Lot Sixty One Coffee Roasters – Amsterdam (NL)

My love affair with Lot Sixty One Coffee Roasters began one rainy April morning. For the past few months I had punished myself with getting out of bed at 6:45 am to go to the gym and try and get the most out of my day. So far it was going well, except I was seriously considering moving to Tahiti. This weather was turning me into a grumpy old man. On that very April morning I was cycling back along the Kinkerstraat when I noticed something strange in the corner shop on Bilderdijkkade. It was only a flash but I thought I saw an Espresso machine. No it couldn’t be.

Two days later I looked again and this time I also saw what looked like a coffee roaster. Surely I must have been hallucinating. Even after pumping iron this early I still feel slightly jaded until I’ve had a shower and some brekkie.

Another two days later I actually stopped and pressed my face against the window and sure enough. On a tiny piece of paper that was stuck to the door it said: Lot Sixty One Coffee Roasters, but there was not a single soul in sight. I shrugged, got my phone out and looked them up on Facebook. There it was and I was the first fan. Bam! Immediately I sent a message and hoped I could be the first to report on this brand new coffee spot. Then… Silence. Nothing. Niente.

A few weeks later I was at Coffee Bru and ended up chatting with Jeroen who sort of “by the way” asked me if I had already seen Lot Sixty One. I vehemently confirmed and asked him if it was some sort of scam, like one of those paper houses that falls over if you get too close. “No, no. It belongs to this Australian guy called Adam who just opened another caffe in the Jordaan. You should ask Jeroen from Harvest & Company for his details. They’re doing a sort of collaboration like the one with Headfirst.” Immediately I put on my Coffee Gonzales shoes and in all honesty I don’t think I’ve ever crossed town so quickly. I stormed inside Jeroen’s shop and literally screamed in his face: “GIVE ME ADAM’S ADDRESS! I MUST MEET HIM. DO IT NOW!”

After I had calmed down a bit and Jonatan made me one of his stupidly good Flat Whites, I sent Adam an email to tell him about my cause and he replied: “Sure man, just come by this weekend. I am opening the shop for the first time.”

Then, on that beautiful sunny 1st of June, Lot Sixty One Coffee Roasters had finally opened its doors and my friends and I popped in for a nice morning coffee. Adam was rushing to and fro, saying as he passed me for the 2nd time: “I’m the runner dude today. Gotta get this, then that. It never stops.”

Inside, Florian, an ex-Espressofabriek hire, was whipping up coffees for curious customers who either had the mission to be the firsts to get coffee here or just happened to wander by and decide it was worth coming in. Although the space is quite small, the bar area provides a commanding view of the central piece of furniture, the 12kg Probat coffee roaster.

It’s worth maneuvering down the tiny steps to come face to face with this beautiful piece of German engineering that a lot of other specialty coffee shop owners would trade their grandmothers in for. At the moment when I visited, the roasting was done but rest assured that it will be in continuous use going forward since Adam is also inviting other specialty coffee shop owners to use the facilities. Rumour reached my ears that Paul of Sweet Cup was recently spotted giving the machine a little spin.

Adam’s sense for perfection is reflected in many other ways than just keeping the doors bolted until the right coffee roaster arrived on the scene. “Sure, we’ll offer all the usual favourite Espresso based drinks but what I really want people to come in here for is the Chemex. No one else is focusing on that right now so I want to be the first.”
The coffees you’ll be able to buy here are also geared at different types of coffee drinkers. There’s the “Fiver” that will set you back, you guessed it, €5 and which consists of 2 single origin coffees (at the moment Brazil and Ethiopia). Then there’s the “Super Fluity”, which plays around more with fruity notes and both a single estate Espresso and filter roast.

After taking a few shots of the place, including dangling off the ladder behind the bar, I turned to Florian and asked him to make me a Flat White. “Sure thing. What do your friends want?” I looked at them with a question mark across my face and they just replied: “We’ll have what he’s having. He’s The Coffeevine after all.”