I’m proud to say that after a lengthy postponement due to the global Corona Crisis, I’ve decided to participate in the next year’s Dutch Brewers Cup 2022!
I’m teaming up with a colleague in coffee, Dave from hetkoffieverbond.nl, who’s not only an accomplished coffee brewer but also roasts his own beans and works as a Cup Taster on quality control at a larger coffee roaster. We will both compete although in different categories! I’m very excited to both work with him and learn so much more about brewing coffee, beans, roasts and how to win competitions 😉
I also miss working with coffee. While I’ve spent my time useful and succeeded in making excellent coffee at home while working from home, it feels good to be amongst coffee fetishists in the near future and having the smell of fresh roasted coffee in the neighborhood.
Funny, it was a 104 weeks ago (exactly 2 years) that I was present at the preliminaries of the Dutch Brewers Cup 2019 so gain insight into the competition, meet some people and familiarize myself with it. But it seems much sooner.
Roasting coffee beans is easy. You just need a metal pan and fire.
Roasting coffee beans well is slightly harder. You need to pay close attention.
Roasting coffee beans excellently and consistently is both art, talent and science. It requires great skills and experience.
When you roast the coffee beans, the Maillard reaction creates a multitude of chemical compounds from around 145 C and caramelizes sugars present in the bean.
Roasting specialty coffee beans is on another level because they are of higher quality and you are trying to highlight, enhance or bring out certain flavors and tones that make that particular (micro)lot or harvest shine. Do it once and that’s luck. Do it twice and you are good! Do it more than twice and you are a true artist.
In light of celebrating those true coffee artisans and artists out there, here is my highly subjective list of the best coffee bean roasters in the Netherlands:
In alphabetical order:
Black and Bloom, Groningen
Boot Koffie, Baarn
Capriole, Den Haag
Giraffe Coffee Roasters, Rotterdam
Lot61, Amsterdam
Man met bril, Rotterdam
Manhattan Coffee Roasters, Rotterdam
Nordkapp Coffee, Utrecht
Single Estate, Den Haag
Why are they the best? Because they procure excellent beans and are able to create a roast profile that brings out the best of the bean.
They make great every day blends that are always outstanding, but also produce time-limited special editions of simply brilliant and out-of-this-world (micro)lots from somewhere special that just blow your mind.
Drinking those is more like enjoying a fabulous bottle of wine than drinking coffee…
So I decided that this valuable guide to the best coffee beans in the Netherlands needed to be updated!
Christian, January 2024
What are the best coffee beans in the Netherlands? Well, that depends a little on personal taste and favorites, but I can tell you who roast amazing coffee beans in the Netherlands and sell their coffee online!
Traditionally, there are a handful established coffee roasters in the Netherlands who have been producing specialty coffee since it wasn’t called specialtycoffee. These are oldskool roasters who’ve always been on the lookout for great green beans, source great coffee farmers and who know how to source these beans and treat them well. In my opinion, these are:
Capriole Coffee Service, Den Haag (1975) capriole.nl
However, the whole third wave coffee movement have sparked a bunch of great newcomers with new routes, difference sources, smaller batches and that great newcomer creativity and curiosity. They get beans that are “off the beaten path”, if you will, or from non-traditional coffee producing countries.
More recently, since roughly 2010, coffee farmers are experimenting with added fermentation of beans before drying them. This creates a whole range of funky flavors.
Some are pretty large scale roasters already, roasting dozens kilos of coffee every single day to keep production and delivery going. But others are small, artisan roasters, roasting green coffee beans to order once or twice a week.
I’ve had excellent coffee beans from all of these sources, but three that stand out for me and who’s taste I can still recall are:
Fabulous lush sweet yellow fruit tones combined with a medium to full body coffee, just enough bitters and everlasting flavors. And the smell when you brew is intoxicating!
Super tasty creamy coffee with red fruit tones and a full body. But the peculiarity is the thick fermented “wine-like” notes you smell when you open the package.
What’s the best coffee I’ve had from a non-Dutch source, you ask?
Amavida Coffee! ❤ Price was high but the rewards were too!
But don’t take my word for it! Check (the sadly discontinued) “Koffie Top 100” from 2018, which ranked the 100 best places to drink coffee in the Netherlands, and a find a place near you that excels in making coffee. Ranking was made by a professional coffee jury and each venue was visited at least 2x to see if they were consistent. Very impressive list, even today.
For a more recent assessment of coffee in the Netherlands, check the fantastic site koffietje.nl by the always lovely Sam. She brings a personal note to all the coffees she tries. If she likes it, you know it’s good. But if it’s great depends on you!
Update May 2022: Added Blommers to the list after tasting their excellent beans during the Dutch Brewers Cup finals in March 2022 at the Amsterdam Coffee Festival (ACF).
Update Jan 2024: Added Uncommon Amsterdam, Little Roastery and (how could I forget?) the Village Coffee. Small typos corrected and added note about fermentation of beans. Mentioned koffietje.nl. Replaced koffie top 100 link. Boon has closed.
Proud to announce a cooperation between No Pressure Coffee and the new food corner inside the Market Garden supermarket: Double Dutch.
The Double Dutch Café, also known as the Market (Garden) Café, serves breakfast and lunch with a variety of ready-to-eat products ranging from fresh fruit and vegetable juices or smoothies, to espresso, Cappuccino and Cortado, iced coffees, to sandwiches, overnight oats, fruit salads, rotisserie chicken, sushi homemade soups and Johnny Cakes baked fresh all day long.
No Pressure Coffee provided consulting on the coffee corner in the cafe. Where to place.the espresso machine, which grinders would work for the expected volume, which beans to use, calibration of the machinery and the coffee recipes. 4 local employees where chosen to get elementary training to make the top 3 key popular coffee drinks: espresso, cappuccino and latte. Work book with guides and rules were established fitting for a coffee shop that aims for establishing specialty coffee on the island of St Maarten.
The cafe is competitively priced and features an outside seating area. The new food corner complements the already well-known breakfast and lunch buffets of the supermarket. The Double Dutch food corner also serves the hotel guests who are staying in the Commodore Suites, so there is a steady flow of people and products.
The final layout of the food area inside the supermarket is not yet established so expect to see some changes throughout the year until we settle in what works the best.
Expect more choices among the favorite dishes from around the world in a mix of international foods and snacks.
No Pressure Coffee 