KLM recently downgraded me back to Ivory, meaning I now have to pay for taking luggage on short haul flights and I can no longer use the fast queue at Schiphol to skip the masses at security. As a result of my frustration I decided to just go ahead and burn all of my miles by going to visit places I would normally not necessarily go to. Example: Today I am going to Luxembourg for the weekend. Why? Because I’m worth it.

Loyalty cards for coffee bars are just as annoying. You probably get coffee almost every day but then you either leave your wallet at home or you can’t find the card or your dog ate it and you have to start over. Well, I got some good news for you. If you happen to get your coffee from any of the following 7 specialty coffee shops in Amsterdam, you can now just use 1 card to show your love.

When Francesco, formerly of Espressofabriek and now owner of White Label, got in touch with the guys from Coffee Bru, Koko, Sweet Cup and Headfirst a few months ago to suggest creating a local version of London’s highly successful Dis-loyalty card, everyone was super thrilled. After some initial talks they decided that designer Lusan Drost, one of the 4 people behind Coffee Bru, should give the card a nice face and that Trakteren and Screaming Beans should also get on board.

The result? The Omfietskaart.

Funny name, right? I thought so too, however there is a deeper meeting to this. In The Netherlands there used to be this guide that would tell you which supermarket had the best value for money on its wines, therefore making it worth cycling the extra mile to get that bottle of Chardonnay.

With so many new specialty coffee shops popping up in Amsterdam at the moment, it might be hard to keep an overview. Of course, The Coffeevine has the most complete coverage of the best places in town to get great coffee but if you’re in doubt about where you should go, just get yourself an Omfietskaart from any of the participating specialty coffee shops and get sipping. Your 8th coffee is free!

Participating specialty coffee shops:

Coffee Bru, Beukenplein 14-H  1091 KG Amsterdam
Koko Coffee & Design, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 145  1012 DG Amsterdam
Screaming Beans, Hartenstraat 12, 1016 CB Amsterdam (Not valid at the Eerste Constantijn Huygensstraat)
Espressofabriek, Pazzanistraat 39, 1014 DC Amsterdam (Not valid at Ijburg)
Trakteren, Jan Pieter Heijestraat 119A, 1054 MD Amsterdam,
Headfirst Coffee Roasters, Westerstraat 150, 1015 MP Amsterdam
Sweet Cup, Lange Leidsedwarsstraat 101, 1017 NJ Amsterdam

You can find a review of each one of these places on my Amsterdam page or by clicking here.