Vandekerckhove has roasted coffee in Ghent since 1854, and the family is now in its fifth generation. Louis roasts the coffee himself in 22-kilo drums, playing manouche tunes on his guitar while he works. “Niet doen” (“don’t”), his father told him when he joined the business. Louis brought in barista Anna, and the family shop in the city centre became a bar. The roastery is elsewhere in the city, and a young team of roasters and baristas now runs the house.

For years Vandekerckhove has roasted only organic and Fair Trade coffee, an approach it credits to Matthieu Ricard, the monk and French translator of the Dalai Lama. The range runs from single origins to house blends. The Ethiopian lots come from Guji and Yirgacheffe, and there are coffees from Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Rwanda and Java, a Mountain Water decaf from Chiapas, and the Yellow Catuai of the Dutra family’s farms in Minas Gerais. The blends include Melange Rimbaud, Louis’ top blend since 2005, and Les Yeux Noirs, a very dark old-school Italian blend with Indian robusta. The coffees can be ground to order for anything from ibrik and espresso to cold brew.

Tea has its own shelf, with white, green, oolong, black, pu-erh, rooibos and matcha, and its packaging carries Oscar Wilde, a tea lover born in the same year the roastery was founded. The shop sells Hario, Chemex, AeroPress and Able Brewing equipment as their official distributor, and the roastery supplies restaurants, cafés, shops and offices, with barista training for its professional customers.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Koffiebranderij Vandekerckhove