The following is an excerpt from our report Collaborative Coffee Source, Living Our Values 2017.
Core to our way of doing business is building long-term relationships with producers and roasters, and between producers and roasters. Here are a few of our cherished roasters who share in this mission.
Sidney Kao tries the fruit of a Gesha coffee cherry for the first time.
Robert Kao (Sweet Beans)
Sidney Kao, owner of Robert Kao (named after his father), was one of CCS’ very first customers, certainly our first in East Asia, and since the beginning he has
been one of our most ardent and loyal supporters. We were first introduced by
Pèi-Yuan Hsu, a mutual Taiwanese friend who lived in Oslo. Sid immediately
understood our mission to develop long-term partnerships with producers,
and he has remained faithful to many of the producers of the coffees he first
purchased five years ago.
Sid is a pioneer and leading coffee professional in Taiwan, and a true
coffee craftsman (though he would feel deeply embarrassed to read this). His
meticulousness and passion in both roasting and brewing coffee is unmatched.
To have Sid prepare you a syphon brew is quite simply to experience coffee
magic.
Belleville Brûlerie
Thomas Lehoux and David Flynn co-founded Belleville Brûlerie in 2013, after
a frustrated search for roasted coffee that met their needs. Paris is an
espresso-loving city but Thomas and David wanted to provide Paris coffee
drinkers with great coffees that expressed their best selves in every
preparation.
Belleville’s roasting and brewing philosophy is to keep things simple: use high
quality green coffee and roast it in such a way that highlights sweetness and
lets the coffee’s best characteristics shine. To this end, Belleville doesn’t
push its customers to adopt varied or complicated brew methods.
Parlor Coffee Roasters
In true Brooklyn style, Parlor Coffee Roasters began as an espresso bar in the back of a barbershop. Today it is one of Brooklyn’s most iconic coffee roasters. We
were introduced to Parlor’s founder, Dillon Edwards, by David Stallings, CCS’
former Director of Purchasing and Parlor’s first Director of Coffee. David met
Robert (CCS’ co-founder) at the Pulley Collective, a shared roasting facility
in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Dillon joined us for the CCS Acevedo Cup 2018, and was greeted by the producers as an old friend. In fact, it was his fourth trip to the region in just two years.
His genuine joy at seeing these producers again, and the great respect he shows for their work, is why Dillon and Parlor are amongst our most treasured roasters. Dillon clearly share CCS’ vision that coffee sourcing is about finding beautiful coffees from cherished producers.
Download the full report The following is an excerpt from our report Collaborative Coffee Source, Living Our Values 2017.