Heilige Boontjes was started in 2015 by Marco den Dunnen, a police chief inspector and educator, and Rodney van den Hengel, a reintegration specialist, to help young Rotterdammers who have got stuck find their place again. Everyone who works in the business is one of these young people, and the business has helped more than 400 of them. The coffee is bought from farmers at a fair price.

The grand café is in Bureau Eendracht, a police station that opened in 1932 and stood empty when the police left in 2015. Rodney and Marco opened the café there in 2016, and where suspects were once questioned it now serves specialty coffee, breakfast, fresh lunches, cakes, special beers and cocktails, with a terrace on the square. The team roasts and pours its own coffee and cooks its own food. The coffee list runs from espresso, cortado and flat white to two filter coffees, Bakkie Pleur and Bakkie Roffa, the second topped with a double espresso. The café also hosts meetings and inspiration sessions.

Heilige Boontjes sells its coffee online for homes and offices, and it is also on the shelves at Jumbo supermarkets. The range includes Blend 010, The Blend #1 and Cascavel Verde, a coffee from Brazil.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Heilige Boontjes