Whenever you speak with people in the specialty coffee world you come across some truly fascinating stories of astonishing career changes, transformations and new beginnings. It may be that coffee has a comparatively lower entry barrier than for example opening a restaurant but it is of course no less demanding.
Over the years, I’ve met people who left their high-paying law firm jobs, abandonded their careers in media or sought a second calling alongside their occupations as artists, flight attendants and so on. Yet when it comes to coffee businesses being overhauled to move from traditional Italian espresso bar to celebrated specialty roaster, those stories are far and few between. Yet one such example is much-lauded and award-winning Swedish outfit Da Matteo whose management early on recognised the potential of sourcing, roasting and serving much better quality coffees than the still relatively common Italian espresso blends.
Today few elements from those early days remain bar the name. Da Matteo is known for its outstanding coffee sourcing philosophy that now even included its very own ‘Truly Special’ badge that is only awarded to coffees that meet a series of conditions set by the Da Matteo team. Many of its coffees are sourced directly from the farmers with whom they maintain very close ties to continuously develop their production and consequently the quality of the end product when it reaches the customer.
This is the second time that we’ll be working with Da Matteo and we couldn’t be more excited about it. The team around Christian Gundersen has slowly transformed the specialty coffee scene in its native Gothenburg (Sweden) and played a key role in helping to define what the ‘Nordic roasting style’ actually is. While it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, the Nordic style aims to bring out all the bright and juicy flavours that are contained inside the finest coffees. Needless to say, we love their work.
For this month’s coffee box, our last one of the year, Da Matteo will be roasting a very special coffee for us. It’s part of the ‘Truly Special’ collection of directly sourced coffees that Da Matteo is currently highlighting as its finest single origins. Each of these carefully selected coffees comes from producers who meet a list of requirements that are stipulated here (only in Swedish).
It’s the first Colombian coffee that we have in one of our boxes in quite some time and we’re thrilled to share such a delicious example this month. Produced by Victor Barrera, this coffee consists entirely of the Tabi varietal and he is one of the first producers in the region to completely replace his Caturra and Caturai trees with this more sturdy specimen. The coffee itself is extremely smooth, offering notes of red apple, lychee and pineapple.
Receive this yummy coffee together with excellent single origins from Origin and The Barn in our upcoming December ’17 box. Flat-fee shipping to Europe: €5 / World: €10 – tracked shipping optional.
Preorder your box by 10-12 / ships on 15-12
What other happy customers say about us:
Fredrik Ohrner: “I’m so happy with the coffee I get from you every month. The last box, with coffee from Neues Schwarz, was absolutely magical!”
