The start of the year is full of hope, promise and ambition. We hope that you are coming into 2025 feeling great and have a lot to look forward to. At Bean Bros we continue to explore the speciality coffee landscape and aim to bring to you excellent tasting coffee from places you may not have heard of, or tried before.
We are pleased to present Beansmiths from the Czech Republic! A passionate and quality driven team who have plans this year to move to a larger roastery and share the coffee even more beyond the borders than they currently do! Enjoy!
Who are the key people behind Beansmiths, and what roles do they play?
Our team consists of five core members. The founder and CEO, Petr, oversees the financial operations, graphics, long-term projects, and keeps us all together. Petra, his right hand, is our office manager responsible for communication with retail customers, email responses, and managing our e-shop. Kuba, who has been with the company the longest after Petr, is our head roaster. He handles profiling new coffees, quality control, purchasing green beans and communicating with our green bean importers. He oversees the daily operations of the roastery. Filip, our production roaster, is in charge of daily roasting and helps our part-time workers pack coffees directly into orders. You might also meet him at various coffee festivals behind our bar. Lastly,Ondra manages our wholesale, taking care of our customers from cafes, offices, and restaurants. He is the link between the roastery and our partners and also prepares barista training for our partner cafes. We must not forget our excellent part-time workers, Zuzka, Dáša, Lucka, and Anet, without whom we wouldn't be able to deliver packages to customers so quickly. They are an essential part of our team.
What are you most proud of in your journey as a roastery?
We are most proud of our consistency in quality. Our roastery was founded on quality, and from the beginning, we have strived to ensure that the quality of our beans is exceptional and consistent. We are proud that we have succeeded in this.
What are your goals for the future of Beansmiths?
We aim to push our coffee more into international markets. In the Czech Republic, we are already a well-known and established roastery. It is time to move beyond our borders. In the near future, we are also planning to move from our current space to a significantly larger rural barn. We look forward to more space and beautiful, representative space.
How do you select the producers you work with?
The most important factor for us when we are selecting a new producer is the quality of the beans. This means not only how the coffee tastes but also whether it has few defects and whether its flavor is consistent and balanced. We believe that it is no longer necessary to emphasize that we care about ensuring that no children work on the farms and that their employees are fairly paid.
Our trip to Colombia last year showed us that times are moving forward, and these things can be taken for granted. The greatest joy for us was seeing firsthand that the higher price for specialty coffee truly reflects in the quality of life for people who are working on the farm in the coffee industry.
We strive to maintain long-term relationships with producers and return to them again and again through our importers. It is great to taste the same coffees from the same harvests and see how farmers progress in processing or how the weather affects annual harvests.
How has the coffee community grown in the Czech Republic?
The coffee community in the Czech Republic has grown massively over the past seven years. Only in Prague you can find over 180 cafes with specialty coffee. What makes us happiest is the coffee culture across the entire Czech Republic.
Seven years ago, we never dreamed that we would be able to drink precisely prepared coffee in almost any small town across the country, and we are delighted to be part of it.
We love to work with baristas who are not afraid to experiment, are interested, and share the same passion for coffee as we do. We organize barista training and open free cuppings to make it easier for them to access information and thus be able to advance our coffee scene further in a few years.
What role does your café play in your business?
Our café is a place where we can offer multiple coffees from our range and present how we view coffee. It allows us to thoroughly test each coffee before releasing it on our e-shop. We can then provide our customers with detailed information on how to work with the coffee and how it tastes.
Long-term, the café also serves as a source for our team. After all, everyone who has come to the roastery (except for our owner) started at the café and then moved to the roastery after some time. It is a great cooperation that allows people with a passion and interest in coffee to grow.
What’s in this month’s coffee selection?
Filter Coffee
Colombia Finca La Correa - Washed/Anaerobic
We have been working with farmer Marisol Naňez for three years. We had the opportunity to meet her and her family on last year's trip to coffee farms and fell in love with them. We love her coffees and try to include them every single harvest. This year, you can expect a fruity, juicy filter with almost Kenyan character. The body is dominated by the distinct fruitiness of hibiscus tea and purple grapes, which gradually blend into a sweetness similar to plum jam. The coffee has medium to high acidity, supported by medium to high sweetness. Overall, it is a balanced cup of fruity coffee.
Ethiopia Buncho - Red Honey
The Red honey processing method is very rare for Ethiopia, and we are pleased that we managed to get it in such high quality as provided by the Buncho processing station from Sidamo. The filter has a very pleasant medium citric acidity and medium sweetness. The body features notes of orange combined with the sweet flavors of strawberry cake. Everything is accompanied by herbal notes of mint, and in the end your mouth is filled with dense tones of chocolate cream.
Kenya Ndimi PB - Washed
The pearl beans that make up the entire lot create a full sweet flavor, complemented by the pronounced acidity we are used to in Kenya. The result is a filter with a distinct fruity flavor and tea character. In the mouth, you first taste raspberry notes, which gradually give way to the flavor of nectarines and apricots. The fruity flavor is accompanied by a pleasant dense sweetness similar to cane sugar. Finally, you are left with a very pleasant aftertaste similar toDarjeeling. The coffee has high acidity, medium sweetness and a full, round body.
Espresso Coffee
Colombia La Victoria - Washed
A beautifully cleanly processed lot. You can look forward to a full, juicy espresso with slightly more pronounced acidity. The best recipe we found was a ratio of 1:2.24 with a time slightly over 30 seconds. The espresso has a citric-phosphoric acidity similar to candied orange. The body has a pleasant balanced sweetness typical of dried mango, and the finish has notes of almonds and chocolate. We did not change the recipe for milk, and the coffee is light in it. In milk, you will find notes of caramel, nuts, and chocolate.
Kenya Endebess - Natural
Every coffee lover will immediately be surprised by the unusual natural processing for Kenya. We were no different last year and bought the coffee with enthusiasm. This year, we intentionally sought out natural Kenya from the Endebess processing station, and it was definitely worth it. You can look forward to a juicy fruity espresso that is very easy to set up. The best recipe we found was a ratio of 1:2.18 with a time between 25 and 28 seconds. The result is a very pleasant espresso with medium citric acidity, medium sweetness, and medium aftertaste. The body has a very pleasant taste of pomelo or grapefruit with a slightly longer extraction and pomelo with red currant with a shorter extraction, always complemented by the fruity sweetness of apricot and a sweet, dense aftertaste similar to hot chocolate. We did not change the recipe for milk. The cappuccino is pleasantly sweet with notes of caramel, apricot yogurt, and chocolate.
Costa Rica Sonora - Natural
We always get excited when coffee from this farm arrives. We have been working with it for three years. And this year, the beans from Sonora did not disappoint. With a recipe ratio of 1:2.12 and a time between 25 and 28 seconds, we got a very juicy, full, creamy espresso. The espresso has medium acidity and a medium juicy body. The flavor is dominated by fuller darker tones, reminiscent of blackberry jam with shorter extractions and cherry with longer ones. It is complemented by a very pleasant sweet taste of papaya and vanilla, and the finish has a lovely sweet chocolate aftertaste. We did not change the recipe for milk, and the coffee is very creamy, reminiscent of the taste of lotus cream. The coffee is very stable on the grinder and easy to work with. It is a joy to work with.
Any final words for our subscribers?
We are thrilled to be part of this beautiful project and excited about the feedback we will receive. We firmly believe that our coffee selection will captivate you and that a prepared cup of coffee will improve your mood and make your day more beautiful. Join us in looking for specialty beauty.
