Cafe mae, Tel Aviv (Noam Frisman)
One of Ramla's biggest tourist attractions - not officially, apparently, but at least for me and for everyone who knows what's good for him - is the huge roasting machine of "Cafe Mati", the old spice shop that crosses Herzl Street in the city, and divides the passers-by into "After we bought" and "on the way there".
It is, there is no better way to describe it, a monster, but one of the best.
It hides decades of aroma and memories between its grooves, regularly spreads the smell of nostalgia in the air and also, you know, makes fine coffee.
This is also important.
inside the room.
Cafe Mae (Photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)
be a target
Cafe Mae (Photo: Noam Frisman)
I think of her - huge and terrifying and loud and grumpy - when I enter the new branch of Mae Cafe in the Sharona complex, more of a Tel Aviv room than a cafe, and I am called to look at his new roasting machine.
The confusion hits me.
I blink, afraid to sound improbable, but ask at the end if "it's about this little box".
The space is tight and cramped, and the customers outside are waiting for their kicks, so naturally I get some elbows and shoulders from baristas who could have done a lot better with the real estate I'm taking up for them this morning, but still, there's enough roasting going on here that there's just enough for two small mugs, and it's Silent and contained, filming itself from the inside and of course controlled by an app.
This is going to be a very stressful cup of coffee, I think to myself on the way out. This is going to be the cup of coffee of the future.
"Are you sure his heart will be able to withstand it?"
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Trees, green, coffee.
In Mae's yard (Photo: Noam Frisman)
mae's fourth house is less of a branch and more of a green and sunken yard, almost hidden, in a compound that is still trying to define for itself personal versus public.
There are the same few square meters inside, and some trees on the outside, and a lot of offices that look down from above, channeling that view into an instant coffee break.
"We were contacted by Sharona, and after we arrived here we simply fell in love," said Guy Diener, who manages the place, while pointing to Chinese oranges and even coffee bushes, "It very much represents Tel Aviv to me, and the ambition is that people will come to us especially."
That's the whole monster.
Mae's roasting machine (Photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)
Then, the pouring.
Cafe Mae (Photo: Noam Frisman)
I almost naturally enter into a conversation about coffee with him, but it is quickly clear from her who understands something about this subject, and who mainly drinks.
He talks about spot plots far, far away from here, about special trips to the other side of the world and also about the connection between coffee and imagination, but to his credit he knows when to stop - maybe my slightly glassy eyes hinted at something - and pour.
It is, in my slightly limited literal bar, a coffee that is tea, and because I had too many of these during my military service, I raise an eyebrow, only to lower it back with the first sip, straight to this fruity charm, which is a bit of this and a bit of that, and mostly a rare product of Collection and handling.
"It is a very special and rare breed, with a specific season," he adds to the drama, "only six farms in the world grow it, and they are also very small."
"In the business of yes and not in the business of not".
coffee mae
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This rather amazing coffee is of course joined by the reliable mae's side and the fresh "baked" pastries from Raz Rahab and OCD ("We were stubborn about it, until we decided that we wanted to be in the yes business and not in the non business"), but the main attraction is the same wonder-roasting .
It is about ansā, an on-demand roasting machine, which is also an Israeli patent of Yonatan Sharaf, the man who founded this local coffee plot more than a decade ago, and is now free to perfect it and talk about another revolution.
"It can be used in small spaces, like offices for example," Diener explained, "and it allows you to directly buy the raw material, which is green coffee beans, cut out middlemen, and in the end put a much fresher, much cheaper and much tastier cup in your hand." .
We take this futuristic glass out, finally allow some space for the really important people of mae, and clear ourselves to sip.
It is clear, filterary in its characteristics, strong but delicate and above all something that is less coffee and more what you dream of when you dream of coffee.
They talk about it as Farm to Cup, but the settings can wait for now.
First, more coffee.
Cafe mae, David Elazar 17, Sharona Complex, Tel Aviv
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