How it all began
The story behind Danvi coffee roastery
How it all began
For years, I have been a lover of real espresso. Not the weak brew that is often served in the Netherlands, but the syrupy little espresso shot. Naturally sweet with a full body and a delicious finish. Just like I remember from those few really good espressos I had here and there.
When I started making espresso myself, it turned out that it wasn't all that easy. The espresso was bitter, flat in flavor, and not at all as sweet as I remembered.
So I went looking for better coffee beans. After all, the flavor comes from the coffee beans, and without good coffee beans, there’s no good espresso. They had to be 100% Arabica, freshly roasted, and high quality.
And that's where the problem began. Every time I tried to buy good espresso beans somewhere, I would get home and be greatly disappointed: they were very sour.
Nowadays you often read on the internet that you can make your espresso less sour by extracting it better, but believe me: that is only partially true. The beans used and the strength of the espresso largely determine how sour your espresso is. And if you make the espresso less strong, it's no longer an espresso.
I thought: surely there must be a better way. Low acidity, but with that full, smooth espresso flavor.
So I bought a small coffee roaster for home use and started roasting my own beans. And boy, it was harder than I thought at first. I learned that Arabica is just one main type of coffee and that the variety, growing conditions, and the quality of harvesting and processing the crop into dried beans determine how a coffee tastes.
And on top of that came the roasting. That is incredibly tricky for espresso. A little too light? Too sour. A little too dark? Ashy and bitter. With that home roaster and my limited knowledge of green coffee, the results were pretty hit-or-miss. But that only made me more fascinated!
In 2020 I bought my first small professional coffee roaster and started roasting coffee more seriously at home. And at the end of 2020 I founded Danvi (officially Danvi Coffee Roastery B.V.). The roastery was operational at the end of 2021 with an extremely precise and flexible 30kg IMF coffee roaster for larger batches.
I quickly learned that for the espresso I have in mind—bold, sweet, full-flavored, and not too acidic—the selection of green beans is limited. As a coffee roaster, I do have some influence over the flavor of the coffee I produce, but I also have to work within certain limits.
These days, I work extensively with coffees from our partner GujiBrew, featuring beautiful coffees from Guji, Ethiopia, and coffees from Finca El Jaguar in Nicaragua for a selection of high-quality Nicaraguan coffees.
Together with both partners, I have managed to create a number of refined espressos with different flavor profiles. The base espresso: GujiBrew #2,
a smooth, fermented espresso with cognac-like notes: El Jaguar, and a slightly fruity, lightly fermented espresso with the flavor of dried fruit: Maracaturra.
En de toekomst? Het vinden van goede koffies blijft een uitdagende zoektocht voor de komende jaren. Meer filterkoffies en meer diversiteit staan hoog op mijn lijstje.
