Around Turkey, the city of Izmir is known for its sunny Aegean climate and laidback, free-spirited culture. It might be Turkey’s third largest city by population, but for many, it has the highest quality of life. Izmir is the sort of town where sitting around drinking a cup of coffee is less of a pastime and more of a way of life. Nowhere is this truer than the breezy suburb of Karşıyaka on the city’s north shore.
The neighborhood has been the epicenter of a veritable boom of quality-minded coffee shops over the last few years. In fact, a Karşıyaka-based coffee business has produced the last four Turkish Barista Champions. The district shows no signs of slowing down.
These are five of the coffee shops leading the way.
Fünf
Two architects converting their architectural practice into a cafe might be an unexpected, if drastic decision, but Fünf is far from a normal coffee shop. The cafe opened in 2021 and quickly became something of a hub for İzmir’s coffee community. Multiple locals we spoke with lauded Fünf not only for its thoughtful design, but also founders Murat and Güneş Aral’s enthusiasm and generosity.
When Sprudge visited, most of the coffee on offer was from Istanbul roaster Null Coffee, but guest roasters included high-end lots from the Netherlands’s Friedhats and North Carolina’s Black and White Coffee Roasters.
As he brews us a pour-over of a honey-processed Gesha from Finca La Maria in Colombia, Murat explains that Fünf sells the high-end lots at cost as a service to the coffee community. With strict importing laws and an unfavorable exchange rate, many coffee enthusiasts don’t have the opportunity to taste coffees roasted abroad. Murat hopes that giving the local community access to these benchmark roasters will help elevate the local coffee community.
Spect Coffeehouse
For solo entrepreneur Semih Yetişkin, Spect Coffeehouse is the culmination of years of planning.
Yetişkin assembled the equipment to start the shop piece by piece while working in a corporate job. He even salvaged the countertop from the neighborhood before opening his dream shop earlier this year. “I studied chemistry, so I like to play with the temperature and other parameters,” he says. “Coffee is chemistry.”
Yetişkin’s curiosity about coffee inspires him to source coffee from a different roaster each month. When Sprudge visited, the coffee was from local roaster Mayard, a wholesale coffee roaster cofounded by three-time Turkish Barista Champion Serkan Sağsöz (Sağsöz has since divested his share in the company).
With its extensive patio seating and quiet neighborhood vibes, Spect is something of a specialty coffee oasis, palm trees included. But it’s not a vacation for Yetişkin, who still makes almost all of the drinks at Spect.
“I work every day, but I’m happy,” says Yetişkin.
Lot Coffee
Former Turkish Barista Champion Süleyman Rifat Yalçın ended his 2024 competition routine with the bold declaration: “I am a game changer.” It’s certainly true of the coffee roastery he cofounded in 2020, Lot Coffee.
From the hand-illustrated packaging to the light and bright single-origin coffee inside of it, Lot is on the bleeding edge of Turkish coffee brands, and has the competition pedigree to prove it. “While our main activity is to roast coffee well, we also serve visitors at our tasting bar,” Yalçın says. “We try to provide the transparency we want in the coffee industry.”
Yalçın’s efforts to introduce new coffees to the Turkish market have taken him on sourcing trips across Central America. One such coffee from Santa Elena in Boquete, Panama tasted floral and fruity when Yalçın made it for us as an espresso. Yalçın believes the local demand for these sorts of coffees will continue to grow.
“The people of İzmir are free-spirited and full of love, “ says Yalçın. “There is a great interest from consumers in the city for quality coffee.”
Coffeerem
At Coffeerem, our pour-over of La Diviso Pink Bourbon arrives at our table in a carafe alongside two wine glasses. The barista proceeds to take us through a guided tasting, instructing us to swirl, sniff, and sip at different intervals as he carefully refills our glasses.
The pageantry might seem over-the-top, but the coffee from cult Colombian producer Nestor Lasso certainly warrants careful attention. A bouquet of jasmine and honeysuckle unfolds into a palate of sweet stonefruit and soft black tea-like tannins. It’s perhaps the most memorable coffee we drank in İzmir.
This attention to detail is a through line for the roaster/retailer, whether it is the design-forward interior or to the meticulous brewing instructions that come with whole bean coffee (these include advice on not only the amount and temperature of the water, but which brand of bottled water to use).
It’s easy to see why Coffeerem is held in such high esteem by many Turkish coffee professionals.
Vitus Coffee
Vitus Coffee’s roastery and cafe shares a space with the showroom of a denim fashion designer in the industrial fringes of Karşıyaka. The unlikely pairing reflects the brand’s scrappy, boot-strapped origins.
“Vitus began in 2018, when the dream of three childhood friends to work together turned into a business venture,” says Vitus cofounder Gökçen Örtülü. “I developed an interest in coffee roasting and started roasting coffee at home using a pan. Later, with the purchase of a 500-gram sample roaster, the kitchen of my student apartment turned into a kind of roasting workshop. That laid the foundations for what is now Vitus.”
Today, Vitus has joined forces with the local bakery Leone Patisserie & Boulangerie. The acquisition by the French-inspired retailer has expanded the roastery’s reach to some of the city’s high traffic retail spaces. After all, who doesn’t love an espresso with a pain au chocolat?
But to try Vitus’s exclusive Premium series—think passion fruit co-fermented Purple Caturra from Monteblanco, Colombia—one will have to make the trek to their roastery.
Michael Butterworth is a coffee educator and consultant based in Istanbul, Turkey. Read more Michael Butterworth for Sprudge.
