Manhattan Coffee Roasters was established in Rotterdam in 2017. The name comes from the city’s maritime history, and in particular from the Holland America Line, which once linked Rotterdam with New York: locally the city is still known as “Manhattan aan de Maas”. The Rotterdam roastery is a production site, without a shop or café.

The founder, Esther Maasdam, leads the roaster’s community work and has run events and projects at origin and with partners. She won the Dutch Latte Art Championship four times between 2011 and 2014, placed fifth at the 2013 World Latte Art Championship, won the Dutch Cup Tasters Championship in 2017 and finished second at the Dutch Barista Championship in 2023. She is also an advocate for women in the coffee industry. The team has more than 60 years of combined experience in coffee.

The roaster works closely with producers and traders under a simple philosophy, “to source smarter and roast better”, with flavour and provenance first and ethics and sustainability taken as a given. The coffees are sold in tiers named Specialty, Rare, Exceptional and World Class, and many come in both an espresso and a filter roast. In 2026 the range took in its first Indian coffee, a yeast-fermented washed lot from Gundikhan Estate in Karnataka. Manhattan prefers its coffees rested for two to three weeks and brewed with water of 80 to 100 ppm.

Manhattan runs public cuppings, such as one at the Rotterdam Coffee Festival, and joins shared projects with other roasters: in 2026 it roasted tasting kits for a fermentation project with more than 70 roasteries that ended in a live stream hosted by James Hoffmann, and it is one of 24 European roasters in “The Roses” filter coffee advent calendar.

Partner cafés

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Manhattan Coffee Roasters