A city where they transport beer underground through pipelines. Known by every tourist and even Hollywood uses it as a film set. Apart from idyllic streets and medieval buildings, this city has a lot more to offer. This city, also known as the Venice of the North is the homeport of Cafuné specialty coffee bar & roastery.

As always, we start by asking how your coffee story began.
We started our coffee shop in 2016 as a hardcore coffee shop, no americanos, no sugar, and lots of filter coffee. We saw a very big interest developed after a few months and that’s when people started waiting in line to grab their coffee. Not even a year after we began winning awards. In 2019 we started our specialty micro-roastery and after 1 year we won the award of best coffee roastery in the Benelux. We now focus on our big roastery and take out/shop which was our coffeeshop in the beginning.

How is the specialty coffee scene in Bruges?
It’s very difficult to understand the scene. We have a very old population that still is relied on the typical coffee, but slowly we are trying to change the mindset.

What’s your favorite way the brew your coffee?
As I was an Aeropress finalist, I definitively go for an Aeropress. (Which I always take with me)

Except for all the typical tourist sights. What can you, as locals, recommend us to do in Bruges?
Bruges is one big canvas, so I always recommend walking around and looking up! The most beautiful buildings and things to see are above your head.

 

We recently changed our logo and interior colors, such as our new roaster. All in pink. A customer came in and asked me “ are you selling coffee or prostitutes? “. So our new quote became:

“We are coffee roasters, not prostitutes”

We are so glad that this roastery found us.
While tasting their samples, we were really blown away. They come from the city built on 11 million pillars and home to the largest Street Art Museum in the world.
Here in Amsterdam, Back to Black roasts their coffee.

Hello!

So nice that you have found us! But how exactly did you find ‘I know Jerry from Toronto’?
One day we were scrolling through Instagram and stumbled upon the I know Jerry from Toronto page and fell in love.
We love the combination between good quality coffee and art.

Can you briefly introduce your team to us, and don’t forget Binkie :-).
We have a small team with around 15 amazing baristas, who all put their love and energy into making the perfect cup. Three people in charge at the roastery, three in charge of the bakery and of course there is our cat Binkie,
The king of the Castle.

What drove you to the specialty coffee business?
Discovering that there is so much more behind a cup of coffee than just your daily dose of caffeine. The whole process from berry to cup, how much effort and love has been put into it, just to serve that single cup.

Many of our subscribers are tasting Back to Black Coffee for the first time. What can we expect from your Peru – Santos Flores Cordova?
For the second year in a row we chose the Peruvian coffee from Santos Flores Cordova that has a full female production chain (which is pretty rare in the industry)!
The farm and washing station are run by Santos and her daughter.
The coffee is imported by Lisanne van Oonk from Cultivar and roasted by Inge, Melanie and Jennifer in Amsterdam. Very clean coffee with vibrant citric acidity, tropical fruits, honey sweetness and a hint of florals, like rose petals.

Are you planning to participate in the upcoming Aeropress Championships?
Yes of course! Our team participates every year and if all goes well we hope to be part of it again.

Now that we are in your city, what should we do here apart from visiting the Street Art Museum?
Strolling through the city and enjoy the beautiful canals, houses and history. Try out some dutch delicacies, like stroopwafel, cheese and Dutch apple pies.

“Feel welcome to drop by for a drink, get a taste of our famous apple pie and cuddle Binkie the coffee cat. Hope to see you soon, enjoy the coffee!“

Jerry is so happy that this roastery agreed to be in the box for a second time. In November last year, you had the pleasure of enjoying their delicious coffee, so hopefully you will like it again this time.
In this crazy city where the coffee scene is huge, this roastery excels. From Bucharest, Sloane Specialty Coffee Roastery

So glad you are back in the box!
So does this mean that ‘I know Jerry from Toronto’ has been a good experience?
Of course. We love to collaborate with subscription boxes, we think it’s a great way to experience many different coffees and roast styles. We hope Jerry will keep on growing.

I remember from last year’s interview that you pretty much lived in your roastery. Has it changed much in the meantime?
Ha,ha! Yes, the pandemic life. It was nice actually, it gives us some time to develop some new projects. This spring we managed to fulfill one of those dreams we kept postponing: we opened a flagship store in the heart of Bucharest where you can come and drink any of the coffees in our offer and learn more about each of them.

Has the coffee scene in Romania changed much since the pandemic?
There were some uncertain times but people have come back stronger from it. People’s habits changed: the office areas are semi-deserted, people don’t grab their coffee on their way to work as they used to, so the areas for coffee shops to strive are different now and the approach is more of a leisure experience. Which is great because we always said that coffee and specialty coffee in particular is all about the experience: the sensory experience and the human experience.
So the coffee scene changed, some coffee shops closed but so many learned their lesson from what failed and with newfound energy a wave of coffee shops opened in spring.

Can you tell us something about your featured coffee, the Burundi – Gakenke? What makes this coffee special to you?
Well, first of all we fought for it so that makes it special :-).
We are always trying as many coffees as possible and keep an open eye and an open mind when tasting.
We have tasted lots from Burundi before but nothing really stood out.

This one we loved from the cupping table and wanted to book the whole lot but by the time we did so, someone else got most of it.

So we were left with 2 bags which we couldn’t pass even if it will be gone in a flash.

We loved it so much because it is very complex, it has a vibrant acidity but also a good body, it has fruity flavor notes and also a beautiful caramel-like sweetness.

It is the whole deal and each time you brew it you get to discover some other layer. It is also a great example of what Burundi coffees could be.

It is a producing country with great potential, starting from the fact that all coffee trees are Bourbon, the sweetest coffee varietal with excellent cup results. The farmers tend to very small plots (around 200 -250 trees each) that yield around 1,5 kg of coffee cherries that result in around 250g of green beans.

Each cherry is hand-picked when they consider it to be perfectly ripe so they take extra good care of the beans.

With private-owned cooperatives like Gakenke the coffee is not only processed correctly and therefore the quality is enhanced, but they also pay above the price that the farmers would get from the state-owned washing stations, with premiums given to lots that are exceptional. It is also a rainforest alliance certified station so its practices protect the environment while their social projects (schools, dispensaries, coffee education, financial support) protect and develop the communities.

Do you have any advice on how to brew it right?
Well, that depends a lot on your grinder and brewing technique. The only general advice I could give is to go a little finer in your grinding and a little hotter with your water, it is a dense coffee so it needs more extraction power and more exposed surface.

 

Just a kind reminder that each cup you drink is a privilege and a blessing. From farmers that cared for the plant and handpicked each bean to the ones that handpicked the bad ones in the processing to the long road it took to reach you (carried by foot or car from the farm to the processing station and then to the dry mill, then put on a container, spending months at sea, just to reach another warehouse, from where it traveled by road to us and then again to you.). And then the knowledge and time we spent roasting it, packing it, shipping it and the passion and energy you put in brewing the cup you will be drinking.

“It is close to miraculous and you should cherish it. ”