My morning coffee: Baresso

Some days you want to be adventurous and try something new. Take a risk on the taste of a cup of coffee for the experience of novel surroundings. Maybe you'll discover a new favourite or maybe it'll taste like hot dishwater, the froth will float and you'll be hard pressed to find a crystal of brown sugar.

But some days all I want is a familiar and comforting ritual. A place where I'll know what I'm going to get and rather than worry about the coffee, I can find my challenge in other things - like reading a Danish newspaper. (Yes, although in those early days I thought it would be the Politiken making my fingertips black, it turns out that I love Berlingske!).

Well, there's this place I know where I can do just that. In fact there are loads of them all over Copenhagen. It's the coffee shop chain - Baresso. When I first landed on these nordic soils, with Starbucks caffeine still coursing through my veins, I turned my nose up at the burnt red logo of a roasting bean that popped up on many a street corner. Now, however, I have a special place in my morning coffee routines for Baresso with the side order of free Berlingske (far better for me than a free morsel of brownie or cake). It fits perfectly in the slot between school drop-off and food shopping at 10 am.

On this particular morning, Leonard Cohen's huskiness wades heavily through the chatter of those around me; as I'm at the Waterfront in Hellerup, my fellow coffee drinkers are mainly on their way from (or to!) the gym, expats like me who've stopped off at the first pitstop on the international school run and groups of office workers from the surrounding businesses demonstrating Denmark's hailed business model: teamwork and round table discussions, coffee cups in hand.

Baresso served its first cup of coffee in May 2000 in Højbroplads, the first coffee bar in Denmark's first coffee bar chain. Now, they are all over the country and apparently abroad too. Baresso's mission is to provide a 'better coffee experience'. It prides itself on the motto that hver eneste kop tæller or 'every cup counts' so that there is 'no compromise when it comes to quality'.

Quality is prized above all else, including the use of organic or Fairtrade coffee. Baresso says that they try to use such products where they can, but only when they reach their quality standards. They also very fairly point out that quality generally trades at a higher price, usually higher than the prices guaranteed to farmers who participate in the Fairtrade and other schemes.

Cost: a cappuccino (single shot) costs 38 DKK

Coffee hygge factor: 3 out of 5

Find out more (and a Baresso near you!) at www.baresso.com (bare på dansk)