Spicekix started as a roaster supplying large companies. When the pandemic kept coffee drinkers at home, it began selling freshly roasted coffee directly to drinkers, and the business changed from a roaster into a coffee lab “where flavor, community, and innovation come together”. It sources its beans through direct collaborations with farmers and their washing stations, and it supplies specialty cafés as well.

The roasting follows three lines. The ultra-light roasts are meant to bring out the flavour of the bean without the burnt taste of roasting, for filter or for espresso, with single origins from Ethiopia, Colombia and Brazil. The medium roasts, from Nicaragua, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda among others, are roasted for fully automatic machines. The spiced coffees, Café d’Olla and Maghrebia, put coffee and spices together. Fazenda California, a double-fermented washed coffee from Brazil, is the lab’s go-to coffee.

The Coffee Lab in Kralingen works to a set of house rules, the Spicekix Protocol. Each drink is served as designed, and alternative milks are available. Phone speakers stay off and laptops stay closed outside the laptop area, every adult guest orders a drink, and outside food and drink are not allowed inside or on the terrace. Spicekix also runs corporate events and offers consulting.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Spicekix Coffee Lab