La Main Noire: Elevating Paris’ Café (and Tea) Scene

In recent years, Australian coffee culture has been a driving force behind some of Paris’ most innovative and adored breakfast spots. Nico Alary and Sarah Mouchot had Melbourne and its vibrant breakfast culture in mind when they opened their all-day-breakfast restaurant Holybelly in 2013. Since then Aussies and those that love them have been an inspiration behind other favorite spots to start your morning in Paris including Hardware Société, Honor, and Neighbours.

The latest addition to the Australian school of how-to-start-your day is La Main Noire Collective a group of coffee professionals and devotees who cite Australian coffee and brunch culture as their main inspiration in their quest to “enhance the Parisian café scene with new ideas and products.”

Ryan Nilstein, an Australian accountant turned chef, met his Main Noire co-founders Ludovic Sekete and Quentin Gauthier while they were working in the Melbourne café scene. When the team found themselves in France they decided to bring their experience in coffee shops and kitchens (Nilstein has worked for Guy Savoy and Sekete and Gauthier worked at Marcello and Ten Belles respectively) and use it to take the Paris coffee scene to the next level.

As local coffee roasters and coffee shops proliferate in Paris, La Main Noire is dedicated to rounding out the café experience in the city by supplying high quality, organic products that are right at home in the latest wave of craft cafés. The collective’s flagship product is their Sticky Chai tea- made using Rwandan tea, fresh ginger and vanilla, and a touch of organic Acacia honey. Another product La Main Noire proposes is soy milk for professionals, destined for Parisian baristas who want to work with exceptional milk alternatives when catering to their vegan and health conscious clients.

This summer, the collective will be focusing on cold tea infusions and Summer Chai- a refreshing spin on the traditionally hot drink that retains its spicy profile but also promises to cool you down on a hot Paris day.

While you’ll have to order a soy latte at participating cafés to taste La Main Noire’s soy milk, you can easily order their signature Sticky Chai through their online shop. The chai is also available at a growing number of partner cafés in Paris who stock La Main Noire’s products- proof that the Paris café scene is happy to have a helping hand.

Related Links

• For more coffee classics, check out The Hood.
• Are you a tea lover? Head to Neo. T. in Montmartre.
• SBS writes about how Australian cafes are taking over in Paris.

Written by Emily Dilling for HiP Paris. Photos courtesy of Grégoire Rochard, Mathieu Richer, Daniel Hoekstra and Claude Weber. Looking for a fabulous vacation rental in Paris, London, Provence, Tuscany, Umbria or Liguria? Check out Haven In.

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