Here at The Coffeevine we are always trying to showcase and celebrate the immense diversity and talent that can be found all over our diverse and beautiful continent and sometimes further afield. From the fjords of Norway to the mountains of Switzerland and from the beaches of Barcelona to the old towns of the Baltic capitals. Over the years we have featured roasters from almost every country in Europe and it’s always exciting when a nation makes it debut in one of our boxes. This month we are thrilled to welcome for the first time a roaster from Romania: Sloane Coffee Roasters.
I have a very personal connection to Romania and Bucharest in particular, having spent 4 1/2 months living and working in the city back in 2008. At the time, Bucharest already had a very pronounced coffee scene, in particular in the Dorobanti neighbourhood where I lived, but it was a far cry from anything that we would refer to as ‘specialty’. Instead, coffee shops acted more as places to get together in the evenings, often staying open until well after midnight, and serving mostly Italian style espresso and cappuccino to their local customers.
Today, Bucharest is a very different place. For a while it was even regarded as the new Berlin because of its growing profile as a startup capital, cheap rents, a vibrant cultural scene and its highly skilled workforce. If this comparison is not too far-fetched and Bucharest indeed follows in the German capital’s footsteps, this will mean great things for its local coffee scene.
Sloane Coffee Roasters is amongst the first specialty coffee companies in the Romanian capital to try to see eye to eye with some of its European counter parts in cities with more developed coffee cultures. Initially founded by Cosmin Mihailov and Teodora Pitis, Sloane Coffee Roasters set out with a slightly different mission to most other coffee roasters. They didn’t want to approach coffee as an art form but rather as a science.
They have a firmly rooted commitment to sourcing nothing but the finest of specialty coffees, often picking very small lots from particular farms and making sure that these coffees are then treated with the utmost care to produce complex and exciting coffees that stand out. While Cosmin and Teodora have since gone their separate ways, Sloane has been making waves across the European continent, quickly gaining a lot of new fans and followers who have taken a great interest in specialty coffee roasted in Romania.
For our July ’17 coffee box, the team in Bucharest will be roasting a delicious El Salvador, Finca Peña Redonda that was processed using the black honey method, leading to a beautiful, layered sweetness and rich fruity flavours. It is one of three outstanding coffees, each with a distinct processing method, that make up our July ’17 coffee box.
Don’t miss your chance to secure this exquisite coffee lineup!
Order our July ’17 coffee box by 15-07 / Ships globally on 20-7
ORDER HERE