Picture this. You live in a country that is famed for its magnificent coastline and countless islands. A country that has a rich history and delicious cuisine. One that produces great wines and strong Rakia. OK good. Now imagine you want to set up a specialty coffee bar on one of those islands because, why not? And before you know it, your brand has become a national specialty coffee champion with its own roastery and various cafés. Well, then you are living the life of Ivana and Marko who fell in love with specialty coffee while working as wedding photographers around the world.
One day, they decided to rent a derilict space on the small island of Hvar, breathe new life into it and open their first coffee place, Kava 37. Just like the weddings they photographed for many years, the journey they’ve been on since can only be described as magical. These days, Kava is not just a small local coffee shop any more. It has grown to a sizeable team and runs both a roastery and an separate café in the city of Split over on the mainland.
I first learned about Kava when my friend Chris Balz, of Balz & Balz fame in Hamburg, told me about them. It had been a lifetime since I last worked with a Croatian roaster, Cogito, and apart from the occasional Slovenian roaster, the Balkan countries have been grossly underrepresented in our box. This had to change! A friendly video call with Q Grader and coffee buyer Tobias Berg, another German national like me, later and a partnership was in the works.
What I loved about Kava right off the bat were its lovely founding story and how Ivana and Marko got their designer to incorporate many unique elements into the branding, elements that represent coffee and their immediate surroundings. Green stands for the average colour of plants in Hvar, yellow is the average colour of its houses, blue is the colour of the Adriatic sea and so on. This creates a warm and summery brand identity that feels particularly personal.
Its small but highly qualified team, including Tobias who spent much of the beginning of the year travelling around Latin America in search of exceptional coffees, is like family to Ivana and Marko. Together, they are working on building specialty coffee in Croatia and creating unique spaces that can be a home for everyone.
I’m excited to bring them on as one of our three European roasters for March and to give you a chance to get to know them up, close and personal by trying the delicious washed Peruvian coffee from the Cedros Cooperative that we selected for our upcoming Coffeevine box. This coffee was a total standout on the cupping table at the most recent public cupping event held in Barcelona last month. It’s well balanced, creamy and juicy. It’ll be a crowd favourite for sure.
To receive this outstanding coffee and its companion coffee from SlowMov and Fjord, order our European Roasters Selection or the Total Package with all coffees including our Global roasters selection for March.
Pre-orders close on 15.03.2024 / Ships globally on 20.03.2024
