I had so much fun with my new friend Ellie on Friday, you guys. Ellie and I struck up a correspondence via the spoogler mailing list. She and her husband moved here from Seattle about three months ahead of us. She has been so great with sharing information about their experiences settling in here and moving with animals (they have a dog and a cat). I knew we would get along famously and I was so, so right. When we met for coffee IRL for the first time we talked for hours. She’s a super cool lady and one of the things we have in common is a love for great coffee. We decided to make a day of our fiendish natures and planned a coffee tour of Zurich. Ellie worked as an executive assistant at Starbucks for about 15 years before giving it all up to live la vie en rose and is an actual, certified coffee master! I was in good hands. We started our day at the farmers market at Burkliplatz (I have got to find the umlat in wordpress, that U has one).

Ellie bought some mint for her balcony garden.

Next we went to Spugli for some chocolate sustenance before heading to the Nespresso flagship store which is what a coffee shop for robots would look like. We taste tested three kinds of espresso there and so our coffee tour started off with a bang!

Our next stop was an Italian place called La Stanza. There we sipped cappuccino outside with some very sharp dressed business men and discussed health insurance (amongst ourselves, not the businessmen. I’m sure they were discussing Ferrari stocks).

We then walked from the city center towards the funkier neighborhood where Tyler and I have been living in Kreis 3. Along the way we stopped in some cute but frivolous boutiques selling things with birds on them as well as a great English language bookstore called Pile of Books. Next stop, a roaster called Kaffeepur. I’ve been on the hunt for a medium to light roast coffee since I’ve been here but without any luck. The roaster here told me they just don’t do it since the Swiss love their espresso. He did point me to a nice bean that was on the lighter, fruitier side of dark so I bought a bag to try at home. I should have taken a picture of this cute shop but didn’t.

Our next stop was Benzin und Koffein (Gasoline and Caffeine) just down the street which I had spied from the tram a couple of days prior. There we had some cold brewed Ice coffee that was phenomenal.

Our cold brew coffee.

I also learned from the charming barista that I had been ordering my coffee with sweat (Schweiß) instead of black (schwarz). Note to self: When ordering coffee think “may the schwarz be with you”. The barista, after having a lovely conversation with us about the lack of  an adjectival form for “sweaty” in German, told us about a specialty coffee convention/trade show that just happened to be going on in town that day! Should we go? Well, how could we not!

We bid adieu to our new pal and jumped on a tram headed for a place called Kaufleuten. We really had no idea what to expect and were surprised both by the awesome event space and the buzzy party scene! We had free coffee, danced (sort of) to Prince and Tribe Called Quest, chatted up some Swiss coffee scenesters and even got free drinks (gin and tonic made with cold brewed coffee, yum!) from a couple of hot bartenders. Score!

We ended our highly caffeinated day with a very late lunch in a charming garden restaurant the pedestrian area downtown. As we wandered down the cobble stoned streets of the Niederdorf we both remarked how lucky we were to have the opportunity to live in and explore this beautiful city. What at sweet end to a wonderful day spent in the company of a new friend.