Iceland may be one of the world’s most remote countries, but it easily makes up for it with its untamed natural beauty, incredibly friendly population and, what many people don’t know, a very vibrant specialty coffee scene. Back when most Western European capitals only had chain-stores or very old fashioned cafés, Reykjkavik already sported a relatively high number of bohemian coffee shops that didn’t just serve a great cuppa Joe in a cozy environment. They also had the function of getting people through Iceland’s notoriously harsh and long winters.
Indeed, when looking at the annual top ten list of the world’s biggest per capita consumers of coffee, Iceland is usually found hovering somewhere around the second of third spot. Reykjavik Roasters, who began life as Kaffismiðja Íslands back in 2008, was one of the first specialty coffee roasters in the Icelandic capital who focused on sourcing, roasting and serving fine single origin coffees, and by doing that, Founders Torfi Þór Torfason and Þuríður Sverrisdóttir helped develop a vibrant coffee scene that punches way above its weight, considering Reykjavik’s tiny population of just 122,141 people.
These days, Reykjavik Roasters run two friendly and welcoming cafés in the city, with their Brautarholt location being the newest one to join the family. Their staff is a wild mix of locals and foreigners who have come to Iceland to study or spend some time in this magical country, away from the stress of the big European or North American cities.
We visited Reykjavik Roasters a few years ago while attending the Iceland Airwaves festival and immediately fell in love with their approach and passion. It’s therefore our great pleasure to finally welcome to one of our boxes our first ever roaster from Iceland.
We’re noticing more and more great coffees coming from this South American country…
During our most recent blind-cupping session where we determined the contents of our upcoming August ’17 coffee box, our team picked out Reykjavik Roasters’ juicy and vibrant Peru, Chirinos as it perfectly complemented the other two coffees from Hola Coffee and Lippe.
A few months ago we featured our first ever coffee from Peru, roasted by our talented friends from Ernst Kaffeeröster in Cologne. Peru never featured very highly on our list of origins before, but since then, we’re noticing more and more great coffees coming from this South American country.
Chirinos is a co-op that supports its 630 members with education and infrastructure projects in this remote region of the Andes. Growing coffee is still a relatively new thing there but with improving access to this relatively isolated part of the country, exporting high quality crops such as specialty coffee is becoming ever more attractive to local farmers.
We look forward to sharing this yummy coffee that will be given its finishing touch in the world’s northernmost capital before traveling to all our customers all over the world soon.
Order our August ’17 coffee box by 15-08 / Ships globally on 21-7
