The Beans on Fire, Paris

The Beans on Fire is an artisan and collaborative roastery. Its shared roasting space, La Ruche, is a 350 m² atelier in Paris where more than thirty coffee projects roast their own coffees: coffee shops, start-ups, Paris restaurateurs and roasters. It counts ten years of existence, 33 active projects and fifty supported, and it also roasts to order for other brands, offers white-label coffees and green coffee, and hires out its quality-control laboratory for tastings and training. Andrés Hoyos-Gomez is president and Maria Hernandez managing director of the company behind it.

The Beans on Fire also runs a Qualiopi-certified training centre, with courses in green-coffee sourcing, roasting, extraction and the business side of a coffee project, taught on the production equipment, a 12 kg roaster and a La Marzocco Linea PB. It has trained more than 200 students, and one coffee in its range is roasted by those trainee roasters, each lot tasted and validated by the house.

Sourcing runs two ways: directly from the Aguacates community in Colombia, whose coffees it has imported every year for ten years, and through importing partners. Its own range is roasted in the atelier, and Benjamin Schwartz is the master roaster. Two coffees roasted by members of the collaborative community are sold separately under their own heading.

The three Beans coffee shops are Beans Gardette in the 11th, Beans Au Théâtre in the 10th and Beans Trois Frères in the 18th, and each is as different as its neighbourhood. The company also supplies offices and restaurants with coffee, automatic machines and maintenance.