, hot chocolate and chai, plus sweeter builds like a caramel frappuccino or a pumpkin spice latte when the season calls for it. The coffee styles on the roaster’s list run from French Roast to Java, Mokka and Espresso. As the roasting and packaging side grew the company invested in stronger production equipment, which is why a small city branch can pour from a roaster’s range rather than a wholesaler’s.

A quick-service room for the middle of the day

It works as a practical downtown stop: order at the counter, take a drink and something to eat, then either settle in briefly or keep walking. The room is small with a modern coffee-shop finish, quiet enough for a pause and quick enough that a queue does not cost much time, and the baristas move at a pace that suits a street full of people going somewhere else. Food is counter food done properly, with a jalapeño egg grilled cheese and an avocado bagel among the savoury regulars and a coconut sweet with marzipan-like filling and chocolate on the other side. Vegetarian and vegan choices and dairy alternatives keep a mixed group ordering from the same board.

Cappuccino, then the cinnamon roll

Start with the cappuccino. It is the drink most tied to this branch, and the one an Icelandic roaster-café is most likely to get exactly right. If the weather or the mood wants something colder or sweeter, the caramel frappuccino and iced tea cover that, while chai and hot chocolate handle the non-coffee end. For food, the cinnamon roll is the clearest pastry order, with other sweet snacks beside it. Bagels and sourdough sandwiches make it a proper stop rather than a coffee break, and the avocado bagel or the jalapeño egg grilled cheese are the specific ways to steer that. What you get is not a tasting bar or a brunch room but a central Reykjavík café with a roastery behind it.