Swedish Coffee Point

A cool and small third wave coffee spot where you often see the same mix of people, friends and friends of friends of the people who run the place. Their espresso is a bit too acidic for my taste, probably of African origins mostly. But coffee lovers tend to shame me for my failure to appreciate sour coffee. Still, Swedish House Coffee has the necessities of what it represents, and it’s nice to sit outside and watch people come in and out of Cihangir.

What to order: Their snickers bar (chocolate covered peanut granola, no caramel) makes a great breakfast on the go for those who like it rich and sweet. Also a great sidekick to their acidic coffee. Swedish House shines among other third wave coffee shops in terms of food. You can see it’s homemade and not pre-ordered from a central kitchen. While that may mean your snickers bar can come in different sizes and shapes now and then, don’t we all?

What else: I use the snickers bar here as a litmus paper for inflation in Turkey (like the Big Mac Index but for yuppies). In 2018, SHC was on my way to work where I would drink ristrettos for free, so I would get a snickers bar to-go on most days. Back then it used to 7 liras. In my last visit in 2022 it had gone up to 22 liras. Even in USD terms there is a mark-up from 0.9 USD to 1.2 USD in 4 years. Do what you will with this info while enjoying the angular seats of the coffee shop.