War or no war, Ukrainians don't give up coffee
When Russian tanks first entered Ukraine more than two years ago, Artem Vradii was sure his business would suffer.“Who would think of coffee in this situation?” thought Mr. Vradii, co-founder of a coffee roaster in Kiev called Mad Heads. “Nobody would care.”But in the days after the invasion began, he began receiving messages from Ukrainian soldiers. One asked for bags of ground coffee because he couldn't stand the army-issued energy drinks. Another simply asked for some beans: he had brought his grinder to the front.“I was really shocked,” Vradii said in a recent interview at his roastery, a 40-foot-tall brick building humming with the sound of ground coffee and filled with the smell of freshly ground beans. “Despite the war, people still thought about coffee. They could leave t...