In the beautiful streets of Jaffa near the Flea Market, Ada Hanina Cafe is a marvellous cafe must-try, an exquisite and artistic coffee shop offering the highest quality coffee. As a coffee guru who enjoys trying different coffee shops, Ada Hanina Cafe is unlike any other.
Owner Tomer Adam Lenzinger has been running this cafe for four years now and hasn’t disappointed. With his well-crafted blends featuring both dark and light roasts from the best coffee bean destinations in the world, you are guaranteed a fabulous cup of coffee.
What makes Ada Hanina stand out like any other cafe is how Tomer integrated his love of music into the design of the cafe. An element that stands out once you walk into Ada Hanina is the large stereo speaker and sound system. Either Tomer himself will play music or he will bring in others to play.
Tomer told me he plays music as often as he can, and he will play vinyl. For him, it’s all about the experience of a cafe, and for that reason, he designed the shop with two doors, so you can go in and go out. “It’s all about the vibe,” Tomer said, “a cafe is about talking, exchanging, taking a break, falling in love, or writing a book.” Coffee brings people together, he said and that was what was important in the designing and planning of the cafe, blending all these aspects into one.
Sourcing his own beans, applying fair trade
The source of Tomer’s coffee beans comes from far and wide: including Africa, Brazil, Columbia, Guatemala, and more. The farmers they work with are the best, specifically the ones in Africa, the beans are wild and are picked by hand, never purified, and no use of chemicals or salts. You can watch videos of the farmers in action on their Instagram. The whole idea, says Tomer, is having fewer hands between us and the farmer. In addition, whatever is not used in the selection process gets composted.
The farmers in Ethiopia are being taught how to harvest and package more sustainably. It is important to Tomer that the farmers in Ethiopia are receiving at least 70% of the profits. Over in Brazil, the terra farmers in Brazil are the first and best rainforest alliance coffee farm. Overall, Tomer strives to have the best connections between him and his farmers to ensure quality coffee is delivered to his customers.
Sustainable water
Like I previously wrote about in my article on Tel Aviv’s Vegan Fest vegan festival, Ada Hanina cafe also has vegan options. The most common milk option they use is Oatly oat milk, (you can make your own at home) which is used 70% of the time in the cafe.
According to Tomer, almond milk takes away from the flavor of the coffee and just turns the coffee into an almond flavor. He also is not a fan of the popular trend in America of flavor additives, which are sugary and are used to disguise the taste of bad coffee. In addition, Ada Hanina only sells water in boxes to take away from the plastic waste issue.
The straws are from the Upper Galilee and are made of real straw. Tomer believes the biggest environmental issue in Israel right now is the issue of plastic, and wishes there were to-go cups for the cafe that were made of sustainable material. He also thinks there should be more green electricity and says we are moving way too slowly in our efforts to make energy all renewable.
His favorite thing about his job is having customers come up to him and tell him that this is the best coffee they’ve ever had. He enjoys guiding his customers through the coffee selection process and finding the perfect coffee for them. The inspiration behind the cafe is all about having “a very, very good coffee with very, very good music around,” Tomer said emphasizing the very. He’s met people all around the world at coffee conferences who tried their coffee and asked him why he doesn’t bag it and sell it all over the world.
I had a coffee with oat milk, which Tomer said was made with about 20 hand-picked cherries, each having two seeds inside. I also had one of their best sellers and one of Tomer’s favorites, the Worka Wuri blend from Ethiopia, made wild and in an anaerobic process, meaning it was made fermented without oxygen.
It was delicious and had notes of flowers and fruit. Tomer most importantly wants to share with people the beauty of coffee and have access to taste the high-quality coffee beans that are offered inside his cafe in Jaffa. I highly recommend checking out Ada Hanina and asking Tomer all about his coffee. Check out our Green Guide to Jaffa for more sustainable travel ideas.
