Bocca Coffee Espresso Bar, Amsterdam

Bocca, the pioneer of specialty coffee in the Netherlands, dates to 2001 and was the first specialty roaster in the country to manage the whole chain, from direct buying to roasting, packing and serving. It is a certified B Corp with a climate action plan, a human rights statement and a diversity plan, and launched the first True Price coffee in the Netherlands, verified by an independent agency. The roastery, training centre and office are in Dronten, in Flevoland.

Bocca’s founder, Menno, has worked in Guji in Ethiopia for thirteen years: with Haile Gebre, who returned to his family land there in 2001 and spread seedlings among his neighbours, and with Tesfaye Bekele of Suke Quto farm. The three of them put Guji coffee on the map, and the zone now has more than 45 washing stations. In Brazil the company buys from Adolfo Ferreira of Fazenda Passeio, near Alfenas in Minas Gerais, who chairs the Brazilian specialty coffee association.

The espresso bar in the canal belt is Bocca’s Amsterdam site and also its School of Coffee. The workshops run here: Espresso at Home, Creating Latte Art, Brewing at Home with V60 and Chemex, and a Coffee Tasting session, with advanced training for professionals on extraction, flavour, sustainability and latte art. The retail coffees are roasted daily, labelled with a roast level from light to dark and, for most of the range, recommended for both espresso and filter; two decafs use CO2 and steam processes. The current retail range is listed below with the roaster’s own tasting notes.