Giraffe Coffee Roasters has roasted in Rotterdam since 2013. Its mission is a fair bridge between the coffee producer and the coffee drinker, and its slow, steady growth now lets it buy in larger volumes, which gives the farmers it works with a guaranteed, livable income over the long term. It buys through importers including Trabocca, Cofinet, Café Imports, 2Can Trades, Ocafi and Forest Coffee, whose Bayter brothers decaffeinated the Black Condor lot behind its Condor decaf. Head roaster Skip judged a regional competition in Nariño, Colombia, and bought the Finca Guayacam lot at the live auction that followed.

The range has two sides: blends for a consistent cup every day, among them Original, Pacific, Bela Vista, Latin America and an organic blend, and single origins chosen for their region, variety or process, most sold in separate espresso and filter roasts. Recent lots come from Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Colombia, Brazil and, new to the roastery, Bali. Giraffe also made a chocolate bar with its neighbours, the chocolate makers Heinde & Verre, using one of its coffees.

The Giraffe Coffee Bar & Academy in the city centre serves the house coffees, from espresso and cappuccino to fruity filter coffees, with a menu of JING teas. Its store sells the coffees for home with filter brewers, barista tools such as tampers, milk jugs and grinders, and JING tea, and dogs on a lead are welcome in the bar. The Giraffe Academy’s training room is in the basement, where it runs SCA Barista Skills, Brewing and Sensory courses, workshops in latte art, home espresso and filter coffee, and training for hospitality teams.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Giraffe Coffee Roasters