Among other popular destinations this summer, there is one that has it all — old European heritage, cool weather and direct flights from the UAE. I’m talking about Budapest, the capital of Hungary and the hometown to one of the most surprising tastes in my life. Also, while we are on the topic, here is my travel guide, hope you will enjoy it.  

So, here I am on a coffee ride with my friends (as you could get from the amount of Tour de France articles — I like cycling), and they bring me to this pretty cafe — Coffee Tuned.

Lovely terrace, the cutest interior. Everything is very stylish and lovely. And the smell... Oh my God. The Smell of coffee is literally oozing through the door and the whole street smells like heaven. Once I was done enjoying the interior and their flawless choice of music, I noticed a very unusual menu. On their pretty menu board, they had beverages like Affogato, Nitro, and Cheesy Raf. And while I had some idea of what Affogato and Nitro coffee might be like, the concept of cheese coffee truly intrigued me.

To fill you in, Affogato or affogato al caffè in proper Italian is more of a desert, where you have a shot of espresso and a nice scoop of vanilla or milk-flavoured gelato. Sort of an Italian take on Café Glacé (if you haven’t had that one - go straight to Mcdonalds and ask for one, they make a surprisingly good Café Glacé there). And then Nitro is something I have seen in such coffee nations as the Czech Republic or Russia. It is like a very acidic, cold and creamy cold brew infused with nitrogen gas — not always my piece of cake. 

But Cheesy Raf... Cheesy Raf! Cheesy Raf is absolutely not something that I could even imagine. 

Because, I mean, how would you even turn cheese into coffee, right? 

But okay, first, let’s see what is inside. Raf is a type of coffee invented in Moscow in the late 90s. It is a milky, sweet coffee that is perfect at any time of the day when you don’t want a punchy espresso and cappuccino is too boring. 

The beverage gets its name from Rafael Timerbaev, an actual person and a cherished regular at  one of the coffeehouses in Moscow. Baristas created this special milky coffee for him, and as they were always calling out "a coffee for Raf" it later became widely known as Raf coffee. Also, quick tip — if you come to a pretty coffee place and it has Raf — one of the founders or chef barista is from Russia.

So then, from the name Cheesy Raf we know it is going to be milky and a bit sweet. But how did the cheese end up there? And how does cheese’s saltiness work with Raf’s sweetness? 

As it turned out, they work like a charm together. 

Tender, silky, foamy consistency of raf is ideally accompanied by a salty flavour of cheese. Honestly, while you are drinking the beverage it feels like you are actually eating a piece of cheese with a cup of coffee with milk. When it all comes together in one cup, this coffee can pass as a snack, as I actually felt pretty full after drinking it. 

But how can you smash a cheese into a beverage? With this question I interrogated the chiefs of the place — Sasha and Zhenya. After 30 minutes of my tears and a bit of pleading, they cracked. It appears that Sasha, co-founder and chief barista, uses cream cheese and some milk, while he foams the coffee, thus incorporating cheese’s saltiness and marrying it with drink’s sweetness at the stage of mixing all ingredients together. Genius, nah? 

This idea came to Sasha many years ago when he was a barista in one of the coffee places in a smaller city in Russia called Perm (I know it is funny, and I even know a person from Perm with a hair perm). Sasha was always a fan of two things — cheese and coffee — so he was always experimenting in order to find a way to combine them in one cup. The idea of coffee cheese wasn’t investigated, though, as per what Sasha shared with me. After many unsuccessful attempts, he finally made a Cheesy Raf that ended up being an iconic coffee drink in Perm and now in Budapest! 

The whole European capital is actually buzzing about this magical beverage. 

If you are up for trying this hearty, milky, silky, and overall ideal coffee dish (and it is a dish — it has cheese, okay), catch a direct Wizz Air flight from Abu Dhabi Airport (AUH) and enjoy your cup of Cheesy Raf as soon as in six hours! So, really, grab your undies, and you can enjoy a cheesy beverage this evening.