By Capucine Gougenheim Geagea.
Bacha Coffee's wonderful coffees take Paris by storm
The opening of Bacha Coffee Champs-Élysées reimagines the coffee ritual between Marrakech and Paris
Born in Marrakech in 1910, in the sumptuous Dar el Bacha palace, where coffee was already an art form, a language, and a way of welcoming the world. Today, this Moroccan heritage finds a new majestic home in Paris with Bacha Coffee Champs-Élysées, which offers a new setting for its exclusive coffee ritual.
From Dar el Bacha in Marrakech's medina to the world's most famous avenue
L’histoire commence dans la médina, sous des plafonds en cèdre peints et gravés, sur un damier noir et blanc qui a vu passer Colette, Maurice Ravel, Charlie Chaplin, Joséphine Baker, Winston Churchill…
Ils venaient s’y retrouver, dans les salons parés de zelliges, entourés de portiques couleur safran, et de ces cours intérieures fleuries où les palmiers semblent toujours veiller sur les rencontres et la vie qui s’y déroule.
Il suffit d’une porte poussée pour que l’air change.
Une musique d’autrefois, un souffle éraillé venu d’un tourne-disque imaginaire, la sensation d’un jardin d’hiver en pleine médina: Bacha Coffee transporte, avant même la première gorgée.
C’est un parfum d’antan, une atmosphère coloniale réinventée, un décor précieux qui semble avoir gardé la mémoire des conversations du siècle dernier.
Le café y était torréfié à la main, servi lentement, avec ce rituel marocain qui donne à chaque tasse une densité particulière.
Puis Dar el Bacha s’est assoupi… jusqu’au jour où Bacha Coffee, belle endormie réveillée par Taha Bouqdib, Président Directeur Général de la maison mère, renaît sous l’impulsion de cet entrepreneur fanco-marocain visionnaire. Il fait le pari audacieux de restaurer d’abord le lieu originel, aujourd’hui classé classé monument historique, puis de faire voyager son esprit oriental assorti de son rituel unique, aux quatre coins du monde.
Après l’Asie et le Moyen-Orient, le merveilleux moka marocain poursuit sa route de saveurs soyeuses et trouve une nouvelle vie à Paris.
Paris, new stage for a Moroccan moka ritual born over a century ago
On April 17, 2025, Bacha Coffee opened its first European flagship at 26, avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
A monumental 1,500 m² space, spread over three floors, designed as a Parisian reinterpretation of its Marrakchi cradle.
The red ochre tones, checkerboard floors, geometric latticework and sculpted woodwork all hint at a stylistic filiation, a direct bridge between the medina and the Parisian capital.
And everywhere, the aroma of freshly-ground coffee wafts through this teeming, colonial decor, with an almost theatrical gentleness.
Among the buzz of hosts and hostesses, impeccably dressed in black and white and wearing carmine-red tarbouches, coffees and delicacies are served with the ceremonial of the house, in silver service.
The coffee masters recount the multitude of vintages in an exotic vocabulary that immediately takes you on a voyage, inviting the imagination to cross the seas, while sweets presented behind glass counters open the taste buds just by looking at them, like a delicate prelude to the experience, in the delicate scent of mocha coffee.
Paris, anchored on the world's most beautiful avenue, a gateway to Europe
To be on the most beautiful avenue in the world is a proclamation, an achievement that confirms Bacha Coffee's star-studded trajectory. With 31 establishments in 12 cities, from Dubai to Seoul to Singapore, Bacha Coffee is pursuing an ambition led by Maranda Barnes, who has worked for international development and asserted the brand's heritage in every corner of the globe: to be present in every major capital by 2030.
To celebrate the opening, a limited edition of 2,000 numbered tins has been created: I Love Paris Coffee, illustrated by French-Moroccan artist Mehdi Qotbi. This Arabica, with notes of forest berries and wild walnuts and a gentle intensity, is presented in a precious box decorated with the Bacha Coffee coat of arms, with a double lid to preserve the freshness of the aromas. A nod to the City of Light, to Morocco, to Mehdi Qotbi's pictorial style of arabesques, geometric motifs and rhythmic symmetries, and to the link forged between two worlds.
It's the perfect Christmas gift to take you on a journey right from the start.
The Bacha Coffee experience
In Paris, the Bacha experience unfolds through the art of detail. More than two hundred 100% Arabica coffees from thirty-five exceptional terroirs are traditionally roasted and served slowly, in golden swan-neck coffeepots that prolong the elegant gesture and make the coffee breathe like mint tea.
The reception room is divided into small, intimate lounges, under the thousand lights of baroque chandeliers and Moroccan lanterns, and can accommodate up to a hundred people. Here, time slows down: fragrant coffee is made to order, accompanied by vanilla chantilly served separately, a stick of raw sugar and a reusable glass straw, a ritual that makes all the difference.
At the counter, you can take a coffee home with you, and choose a gift for yourself or someone else from the collection of accessories and gift boxes that extend the world of Bacha Coffee into your own home, as original objects inspired by the ritual of these special coffees.
It's a Moroccan art of living that has come to Paris, with the oriental charm and warm, radiant elegance that are the hallmarks of Bacha Coffee.
And for the festive season, a collection of accessories, gifts and delights will be designed to adorn Christmas trees, with a limited edition of Holiday Morning Coffee, with notes of milk chocolate and melting caramel, as well as gingerbread, hazelnut and orange cakes, a signature Christmas log with chocolate and roasted hazelnuts - and the essential Bacha Coffee galette des Rois, with silky almond cream infused with intense Black Pearl coffee. And the Salon de Café will be offering a holiday menu from December 15, 2025 to January 3, 2026, featuring homemade pâté en croûte with duck and foie gras, pan-fried scallops, and sweet creations with notes of coffee and spices, all washed down with savory coffee of course.
Coffee as a journey: 100% Arabica, the original route
What is Moka? An original coffee. Long before it became a household word in modern cafés, mocha was the name of an exceptional Arabica.
It came from the port of Mok, al-Mukha, in Yemen, one of the very first crossroads where coffee left the Arabian Peninsula to travel the world.
From this ancient land come some of the most precious coffees: beans from the original varieties of Ethiopia and Yemen, with a fruity, slightly acid taste, sometimes with a natural hint of chocolate.
An ancestral coffee, both lively and subtle, that tells the story of the caravan routes and the first moka traders.
It's this heritage and this route that Bacha Coffee brings back to center stage: the moka as the living memory of Arabica coffee, a direct link with its Yemeni and Ethiopian sources.
Arabica, born in Ethiopia, was once consumed by the Oromos to give strength to warriors.
Transported to Yemen, it became "Moka" and accompanied the Sufis in their mystical vigils before reaching Europe two centuries later.
Bacha Coffee has never forgotten this route. Every cup is a compass. Every sip a stopover.
Three cups to illustrate a world
Happy Gianduja
A meeting of Arabica and Italian hazelnuts, round and smooth, almost a dessert in itself.
Marrakech Express, a natural decaffeinated
A blend of Africa and South America, fresh herbs, lemon, blueberry and extended caramel.
A digestible coffee, perfect for any time of day.
Grand Vizier
A tribute to the palate, to birdsong, to the golden cup served in the early morning.
A cup that tells the story of waking up, of silence, of a day off to a good start.
And travel coffees
India, the Malabar Moonsoon Secret, far-off lands that remind us that coffee is also geography, memory and multiple flavors.
Bacha Coffee Champs-Elysées
26, avenue des Champs-Élysées, 75008 Paris
Tel: +33 1 71 25 1910
Booking:
9am to 12pm and lunch 12.30pm to 2.30pm
Dar el Bacha
Route Sidi Abdelaziz,
Marrakech 40000, Maroc
Tel +212 (5) 243 81293
Opening hours:
Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm
