A week ago, I hosted a public cupping in Helsinki for the second time in as many years. The wonderful people of Kaffa Roastery welcomed us back into their space and together with members from the local coffee community, I picked out the winning coffees for our upcoming August 2023 European and Global coffee roasters boxes.
For this summery edition, I am thrilled to share that we will have five Coffeevine debutants, i.e. five brand new roasters who have never been featured in any of our boxes before. In fact, for the European coffee roasters box I specifically looked for roasters from around the Mediterranean or south of Europe while for the Global coffee roasters box, I wanted to venture to the Far East and bring you two of Asia’s hottest names.
I am really chuffed with this selection as it will showcase a very diverse range of roasters, regions, origins and processes. Learn more about the selected roasters below and keep an eye on our blog for more full-length articles about each roaster and their coffee coming soon.
PIHA from Bordeaux
A few years ago, Pierre Guérin and Carole Laffargue were travelling around New Zealand, surfing on its pristine beaches and enjoying the local coffee scene when they decided that they wanted to bring a touch of Down Under back to their native France. Based in the Western French city of Bordeaux, which is close to the Atlantic coast, PIHA is named after a beach near New Zealand’s biggest city Auckland.
Some of the guys who work at PIHA have been Coffeevine subscribers for many years and previously reached out to me to find out when they could potentially get featured in our box. I invited them to send some coffees for the August editions and they blew everyone’s mind at the cupping event in Helsinki last week. Our collective cupping squad selected PIHA’s outstanding natural processed Indonesian coffee from famed producer Frinsa Estate as one of its top three favourites for the month. This coffee is a great representation of Indonesia’s finest coffees, offering a rich and syrupy flavour profile.
Kudu Coffee from Athens
When the World of Coffee took place in the Greek capital Athens recently, I decided to head down there and spend a few days relaxing in the city before diving into coffee’s biggest get togethers of the year. On the first morning of my stay in Athens, I ventured into the neighbourhood of Neo Psychiko where Kudu Coffee has its flagship café. I had been in touch with the team for some time and wanted to pay them a personal visit to taste their excellent coffees first hand. Read my review of the café.
Kudu has super colourful and fun packaging that stands out immediately and works with a carefully selected range of producers from around the world. We selected their lovely and floral washed Ethiopian coffee from Guji Masina for our August editions, offering delicate notes of lemon and cherry.
Aliena from Rome
Dario Fociani is somewhat of a local hero in the Roman specialty coffee community and beyond. A few years ago, he opened Faro, the Italian capital’s first specialty coffee café, opening the door for others to follow and inviting specialty sceptical Italians to learn about and taste worldclass coffees. More recently, he launched his own roastery, Aliena, which is inspired by space and its vast unknowns.
The packaging design is just as otherworldly as the coffees found inside. We actually selected Aliena’s gorgeous washed Rwandan coffee from Musasa Ruli back in June already but the boxes weren’t ready so we had to postpone Dario’s Coffeevine debut by one month. Needless to say, we’re incredibly excited to welcome such a pioneer to our roasters family and to showcase this fine coffee in August. Expect notes of grape and plum.
Leaves from Tokyo
It’s been a few years since I was in Japan and though I still maintain close contact with some of the wonderful coffee people I met during my last trip (watch this space), I have been making new connections there lately. One of them is with Leaves from Tokyo who is widely regarded to be one of the most exciting roasters in the Japanese capital right now.
When I was in Paris for the coffee festival in May, I saw their coffees on the shelves at Motors Coffee and this confirmed my gut feel that bringing Leaves to one of our Global coffee roasters boxes would be a great idea. Founder Yasuo Ishii has been on a mission to become one of the world’s best roasters and he takes his craft incredibly seriously. We’re honoured to have Leaves in the upcoming August edition with a beautiful and sweet natural processed Honduran coffee from producer Alex Ramon Ponce Rodriguez. This coffee has notes of ripe Pineapple and raspberry brownie.
Momos from Busan
The other East Asian roaster that we invited to join our third Global coffee roasters box is none other than Momos, the brand founded by Lee Hyeon-gi in a tiny space back in 2007. When one of its baristas, Jeon Joo-yeon, won the World Barista Championships in Boston in 2019, things took off into the stratosphere and firmly placed Momos at the top of South Korea’s burgeoning specialty coffee scene.
The company is known for sourcing exceptional micro lots from around the world and offering impeccable service in its flagship café that is normally led by Joo-yeon who is currently on maternity leave. For its Coffeevine debut, Momos will roast for us a thick and syrupy natural Ethiopian coffee from Buku Sayisa, full of strawberry and milk chocolate sweetness.
Your box, your choice. All you need to do is start.
We offer a few different boxes to suit every taste. Our European box is the most established box we have and offers the most options for customisation. It’s available as a subscription, a one-off box or a gift box and you can choose your ideal roast profile and number of bags. The Global Coffeevine box is our newest baby and currently only available as a one-off box with two bags roasted for filter.
Get started by visiting our shop today.
