We are specially pleased when someone from the club contacts us about a roastery they would like to see in a future coffee box. Which brings us to the next roastery - Doubleshot from Prague. Which we probably never would have found without Klaus, one of our subscribers recommending them. If you have any roastery you would like to see in an upcoming box, feel free to contact us.
Hi Yara!
How and when did doubleshot start?
We started doubleshot with my girlfriend and a friend in 2010 after living for a year in Boquete, Panama and Chalatenango, El Salvador, where we worked with Graciano Cruz on several coffee projects. Our partner was roasting for the 49th Parallel in Vancouver at that time.
Nice team play! Where did you guys get the interest in coffee in the first place and what made you go and work at the origins?
We already worked together before for a first specialty coffee roastery here in Prague. After few years we needed a change and decided to spend some time at origin. We chose Panama because of Graciano who was super cool and basically invited us (after meeting us for few minutes at some SCA show) to stay with him in Boquete and help him with his two farms.
How do you source your green beans and how did you start with direct trade?
We met several other people from producing countries while living abroad and basically started roasting their coffee from the very beginning. Thus we have a more than 10 year old relationship with several producers. When we lived in Boquete we met many other coffee people who later helped us create contacts within the coffee world. We were also part of launching a new coffee company with Graciano and Willem Boot called HiU Coffee. Obviously attending coffee trade shows with these two rockstars allowed us to meet many interesting farmers, roasters etc. At that time, around 2010, buying great coffee was all about contacts. Nowadays it is very different. We started with few coffees only, mostly from Latin America. Logistics was the key issue since we had no volumes.
How often are you visiting the farms and what is the most rewarding thing to do so?
We try to visit all our partners every year. Covid changed this routine quite a bit but we feel its important to do so. Not only to be able to cup through the new crop samples but also show that we care and keep in touch. Nowadays, its basically three people from our company travelling to origin to buy green coffee. We also try to send our baristas to origin to learn a bit more about coffee from the other side. We have a really great program going on with Bella Vista in Antigua Guatemala, where baristas can work in a coffee shop and spend some time at the mill and farms. We do similar thing in Costa Rica with Exclusive Coffees and Caravela in Colombia. Few years ago, Fernanda Calderon from Los Angeles Micromill showed up in Prague for one month and worked at our shops. She helped one of our baristas to prepare for WBC, since he was using her coffee. That was really cool.
How is Doubleshot structured today?
We have a roasting facility on the outskirts of Prague, roast on Probat UG22, we own 3 coffee shops downtown Prague, bakery and pastry shop, and a training center. Currently we sell coffee to 250+ shops around Central Europe.
We heard your Probat is from 1957 - How is it to roast on such a rare authentic roaster and where did you find it?
There is not much left from 1957 but yes, it was built at that time. We had it refurbished by Giesen in 2010 who sold it to us. Then we added ourselves a new electronically controlled burner and lots of other stuff. Its a great and reliable machine to roast on. But hopefully soon it will be time to add another machine.
So you guys have your own training center where both professionals and home brewers can shape up their coffee knowledge - That is cool! What was your goal with creating this kind of facility?
Mainly it is meant to be a place for our wholesale customers to learn about coffee. We have a dedicated barista trainer, Tereza, former Czech barista champ who competed at WBC London and now is our SCA AST who teaches all courses. We do SCA certifications as well but more and more its about common coffee enthusiasts who come to attend a 3-hour evening workshops focused on filter or espresso brewing.
Doubleshot has done a lot since 2010, what are you guys most proud of so far?
Long term relationships with the farmers and also long term employees in the company. Some of them have been with us from the very beginning which is not usual in coffee business.
What is your vision with Doubleshot in the near future?
We have just finished reconstrucing our oldes coffee shop and have a new one in the pipeline. We would like to focus more on B2B and B2C sales around Europe through our eshop as well as improve our subscription program. Very soon we will be launching three editions of specialty coffee capsules, together with the awesome Morning machine. And hopefuly we will start building a new roasting facility soon as well.
Can you tell us some more about Carlos and his farm Finca Buenavista and this lovely Caturra coffee?
Carlos Imbachi was one of our first relationships. We visited him in 2010 for the first time together with Giancarlo from Caravela and has been buying his coffee since. He separated his farm into several plots and gave it to his sons and daughter. So nowadays, we purchase various microlots from Ever Armando, Diego Fernando or Sonia Milena but we sell them under the Imbachi Family name. It is a classic Huila profile. Big juicy mouthfeel, lots of plums, lemongrass, tamarind, sometimes its really difficult not to mix it with a lower intensity Kenya coffee.
Anything you want to share about your view of coffee production in Colombia or your trips there?
To be frank, we have been buying basically all our coffee from Colombia in the last 11 years only from the Imbachi family. Not mentioning decaf from La Serrania. So our understanding of Colombian coffee is a bit limited. The amount of different flavour profiles in Colombia is stunning. As a roaster you could easily build your whole coffee selections from this one country. I hope we will have more time to explore it in the future.
Thank you Yara for your time and your beautiful coffees, we wish you all the luck with Doubleshot in the future!
Anything you like to say to the people drinking your coffee?
Thanks for the opportunity to showcase our work! Its not common for us to present our coffees to customers in Scandinavia.