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When Russian tanks first rolled into Ukraine more than two years ago, Artem Vradii was sure his business was bound to suffer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho would think about coffee in this situation?\u201d thought Mr. Vradii, the co-founder of a Kyiv coffee roastery named Mad Heads<\/a>. \u201cNobody would care.\u201d<\/p>\n But over the next few days after the invasion began, he started receiving messages from Ukrainian soldiers. One asked for bags of ground coffee because he could not stand the energy drinks supplied by the army. Another simply requested beans: He had taken his own grinder to the front.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really shocked,\u201d Mr. Vradii said in a recent interview at his roastery, a 40-foot-high brick building buzzing with the sound of grinding coffee and filled with the smell of freshly ground beans. \u201cDespite the war, people were still thinking about coffee. They could leave their homes, their habits. But they could not live without coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The soldiers\u2019 requests are just one facet of a little-known cornerstone of the Ukrainian lifestyle today: its vibrant coffee culture.<\/p>\n Over the past decade, coffee shops have proliferated across Ukraine, in cities large and small. That is particularly true in Kyiv, the capital, where small coffee kiosks staffed by trained baristas serving tasty mochas for less than $2 have become a fixture of the streetscape.<\/p>\n Walk into one of Kyiv\u2019s hidden courtyards and there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019ll find a coffee shop with baristas busy perfecting their latte art behind the counter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Coffee culture has flourished globally \u2014 even in tea-obsessed Britain<\/a> \u2014 but in Ukraine over the past two years, it has taken on a special meaning as a sign of resilience and defiance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cEverything will be fine,\u201d said Maria Yevstafieva, an 18-year-old barista who was preparing a latte on a recent morning in a Kyiv coffee shop that had just been damaged by a missile attack<\/a>. The shop\u2019s glass window had been shattered by the blast and had fallen onto the counter, but Ms. Yevstafieva was unfazed.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can they break us?\u201d she is heard saying in a video<\/a>, referring to the Russian Army. \u201cWe have a strike, we make coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the war, Ukraine was one of the fastest-growing coffee markets in Europe, according to the Allegra World Coffee Portal, a research group. In Kyiv, the number of coffee shops continued to grow even after the Russian invasion, reaching some 2,500 shops today, according to Pro-Consulting, a Ukrainian marketing research group.<\/p>\n The Girkiy chain<\/a>, for example, is hard to miss in the capital, with more than 70 coffee shops. Its mint-colored kiosks stand at the foot of centuries-old Orthodox churches and around Kyiv\u2019s main squares.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On a recent afternoon, Yelyzaveta Holota, an 18-year-old barista, was busy in her kiosk preparing orders. She had been on the job for only four months, but she already had a confident touch: She weighed the ground coffee, tamped it into a portafilter and, after pouring an espresso into a cup, gave it a little swirl to bring out the flavors.<\/p>\n The technique has to be perfect, she said, because the competition is fierce. Six other coffee shops line the street where she works in central Kyiv, including a second one from Girkiy, which means \u201cbitter\u201d in Ukrainian.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Founded in 2015, the chain used to serve low-quality coffee, focusing instead on speed. But in 2020, Oleh Astashev, the founder, visited the Barn in Berlin, a craft coffee institution that roasts its own coffee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The visit impressed and inspired him. Back in Kyiv, he built his own roastery, bought top-of-the-range Italian coffee machines and started training his baristas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe changed everything: the name, the service, the products, the quality of the coffee beans, the quality of the water,\u201d he said. \u201cAnybody should be able to drink high-quality coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n The chain\u2019s former name was \u201cGorkiy,\u201d or bitter in Russian.<\/p>\n Mr. Astashev\u2019s story reflects how the country\u2019s coffee boom is linked to its broader rapprochement with Europe.<\/p>\n After Ukraine\u2019s revolution on Maidan Square in 2014<\/a>, which toppled a pro-Russian president, the country strengthened its ties to Europe, including through visa-free entry for its citizens<\/a>. Many Ukrainians traveled west, discovering a coffee culture that had not yet penetrated their borders. Soon enough, they were bringing it back home.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted our coffee shops in Kyiv to be like in Europe,\u201d said Maryna Dobzovolska, 39, who co-founded the Right Coffee Bar<\/a> with her husband, Oleksii Gurtov, in 2017.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ask Ukraine\u2019s coffee entrepreneurs about Vienna\u2019s famous coffeehouses<\/a> or Italy\u2019s signature espresso<\/a> and they\u2019ll dismiss them as a \u201cconservative\u201d and \u201cold-fashioned\u201d view of coffee culture.<\/p>\n Their model was cities like Berlin and Stockholm, where a so-called third wave of coffee shops have mushroomed in the past two decades, emphasizing high-quality beans and innovative recipes.<\/p>\n Most recently, Ms. Dobzovolska and Mr. Gurtov have been experimenting with anaerobic coffee, a processing method that involves fermenting coffee in sealed tanks without oxygen, giving the beverage fruity flavors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTry it. You\u2019ll love it,\u201d Mr. Gurtov, 49, said as he poured the steaming, purple drink.<\/p>\n Always willing to push the boundaries, Ukrainian baristas have also popularized the \u201cCapuorange\u201d \u2014 a double shot of espresso mixed with fresh orange juice \u2014 now on sale everywhere in Kyiv.<\/p>\n Several foreigners said they were amazed by the quality of the coffee in a country that, since the Soviet era, had consumed mostly instant coffee.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the best coffee in the world,\u201d said Michael McLaughlin, a 51-year-old American who does volunteer work in Ukraine, as he ordered an Americano on Maidan Square on a recent afternoon.<\/p>\n Some say it\u2019s simply a return to Ukraine\u2019s roots.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Legend has it that the man who opened the first cafe in Vienna in the late 17th century was Jerzy Kulczycki, a soldier born in modern-day Ukraine. He is honored with a life-size statue in Lviv that praises him as the war hero \u201cwho taught Europe to drink coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n Volodymyr Efremov, a coffee roaster at Idealist, a major Ukrainian coffee brand, said his goal was now to \u201cpopularize\u201d specialty coffee all around the country.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s Ukraine, there is perhaps no better way to achieve that goal than with the army. Every month, Idealist and other coffee producers give the military tens of thousands of drip coffee bags \u2014 single-serve, pour-over sachets filled with ground coffee. These are some of the finest products on the Ukrainian coffee market.<\/p>\n