When I read the story of how Morgan von Mantripp and Yvonne Spresny met, I instantly related. After finishing their respective degrees, they both decided to go travelling around Asia, something that my friend Kat and I also did after my graduation. While in somewhere in southern Thailand, Morgan and Yvonne became acquainted and later met again in Chiang Mai after which they were practically inseperable. Like me, they also went into Laos and Vietnam but unlike them, I didn’t make it to Sri Lanka.
We do share the same experience of growing ever more curious about coffee and coffee production while sitting in small roadside cafés in Laos and visiting the coffee growing highlands of Dalat in Vietnam. Admittedly, I didn’t love the super sweet Vietnamese coffees I was drinking every day but they definitely provided a source of energy and conversation throughout our time there only to be supplanted by Starbucks and other big chains once we had arrived in Bangkok.
For Morgan and Yvonne, however, it was the beginning of a love story other than their own. Eventually, they returned to Europe and over time began working towards the realization of their own coffee business Von&vonnie, which is inspired by their own names. When I first spoke with Morgan over video call a little while back, he told me that before moving to Porto, they had spent some time in my own hometown of Hamburg where Morgan worked for one of the big coffee chains from Denmark.
Moving to Porto was not per se their goal but they fell in love with this beautiful city and saw huge potential in setting up their own coffee bar there. Eventually, they realised that to have a bigger impact, they would also need to source and roast their own coffee and so they added a small bespoke roastery into the mix. When I visited Porto a few years ago, there was very little in terms of specialty coffee but I am aware that things have changed a lot since. And yet, it might come as a surprise for you to learn that in more than 10 years of running The Coffeevine, we have only ever featured one Portuguese roaster. It was high time to change that.
What I love about Von&vonnie are its colourful and fun brand identity, and how it makes a big point of trying to source primarily female produced coffees. It also stresses the need to be as fair and sustainable as possible, something that many coffee drinkers in Europe expect from a roaster these days without realising that drinking coffee in Europe is not sustainable by design since it doesn’t grow there. Therefore, it’s important that roasters tell the full picture how it is and educate the public on coffee’s real journey from seed to cup and how they can make a bigger impact by buying their beans from roasters like Von&vonnie.
The coffee that Von&vonnie will roast for our November 2024 Coffeevine box is from Kenyan producer Gloria Gummerus who delivers her coffees to Sakami Coffee. This mill works with our dear friend Lennart Clerkx and his coffee importing business This Side Up, which has always championed smaller coops, lesser known origins and budding farmers who want to break into the specialty coffee market. There are few female producers in Kenya and this coffee is extra special because it is consists entirely of the Batian variety. Normally, Kenyan coffees are blends of the SL28 and SL34 varieties that are then mixed with Barian and Ruiru 11 to produce their characteristic flavour profiles.
If you’re keen to get your hands on a really special coffee that supports female producers, then order yours.
To receive this excellent coffee or to order any of our other offerings, just visit our shop now.
Pre-orders close on 15.11.2024 / Ships globally on 20.11.2024
