Winter doesn’t have to be unpleasant: you just choose the little pleasures to best suit the weather conditions. A cup of hot tea, coffee or chocolate can easily boost up your mood even on the coldest day. And when the dusk comes just sit back and enjoy a mug of mulled win.
Tea – the most common hot beverage in Poland
During cold Polish winter there is no beverage more popular than hot tea. Also, on a typical Polish family reunion you would drink black tea with sugar and lemon before, during, after or between the meals. For Poles no time is bad time for a cup of tea.
These days, tea shops in Warsaw offer a broad choice of tea types. Visit ‘Będę Później’ on Słupecka 4 or ‘Same Fusy’ on Nowomiejska 10 if you are a connoisseur: here you can choose from a whole variety of tea types, no matter if you’re in a mood for black, green, white, yellow or red tea, or only for an infusion. During winter many cafés prepare a special, winter tea, that goes either with spices and fruit like ginger, orange, cloves or raspberries (e.g. Green Caffe Nero, pl. Zamkowy and Krakowskie Przemieście 81) or – with alcohol (e.g. Południk Zero, Wilcza 25).
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What could be more important in the morning than a cup of coffee?
… the same goes for a laid-back afternoon. There are many unique cafés in Warsaw: places run by people with passion, where you can sit back, relax and warm up your hands with a mug of steaming coffee. ‘Ministerstwo Kawy’ on Marszałkowska 27/35 (right behind the church on pl. Zbawiciela) offers wide range of coffee brewings (percolation, drip, chemex). So does ‘EmEsEn’ on Pańska 3, a café situated in the former building of the Museum of Modern Art, where you can browse and buy albums and books on art and design. ‘Fawory’ on Mickiewicza 21, apart from being great place for coffee lovers, is also friendly for vegetarians and vegans. Near the Old Town square, just behind the Barbican, on Freta 10 you can find a cosy café ‘To lubię’, serving not only coffee, but also a different drink that can easily warm you up after a long walk: hot mead.
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Not your cup of tea? How about mulled wine?
Speaking of alcoholic beverages, mulled wine has gained a lot of popularity in Poland. In the wintertime it is included in the menu of many restaurants, bars and cafés. In ‘Café Próżna’: a cosy café situated on Próżna 12, just right next to pl. Grzybowski, you may try mulled red wine, mulled beer and mulled cider. ‘Jaś i Małgosia’ on al. Jana Pawła 57 (5 minute walk from the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN) offers also white wine in its winter version and winter teas swirled with a bite of hard alcohol such as raspberry vodka or rhum. Yummy!
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You have a sweet tooth? Visit a must-see for chocolate lovers
Fans of hot chocolate mustn’t miss Wedel chocolate lounge. Wedel is the oldest Polish, Warsaw-based chocolate company: first manufacture was open in 1851. There are many department stores now, but one unrivalled is an ‘Old-Fashioned Chocolate Lounge’ on Szpitalna 8. If you’re looking for a place that serves dense, thick chocolate drinks, you’ve just found it. Here you can even compose your own beverage: choosing the base – milk, dark or extra dark chocolate, adding a natural flavour ranging from blueberries to chilli, and toppings. Be careful – milk chocolate is really sweet! Wedel shop offers also several alcoholic hot chocolate drinks (with elderflower liquor, raspberries and wine etc.).
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