KakawCo

Founded by Martina Matejíčková, a trained public economist, KakawCo pairs specialty cacao with an unusual mission. Since becoming an officially registered social enterprise in 2021, the company has run a sheltered packaging facility in Slovakia that gives disadvantaged workers skills and job experience, funded in part through direct trade with former coca and poppy farmers across Latin America who have since switched over to cacao. The team visits the farms every year, following each harvest through fermentation, drying, and roasting.

The shop pours a full range of drinking chocolate alongside a short espresso menu, plus retail bags of single origin, single estate cacao and dried fruit to take home. Less a sit down cafe than a pickup point for the brand's own online shop, it still fills up on weekends with people after a cup of something a little different from the usual espresso.