Collection: Coffeelab 🇵🇱

"Everyday specialty. Because good is enough." Coffeelab's motto fits in two sentences and runs against the grain of a scene that readily promises the exceptional in every cup. The Warsaw roastery jokes about it on its own About page, where it admits that it all sounds "a bit banal", before adding that its coffee should simply taste good to the people who drink it. Behind that modesty, the roastery runs five days a week and the team gathers around the cupping table every Friday for quality control, with the same thrill, it says, at the first sip of a new lot.

The company was born in Warsaw in 2012, first under the name Instytut Kawy, "the coffee institute", before becoming Coffeelab a year later. It is run by three partners, Monika Pisańska-Gawryś, Piotr Gawryś and Tomasz Wagner, and roasts on Bruszewska Street, in the Białołęka district in the north of the city, where customers can come and buy their coffee on weekdays.

The roaster behind Warsaw's coffee bars

Coffeelab first made its name behind other people's counters. In 2020, the subscription service The Coffeevine wrote of having seen its white boxes, since replaced by bags, "virtually everywhere" in the capital's coffee shops, at Relax na Wilczej, Forum and Stor. The article described it as the roaster that supplies most of Warsaw's finest cafés. The company supports these venues with training, technical service for their machines and, for those who want it, coffee under their own label. Its barista, brewing and sensory courses are held at the roastery and are open to home enthusiasts and professionals alike.

On the roasting side, one name comes up often, that of Wojciech Rzytki. After working in several Warsaw coffee shops, he joined Coffeelab around 2015 and became its head roaster. In a series of portraits published by Coffeedesk in 2017, he said he would have been happy to mop the floor just to work in a roastery, that he drinks filter coffee every day and that he has a soft spot for Kenyan coffees. Green coffee arrives through importers that enthusiasts will know, Cafe Imports, Falcon, Belco, List & Beisler and The Coffee Quest.

A range organised by use

The menu needs no dictionary. Espresso coffees, single origins and four house blends (Premium, Estate, House and Forza), are presented with their roast level out of 5 and their acidity. Coffees for filter brewing are roasted lighter. Two series complete the line-up, BrewLAB, everyday filter coffees sold in 500g bags and named after their profile (Daily, Candy, Floral, Fruity), and Magic Beans, the lightest and most adventurous selection, which has featured a double-fermented Colombian SL28 and an "Alma Negra" lot from the Costa Rican farm Las Lajas. The decaf is called "Decaf but tasty!", and the product pages keep the same sense of humour, going as far as comparing the Guatemala Huehuetenango to Werther's Original caramels.

Coffeelab also welcomes guests at home. LAB, its showroom café at 70 Wspólna Street in central Warsaw, serves the house coffees, matcha, breakfasts and a Basque cheesecake made on site every day from 8am to 6pm, with head barista Michał Trzciński behind the bar. Customers collect their online orders there and leave with a bag chosen after a chat. The team writes that the place is growing "slowly, with no deadlines, no pressure and no grand mission", which sounds a lot like the company's motto.