Kafe Karlín, Prague

Coffee is everywhere we turn.

Summer in Prague is a beautiful experience. Yes, there are more tourists but you can avoid popular sights such as Charles Bridge and Wenceslas Square during peak hours by heading into the surrounding neighbourhoods, down tiny streets, for a feel of how locals live.

Instead of posing with statues of saints, we head down to The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, a Roman Catholic church built in a postmodern style at Jiřího z Poděbrad square. No, we aren’t there for the church but for the lively farmer’s market where foods, flowers and more products from all over the Czech Republic can be found.

To our surprise and delight, there’s even very good coffee!

We make a beeline for a coffee stall where others are already waiting for their espressos and caffè lattes. Our espresso is vibrant and bright-tasting, not the overly bold sludge we would have expected from an outdoor kiosk.

The kiosk is by Kafe Karlín, which is owned and run by Adam Dvořáka and Zdeněk Smrčka, both barista trainers at Kávový Klub (“the Coffee Club”). Their café doubles as both an espresso and brew bar located in the Prague neighbourhood of Karlín (hence the moniker) not too far away.

There one can find coffee beans from both Czech and European roasters, according to Zdeněk, who is manning the stall at the farmer’s market today. He deftly pours foamed milk for an excellent cappuccino on the go for us (as we have more sights to see in this beautiful city). Besides Karlín and Jiřák, they also have another stall at the Náplavce farmer’s market, beside the river.

在布拉格的第二天行程中，
我們來到了布拉格最美麗的現代天主教堂—聖心教堂。
不過醉翁之意不在酒，
我們想逛的不是教堂，而是它附近的農貿市集。
這裡除了販賣鮮花、水果、麵包和蔬菜等一般市集常見的物品外，
還讓我們找到了好喝的咖啡，可說是意外的收穫。
由於才喝過咖啡，起初我們只點了一杯卡布奇諾，
那奶泡和溫度把握的剛好，味道也很不錯，
讓我們不禁的又追加了一杯濃縮咖啡。

和咖啡師閒聊后，
我们才知道這家咖啡攤是属于Kafe Karlín的，
他們的總店位於Karlín區那；
而且除了這裡，在Náplavce 那的農貿市場里也能找到他們的咖啡攤。
後來馬少上網尋找有關的資料時，
發現為我們沖泡卡布的正是老闆之一的Zdeněk Smrčka。
他和另一位老闆Adam Dvořáka也是咖啡俱樂部的咖啡培訓師，
難怪手藝那麼好。