Balat roastery from a hometown barista, third at Turkey’s 2020 championship.
Muhammed Karaman placed third at the 2020 Turkey Barista Championship and spent ten years behind the bar, including time at Coffee Sapiens, before bringing his own business back to Balat, where he grew up. He roasts imported green coffee on site, with single origins such as El Salvador's Finca Gabriela and a Cundinamarca Pacamara from Colombia.
A glass wall separates the ground-floor seating from the roasting room, where a barista works the maroon roaster a few feet from sacks of green coffee, facing a green sofa. A staircase under a curtain, lined with black-and-white photographs, leads up to a mezzanine bar with a velvet-skirted counter. A vintage motorcycle stands by the entrance.
