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Roasting royalty looks to the future
Many family-run roasteries attach a proud sense of heritage and tradition to their brand, but it is rare that a family can lay claim to an invention that went on to change the coffee roasting world. Following in the footsteps of his father, Lutz Reinhart-van Gülpen is now the sixth generation to keep the flame burning when he took over the reign of his family-run business eight years-ago. The father-of-four and current business manager of Van Gülpen Kaffeerösterei, established in 1832, explains his connections to roasting royalty: “We had two founders, Carl Lambert van Gülpen and J.H. Lensing, who imported green coffee from Holland which was transported down the Rhine…
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Competing in specialty coffee without compromise
When it comes to serving specialty, compromise is strictly off the menu for the caffeine heads at Coffee Proficiency. It is this motto that sets the scene for the collective vision at the roastery and coffee bar based in Kraków, Poland. Above all, their desire to compete at a national and international level has helped to consistently offer a high quality product for their customers. Head of Quality at Coffee Proficiency, Lukasz Jura, explains how his first steps towards competing at the highest level took him on a path that led him quit his international studies and pursue a full time career in coffee: “During my studies, I was looking…
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Miro drives forward one batch at a time
While studying for a masters degree in business down under, Daniel Sanchez got a taste for antipodean coffee culture. And when a local coffee shop opened in his Melbourne neighborhood, his enjoyment of specialty coffee soon developed from a daily ritual into a career. “The Monday after the opening, I picked up a cappuccino on the way to collect my laundry. Later that day I went back and talked to Ben, the owner of the café The Final Step. I started to hang out in this coffee shop so much that he told me I could be useful and clean the dishes,” says Daniel before adding that he went…
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Keeping it in the family
The Rast Kaffee roastery lies next to a train line in an industrial area on the outskirts of Ebikon, a small village near Lucerne in central Switzerland. Housed in a large warehouse, the imposing exterior conceals the passion that takes place inside. Neither is there any obvious front door to the roastery, rather an industrial-sized elevator that whisks you to the first floor that opens out into a vast production area framed by palettes stacked with sacks of green beans. The air is full of the rich aroma of freshly roasted coffee. With a beaming smile, the fourth generation in the family-run business, Beatrice Rast, introduces herself and starts…