Amsterdam has been one of our favorite cities for visiting coffee shops– er — cafés since before we even started this website. But there’s a lot more to the Netherlands than just its capital.  Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in Den Haag. The coastal city might be best known as the home of the International Court of Justice, but it’s also boasts a growing number of specialty coffee shops, serving up the best roasters from the Netherlands and beyond. Although we weren’t able to visit every café on our list, there were three of our favorites.

Filtro Koffie Bar 

It might be time to stop using the phrase “Nordic-inspired. ” Yes, Scandinavia has given the coffee world hygge and roasts profiles pushing the upper boundaries of the Agtron scale, but perhaps we can finally admit that minimalist café design knows no geographical boundaries. Heck, the lightest coffee I’ve brewed this year was roasted in Italy. Nevertheless, it’s hard to describe Filtro without that favorite cliché of coffee bloggers. When I visited, the coffee was from Denmark’s La Cabra Coffee. I enjoyed a sweet and cherry-forward pour-over of Las Torres, a single estate in Guatemala’s Huehuetenango region.

Kaafi

Between the Square Mile Coffee and the full English breakfast — beans included — you might think think you’re in London when you walk into Kaafi. With twin espresso options, prepared on Kaafi’s Victoria Arduino Black Eagle, this is a coffee program that would delight most coffee nerds, backed by a food program to appeal to the masses. We enjoyed a shot of Los Suspiros, a single origin espresso from Guatemala, and snagged a bag of Kenya, Kiamaina PB to brew at home.

The Bookstor Café 

Many of us can remember a time before coffee shops became austere, gallery-like spaces. The Bookstor Café hearkens to an era when cafés where meant to be cozy and perhaps even a little quirky; a multicultural space where one can expect an intersection of the culinary arts with the arts proper. True to its name, the Bookstor offers a thoughtfully curated selection of English and Dutch books to go along with coffee comes from Amsterdam’s Bocca. But perhaps the real reason to visit the Bookstor Café: they also rent bicycles– by far the best way to get around Den Haag.