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"All roads lead from Madrid,"
so let's begin this month's journey with cheerful coffee from the sunniest city in Europe and one of the greenest cities in the world.
Apparently, they take great care in protecting their black gold.
You might be surprised to hear that there is a fountain designed to flood the Bank of Spain's chamber of black gold if anyone attempts to break in!
I was looking for a job in the hospitality industry that could help me to continue studying and I got an opportunity in a cafe that had just opened in the Malasaña neighborhood and was trying to make coffee in a new way.
I fell in love with it in just a couple of days.
What do you love?
We got a little bit late to this news compared to other cities in Europe, but since 2020 the specialty coffee movement has begun to be more popular and people engaged with it.
Now, Madrid is a reference for the specialty coffee market in Europe and you can see different styles and approaches.
What I love most is that we are passing the coffee quality all across the hospitality sector, which is big in Spain as we love to go out and we also receive a lot of tourism.
The mainstream industry used to have the worst grade of coffee, but now they are trying to improve their offering and coffee preparation skills.
Can you tell us a bit about who made them?
Also, we wanted to present the specialty coffee to our community without snobbery, Madrid is a very friendly city and we did not want to be distant and too complex.
With all this in mind, our friend Miriam Persand designed the cup with eyes :-)
Can you help me make the most of my time here?
Then you can go for a walk in Malasaña and dive in the vintage clothing stores.
You can stop at Bodegas La Ardosa for a pincho de tortilla and a vermouth.
A good idea is to enjoy a “menu del día”, a kind of daily menu for lunch at Casa Badila.
In the afternoon you can enjoy the museums and have a cocktail at Savas Bar.
In Madrid, we usually have dinner pretty late, so you can wait till 9 pm for that and be amazed by the quantity of people in the street at night.
A good place to go is Cruda Bar, a natural wine place with good food too.
If you have energy, the night in Madrid is pretty crazy, go to a club and dance til you are exhausted.
The next day, we can help you with the best coffee at any of our two locations ;)
It's like a tiny treasure chest of awesome scenery and cultural coolness, and certainly deserves a shout-out for its delightful coffee.
Both Paola and I (Andrew) lived in Bogotá for four years and we took the opportunity to visit several amazing coffee farms and learn more about varieties, processing and the industry in general.
At the same time, we could see that interest in specialty coffee was growing in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe so when we moved back in 2017 we decided to invest our savings in a Probat P12 roaster and the best beans we could find.
And others are surprised by just how much is going on in that sort of space of time.
all because a young coffee farmer we hardly knew said ‘Come visit’.
After arriving in one piece, seeing the scenery and tasting his coffee we were glad that we did.
I’ve tasted some amazing coffees in those exams.
Can you recommend the things we really need to do in your town?
We always recommend that visitors take a hike up one of the area’s many mountains, maybe give surfing in the Atlantic Ocean a try and then find a local pub with traditional music.
Sligo has some of the best trad music in Ireland, without the crowds.
I have to say this applies to this roaster as well 🙂
The city itself has several nicknames such as Roffa, Rotjeknor and Rotje.
Sometimes buildings and statues are better known by their nicknames than their official name.
Managed by seasoned coffee experts and competitors, Ben Morrow and Esther Maasdam have established their roastery, emphasizing extraordinary and exceptional coffees.
They specialize in unique and small batches, working closely with producers to create a truly remarkable coffee experience.
But there was only coffee, no equipment.
Made a fire, cut off the top of a Coke bottle and flipped it and basically made my first pour-over.
That coffee seemed like the best thing ever at the time, and think it sparked something there.
That first survival pour-over.
The first time I saw someone else make latte art and I was just handing the coffees to people, the first time I poured my own first heart.
The first time I had the Panama Esmeralda Geisha.
That first national competition wins and the time I made it to the World finals.
And currently mostly enjoying being able to run more cuppings and sharing all the coffees!
He just won a Sprudgie award for Notable Producer and the 2 coffees we launched from him were sold out in a weekend.
Barely managed to put a bag aside for ourselves.
Imagine the perfect day in your city.
Walk through the old Delfshaven harbor area and finish the day with a roti at a Suriname toko.
We work closely together with producers and traders who share our unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of coffee craftsmanship, advancing the industry, and redefining what's possible."