Dear Coffeevine readers, fans, customers and partners,

The year 2016 has almost reached its end and over the past few days we’ve had some time to reflect on the moments that challenged, shaped and moved us throughout the last 365 days.

At this very moment, one year ago, we made the decision to terminate our previous tasting box format after a good 18-month run and we went back to the drawing board to find a way to offer a bigger, better and even tastier coffee box to our customers. It was a decision that almost took us to the brink of collapse and led us toward the very first existential crisis in the history of our young company.

“We wanted to put our focus back on what we really loved doing the most: creating Europe’s most exciting coffee box every month.”

While our previous tasting box had offered a unique and beautiful way to turn our widely read blog into a physical product, over time we learned that it wasn’t scalable and flexible enough to address a large variety of needs, and to some degree, concerns from roasters who didn’t want to see their freshly roasted coffees repacked into bags other than their own. In addition, we had spread ourselves too thinly by opening a tasting bar, launching an online shop and running from event to event to serve great coffee at various locations. All in all, The Coffeevine was running out of steam. It was time to make some changes.

In the first weeks of 2016 we went back to our previous subscribers, our many roasters, friends and families to collect as much feedback as possible to truly understand what it was that people wanted, and ultimately, what it was that we could actually offer them. The result was an invaluable amount of insights that we turned from thoughts into action and this paved the way for our return with our current coffee box in April.

In the following months we continued to slim down our business by heavy heartedly shutting down our tasting bar and online shop, and putting 100% of our focus back on what we really loved doing the most: creating Europe’s most exciting coffee box, every month.

Thanks to the unwavering support of our roasters, strong interest from the media and an unquenchable thirst for great coffee from our wonderful customers we managed to go from strength to strength and sold a record amount of boxes in December this year. Today, we’re an agile and flexible startup that can quickly respond to changing customers’ needs, one that  learns fast from previous mistakes and is currently working on some truly exciting new products that we hope to launch in the beginning of next year.

For making this possible, we want to offer our sincerest gratitude to everyone who believed in us along the way.

In many respects, 2016 was a very scary year, not just for our company but for the whole world too. Our beautiful planet is facing some of the worst crises in recent history. Global warming is melting our ice caps, bringing droughts and flooding to many parts of the world, countries are at war, minorities at risk and animals dying. With so much hatred and fear-mongering being used for political motifs, the liberal world we thought we knew is in danger of receding back into darkness once more.

Our success was built on the premise that we have access to a huge single market, one of the cornerstones of the European Union, and that we can freely trade with roasters across 28 member countries and ship our boxes import-tax free to customers all over the continent. Brexit deeply shocked us and upcoming elections in The Netherlands, France and Germany could make the future of humanity’s most successful peace project even more insecure. With a Trump presidency around the corner and Putin happily looking to destabilise his neighbours, we no longer feel as confident about the future as we ought to.

“We ask everyone to grab a bag of beans and share a cuppa Joe with a stranger.”

The Coffeevine was founded by two people who between them share four nationalities and made a foreign city their home. Growing up with different cultures, living in a city that celebrates its 177 nationalities and being able to travel the world freely has made us feel incredibly fortunate.

We care deeply about our communities and the people who live in them, no matter what background, belief, sexuality or nationality. And, if there is one thing that Europe and its recent history have taught us, then it is that hatred will lead to nothing but suffering. Instead of shutting ourselves off from the rest of the world, building walls and looking to blame outsiders for everything that’s wrong with our nations, we should take a moment to be more inclusive, grateful and tolerant.

The wars in Syria and Yemen, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, shootings in the US and religious warfare in Myanmar – to name a few – have left many of our brothers and sisters displaced, without a future or even dead. Climate change is destroying the livelihoods of many people, including coffee farmers, expanding the deserts and sinking entire islands. Dictators are killing their own people to stay in power at all costs, terrorists are bringing a reign of terror to millions of innocent civilians and human rights’ activists are being jailed for standing up to the authorities.

Here in The Netherlands and in Europe as a whole, we live in one of the safest and most prosperous regions in the world, and still, we’re surrounded by a fast-growing amount of people who fall for right-wing populism that wants to take us back into a period when Europe was one of the most hostile and xenophobic places the world has ever seen. How could we possibly want that?

As a blog and as a business we have always championed individuals who are doing something unique with coffee and as a consequence, for their local communities. It’s of utter importance to us that we unite in a fight against racism, xenophobia and homophobia to ensure that our cities and countries can continue to be the wonderful and free places we love so much.

Therefore, rather than arming ourselves with guns and hatred, we ask everyone to grab a bag of beans and share a cuppa Joe with a stranger. Because if there is one thing that everyone appreciates, especially those who have lost everything, then it’s a warm cup of coffee, a hug and some love.

To a better world in 2017.

Alex Kitain, founder of The Coffeevine