(coffee pours)
- I still don't feel like I'm working,
because I'm doing what I like.
(upbeat music)
All right, let's go.
My name is Raphael Braune,
I am one of the founders of Supremo Coffee
and Comandante Grinder.
I've been working in specialty coffees
since about 2005,
and love coffee.
(laughs)
In the beginning, I just
wanted to help my family
to set up the small roastery,
and give it a look, basically.
The face, the package, the website.
But it was so much fun and
it's really something honest.
If I tell somebody I bought
this coffee from that farm
and it tastes like this and that,
and the farmer gets good money for it,
it's true, that's how we do it,
and that just gives so much joy to me
that I decided to stay with coffee.
So we started really,
really, really small.
We were lucky to get a contract from a guy
who had a huge haul, and we asked him
whether it would be possible
to just have a little slice of that haul.
And he said you know what?
In two years you will tear
it down anyways, go for it.
So you have to imagine
this huge empty space,
and then it was a small five-kilo roaster,
and there were some coffee bags.
We were sitting there and
then printing the labels,
cutting out the labels,
filling each bag on a
little scale by hand,
and it was an exciting time.
Then in 2007 we had to leave the building
'cause they took it down,
and we moved into this building.
And one of the first
things that we want to do
is make sure that there are enough steps
that can ensure quality.
So we started looking into
how to store coffee properly
so that it doesn't age that fast.
And then moving in here,
we built the humidor
that we are sitting in right now.
So we are at the raw coffee bean humidor,
which means it's our storage
for all the green beans.
It's climate-controlled,
means always the same temperature,
the same moisture content,
and some other interesting levels
to keep the coffee fresh
as long as possible,
so that if the new harvest comes in
there's not a big jump in quality.
So we try to keep it
just as fresh as possible
over the whole year.
We wanted to have the biggest variety
and the best quality.
That was the aim.
Right now we have about 130
different kinds of coffee here,
different lots from all
kinds of coffee countries.
And we just wanted to show
that you don't need syrups or all that,
you just need different beans,
different roast profiles
to get an awesome cup
of coffee and to have
something exciting in the cup.
Then take that package
and make it approachable to anyone,
that they can find their
way towards quality.
If somebody walks into the door,
they made the decision not
to go to the supermarket
and buy a cheap coffee.
So we have to give them something,
and that something should be really
a nice customer service.
Usually people are overwhelmed
when they walk in the store
and like, you have so many
different kinds of coffee,
which one's the right one for me?
And that's actually what we want.
We want that conversation
with our customers
that we can find out
okay, what do you like,
where are you taste-wise?
And then we can help
him to find his coffee.
What we said is, whenever a human person
can make the product
better, we do it by hand.
So if it's better to roast coffee by hand,
we'll roast it by hand.
If there could be a system
that guarantees a better
quality in, for instance,
like the storage room, we want to do that.
If there's anything that
can help us to get better,
we want to apply that and
learn from the big guys,
but do it in a smaller
scale and a higher quality.
That's why quality control
is super important.
That's why every roast that we do,
we check in our tiny lab.
And I want our customers to be sure
that if something is not going right,
it's not the coffee.
So what we had to learn over the years,
you have to first set up a network,
and it has to be a network of trust and
it has to be transparent.
It takes a while to set something up.
You cannot really start with
doing 100% direct trade.
It depends on what you
think that direct trade is.
For us, after 13, 14 years
of having the roastery now,
we cannot do 100% direct trade.
We could, but then we
would have less diversity.
For me, I can only call
it direct if I really,
if I pay the money to him,
or if I can talk to him
and know exactly how much is he getting.
And it's okay if somebody
who helps us with logistics gets a fee,
that's perfectly fine
'cause he's doing a job,
but I want to know how
much the farmer is getting.
The second part to that direct trade,
what we found out is
that very often the farms
that produce great
coffees, they are families,
and we, ourself, we are a family.
And if you do business with that mindset
that you want to have something stable
that will also be good
for the next generation,
you have a different approach as somebody
who just wants to make money fast.
This one back here, Sitio Baixadao.
They're such a nice family,
super humble, great people.
We've been visiting their farm many times.
They won Cup of Excellence twice in a row,
first place with the highest score ever.
If somebody creates a great coffee
and puts in all the effort
to really get a perfect cup of coffee,
then I'm happy to pay more money for that.
Then I can also sell it better,
and that's the approach.
If I have a great coffee,
it's easier to sell.
If it's from a nice
family that has a story,
that's what customers like.
And that's our approach
on how we buy coffee.
The nice thing about
growing in specialty coffee,
as you grow, growing's not bad,
you have a bigger impact on the farmers.
If I'm able to buy more specialty coffee,
and not just picking little lots,
I still pick little lots,
because I love little lots,
but I can also buy some
volume from the farmers
and that way it gives them
stability in their lives
and quality by that.
That empowers them to be
more creative and to do more.
(gentle music)
We've been traveling to
Origin for many years now,
and we've seen many farms
and many approaches.
And as a roaster,
you don't want to tell
a farmer what to do,
'cause it's their farm, they've
been doing it for years.
But sometimes you have to
just feel and be like okay,
it would be really nice in that area
to plant this or that kind of coffee.
Or to maybe if you're not
dependent on the volume,
you can focus on the detail
of growing great coffee.
So we had the opportunity to buy some land
in Costa Rica, the Tarrazu area,
and had the opportunity
through our friends
to get some nice seeds of some varieties.
The goal is just have
that from seed to cup
all in our hands, at one aspect,
and through that you can learn again.
(grinder buzzes)
The thing is,
with me and my dad or my family,
whenever kind of things
settle down and you're like
oh, it runs smoothly now,
somebody comes up with a
new project or a new idea,
and be like wouldn't it be great?
Like with Comandante or with the farm now.
Just striving for
something new, something that we can do.
In a way you could say
we're a bit restless,
but in a positive way,
and we try to take that energy and
do something great.
