I have really been enjoying the process of spreading my tentacles all around the world to recruit the most interesting roasters to feature in my Coffeevine boxes. This has opened up a whole new world for both me as a coffee professional and for my customers who are ever more interested in discovering roasters from further away places.

During a super cute cupping in Utrecht last week to which I invited members of the local Coffeevine community to help me cup and choose the coffees for April, we had a total of 9 roasters on the table, all vying for a coveted spot in our next box. And it’s with great pleasure that I share with you more details about who made the cut, from Shanghai to Vancouver.

EUROPEAN ROASTERS FOR MARCH

A Matter Of Concrete from Rotterdam

Rob Clarijs is a good friend and someone I regularly run into in different places. Whether it’s at his pop up in London last year or at a local favourite coffee bar in his home town, Rob and my paths seem to be crossing at regular intervals. Ever since he opened his newish roastery A Matter Of Concrete (aka A.M.O.C.) in 2021, Rob has been on overdrive putting word out about the wonderful things he does, most recently as the guest roaster in one of Standart Magazine’s editions.

Before I went to see his roastery with my own two eyes, there was a conspiracy theory going around in Amsterdam that Rob wanted to build a roastery where he literally just walks in, presses one button and everything happens automatically, with nothing but the fanciest equipment imaginable. Though the equipment part is pretty accurate, Rob obviously roasts his coffees personally, keeping a watchful eye on the screens of his Loring S35. When we first featured A.M.O.C., things were still in their infancy in a way. Now, the company is more of a self assured teen ager and that seemed like the perfect time for us to join forces again.

For the April 2024 edition, Rob will roast an outstanding Pink Bourbon (rosado) variety from producer Julián Calderón whose coffee was one of the clear standouts on the cupping table last week. It’s bright and crisp with notes of raspberry and rose in the aftertaste.

Available with a single profile for filter & espresso

Bugan Coffee Lab from Bergamo

Italy’s coffee scene is a funny one. On the one hand, it’s hugely competitive with tons of tiny roasteries dotted all over the country. On the other hand, it still doesn’t have a widely spread third wave coffee culture that can be found in every city. Many locals still resent the higher price that specialty coffee costs and can’t really relate to our beloved floral and bright citrus notes. Any yet, there is a huge amount of talent in the roasting and barista scenes. Daniele Ricci, who placed second in the World Barista Championships got his start at a roastery from Bergamo called Bugan.

I’ve had my eyes on them for years and when I ran into the team at last year’s Milan Coffee Festival and consequently walked away with a bag full of samples, I knew the time had come to get them on board. It has come a long way from Maurizio and Sonia Valli’s (siblings, not lovers) early days as a humble cupping room and academy. Now, Bugan is one of Italy’s finest and most reputable specialty coffee roasters and finally making its debut in one of our boxes.

I am a huge fan of the coffees coming from Ethiopian’s Bombe mill in Sidama. We’ve regularly had both naturals, anaerobics and washed coffees from this origin on our boxes and they always got the highest marks. Seems only fitting that Bugan should have its first go at being a Coffeevine partner with a coffee from there. Expect a super floral and fresh cup with notes of bergamot and jasmin.

Available with a single profile for filter & espresso

Craft House Coffee from Haywards Heath

When Tom Osborne founded Craft House Coffee in 2015, he just wanted to source and roast the kind of coffees that he personally loved. It was a simple premise but one that convinced many around the UK to buy his coffees and led to us starting a partnership in 2018 that has since seen Craft House Coffee return for a few additional features.

I always loved Craft Houses bold attitude towards building sustainable partnerships with producers, trying to reduce its carbon footprint as much as possible and working with other local businesses to offer coffee waste or byproducts to be used in the productiuon of other natural products such as wine from the south of England.

These days Craft House Coffee is a major operation with a solid team of people who have helped to grow the company significantly and I’m really excited that they will be back in one of our boxes this April with a really delicious everyday kind of coffee from Paya in Guatemala. This coffee is creamy and sweet with notes of cherry and blackbery.

Available with a single profile for filter & espresso

GLOBAL ROASTER FOR MARCH

Terraform from Shanghai

As I alluded to in the opening paragraph of this post, I have really been loving building new relationships with roasters from around the world whose coffees I am selecting for our Global coffee roasters edition. Maybe you can thus imagine how giddy I am to offer our first-ever coffee from a Chinese roaster in our box. China is a huge market with a burgeoning coffee scene but relatively difficult to break through due to China’s closed of internet. But this didn’t stop me from finding one roaster who friends in the know recommended very highly.

Terraform is based in China’s biggest city and part of a bigger coffee group but this particular brand is focuses particularly on the most beautiful coffees it can get. The selection of samples they sent for our cupping last week was impressive but I could only include a handful of their coffees to try and find the one and thankfully, that wasn’t too difficult given how delicious they tasted.

For the April edition, Terraform will roast an exquisite Parainema variety from Honduran producer Oscar Ramirez. Expect a bright and fruity cup with notes of citrus, brown sugar and green tea.

Available with a filter roast profile only

Nemesis from Vancouver

I remember visiting Vancouver many many years ago and making it the starting point of a journey down the West coast of North America with the final destination being Coachella. This was even before I started Coffeevine and developed my understanding of coffee but I vividly recall being quite perplexed by the high quality coffee places that I found. Fast forward many years and these days, this Canadian city is home to many great roasters and cafés. Some years ago, we even featured one of them already, Modus.

A while back, I was in touch with a Polish friend who used to live and work in Berlin but then emigrated to Canada. He reached out to let me know that he was now working for a Vancouver based roaster called Nemesis and asked if I was interested in tasting some of their coffee some time. Truth be told, we didn’t get to that until this month but I really like Damian Durda and what he is doing in specialty coffee (he’s even a co-owner of a specialty coffee farm in India).

Earlier this year, I told him that the time had come for Nemesis to send some coffee and to see if we could work together and what struck me immediately when I opened the package was the beauty of the packaging. It really looks incredibly luxurious and Damian later said to me: “Well, the coffees inside are luxurious, so it’s only fitting right?”

I particularly loved the fresh and vibrant cup profile of the Costa Rican coffee from Jhon Alvarado that comes with an anaerobic natural process highlighting all the juicy notes of the coffee without being overpowering.

Available with a filter roast profile only

GEMS #16

DAS CØFFE from Düsseldorf

Not long ago, I was contacted very enthousiastically by someone called Milad Chaharlangi who respresented a new roastery from Düsseldorf that I had not yet heard of. Milo, as he is known, was really keen to let me know that they had built a really strong relationship with none other than Diego Bermudez, the superstar producer from Colombia, and that they would love to know if I was open to featuring one of their coffees in one of our boxes.

I know Diego’s coffees well and I’ve been a fan of his work although I am not always a fan of the coffees themselves. Though what he has achieved with pushing the boundaries of fermentation and processing is monumental. And he’s a humble man who never kept his techniques secret, helping other farmers achieve better cupping scores with their coffees by using more innovative processing techniques.

DAS sent us a bunch of interesting coffees, including one that was fermented for 720 hours. Yes, you read that correctly. Though that one didn’t make the cut. Instead, we picked a really elegant and curious ‘Rose Tea’ coffee that is of the Castillo variety and was processed with both a thermal shock and an anaerobic process. This brings out really delicate cupping notes like rose, apple and lime. It’s very special.

Available with a filter roast profile only

We bring you one step closer to the world’s best roasters.

You can choose between our European, Global or GEMS selections or simply order the entire lineup with our brand new ‘total package’ box. Find out more on the product pages or view our shop to see all options.

You can order this selection until 15.034.2024 / All April 2024 boxes will ship on 20.04.2024