White label coffee roastery

THE FOUNDATION OF THE WHITE LABEL COFFEE ROASTERY

The story of the roastery began a few years before it was founded. Its founders, Francesco Grassotti and Elmer Ommkense, met as colleagues at the Espressofabriek café and roastery. But in March 2014, they decided to go their own way and launch their own project. And so white label coffee was born.

Why the name white label coffee? White label symbolizes a blank paper that is always open to anything.

In recent years, they have also confirmed their quality in competitions. In 2015 it was at the Dutch AeroPress Championships and in 2019 they won the Roast Masterscompetition , which is part of the Amsterdam Coffee Festival. In this competition, both roasting and barista skills are shown. They roasted the coffee they competed with seven times before they got it to taste the way they wanted it to.

WHITE LABEL COFFEE SHOPS

White label coffee, however, is not just a roastery, but also several cafes. All the businesses can be found in Amsterdam, where the roastery is also based. Thereare three businesses in total, two cafés and one bistro.

A simple Scandinavian style prevails in the white label coffee businesses. The simplicity is also underlined by the design of the coffee packaging. The plain paper bag is complemented by a white paper with information and a simple paper clip. Source: whitelabelcoffee.nl

ROASTING PHILOSOPHY AND OBJECTIVES

Openness is at the heart of their philosophy , from their approach to guests, to wholesale partners, to coffee growers. They also pride themselves on developing a coffee scene without the rivalry with which they themselves founded the business. It is because of this that they believe the industry can move forward.

What is the goal of white label coffee? The most important thing, according to their owners, is the development of their coffee. They want to reach more people and show them what coffee can be. They want to develop their knowledge and experiments in collaboration with traders and farmers and do more research themselves.

WHITE LABEL COFFEE AND ROASTING

White label coffee started out like most roasters. That is, lighter roasted coffee for filter coffee and darker roasted coffee for espresso. But the choice of beans for both roasts was the same. However, after two years of running the roastery, during a cupping check, they came to the conclusion that the espresso coffees were simply too bitter and did not reach their flavour potential like the filter roast. So theywent in the direction of omni roasting. Using this style of roasting creates a suitable roast for the coffee itself, not for the method of preparation. In addition, they better develop the unique characteristics of coffee that are rooted in its origin, variety and processing method.

In the early days, when they couldn't afford their own roaster, they roasted their coffee at Espressofabriek. White label coffee caught on, however, and they were able to buy their own roaster. They started by trying different roasters from different brands, and eventually, as a Dutch roaster, they decided on the local roaster brand Giesen.