Hello to all our subscribers! We are breaking the halfway point of the year and hope you have enjoyed the amazing coffee we have shared with you so far. We have lots more exciting releases planned for the year, and as always…our webshop is open every day to provide you with the best equipment and a regular supply of the best beans we can find, roasted here in Copenhagen, as part of our Bean Bros range :)
This month we revisit one of our early featured roasters. It is great for us to return to a roastery and see how they have developed and grown since the first time we have worked with them. It is our absolute pleasure to share with you a special selection from the wonderful team at Casino Mocca. We hope you enjoy and please take some time to learn a bit more about them…
What makes you smile?
The diversity of coffee, to taste the unexpected!
Why you love working in coffee?
Besides we all love coffee, it is great to please people every day with what you do.
Achievements that make you proud
As a co-founder of the roastery I’m proud of our team and I’m feeling blessed to work with them for many years.
Objectives that you are focussed on making happen?
Doing our thing efficiently and sustainable for the long term.
Is there any seasonal release you look forward to the most?
I’m excited to release two new (and totally different) coffees from Uganda, our first ever coffees from the country.
How much debate amongst the team at cupping?
As we've been working together for many years, it means we’re pretty much calibrated to each other, so it is a rare occasion when we have a debate at the cupping table.
Really love your new packaging and logo. What was the thinking behind this, how happy are you with the results?
Thank you! The beloved packaging we used previously, was designed for a much smaller scale operation and as we grew, it produced more and more waste and consumed more and more time so we had to change it mainly for sustainability reasons.
We have worked with @designstudionur to create a revamped logo and a new image that is fresh yet somewhat reminiscent of the old packaging.
How did you manage the business during Corona, what changes have you had to make – have there been positive moments, not only negative from this time?
We got frightened for the first few weeks of the lockdown, but we had to adapt and thankfully, people didn’t want to give up on their favourite coffee.
We launched our webshop (a move we postponed for years because of laziness) and it turned out as a way out and helped us stay on the surface until cafés opened again.
How is the specialty scene in Hungary. Do you see it as a growing interest?
What we see is specialty coffee getting more and more a default in high-quality gastronomy. Our newest customers are bakeries, pastry shops, bars, and small restaurants.
Great selection for this month, anything specific or special about the origin or farm you would like to share?
All three featured coffees are produced by smallholder farmers, so by the nature of this we don’t have any connection with the farmers.
What I’d like to highlight is that the pack contains three differently processed coffees, a washed, a natural and a honey, the latter being an Ethiopian, which process is not common in the country.
Are you working direct or with importer?
As we’re still a small roastery, in most cases we’re working with importers such as Nordic Approach and Sucafina.
How do you choose your coffee and who to work with?
We have a carefully chosen set of importers, most of them specialized only in a few origins. The challenge is to get to know who’s better in sourcing coffees from Ethiopia and who to call when you need the top of the crop from Brazil. This is something you learn over the years.
Any brew recommendations: recipes you would like to share?
I’m happy to share the recipe we use when evaluating a test roast or doing quality control of the final roast profile.
Please note that this is a pretty basic recipe that is more about repeatability than maximizing the potential in the coffee.
We’re using the Kalita Wave 155 dripper, but you can achieve similar results with the V60.
Use 15g of coffee for 250g of water (basic 60g / litre ratio) and pour 50g every 30 seconds.
Water temperature on the display of the kettle: 95 Celsius. Water composition is 20mg (ion) buffer (KHCO3) and 40mg (ion) Magnesium (MgSO4) per litre.
Any closing remark you would like to make to our subscribers?
To all the coffee lovers out there, if you come to visit Budapest, we’re more than happy to welcome you to our roastery every Monday between 4-6 PM.
