Company Visit Efico with cupping session

Laurent is Efico’s young and fanatic trade officer. He is following the Belgian and International coffee scene all the time. And so it happened a couple of times we met, drank some espressi and talked coffee of course. Today he invited me for a company visit with cupping session.

Efico is located in Antwerp and via the close by harbor, they import, since 1926 coffee beans from all over the world. From here on they trade the beans again to roasting and coffee company’s all over the world.

To give an idea about their volume and strength : in their enormous warehouse they stock a total of 150 000 bags of coffee beans!!! Knowing a regular bag weights between 60 and 70K ….
There was a lot of traffic going on at the warehouse. Small vans and big trucks driving on and off, all loaded with bags of beans. Yes, coffee is still the most popular beverage in the world.

When my Barista Bird and I walked into the cupping room, we couldn’t believe our eyes. The look of these cupping tables is pretty cool. A roaster and cupping master were standing ready to offer us an unforgettable experience. And then the design …. all these small boxes stocked with beans, the old tables, the boiling kettles, the screening sets, the spoons ready for cupping …


On my demand they roasted us some organic beans, Peru, Guatemala, Columbia. Then a couple of Indonesians and the Monsooned Malabar with this fantastic yellow shine.
It's not easy to evaluate all these tastes if you are used to espresso, but once started i didn’t want to stop. After 10 minutes of slurping and spitting I was ready and ordered myself to keep the taste characteristics stored in my brain next to an open space for the espresso cupping tomorrow at Caffènation, if the roasting degree allows us to test it thoroughly.


To finish of we were able to meet Efico's co-owner Patrick Installé. He was enchanted about our intentions to inform people openly about the way we build our blends, bringing coffee with all it’s mystery’s and magic towards young and old via barista jams, the possibility of offering top class single origins in ‘ideal’ circumstances and the fact their new offices will be close by so we could meet up from time to time for a nice warm or iced cup of coffee.

It’s Efico’s deepest wish of helping us with all their knowledge to constantly reevaluate our blend and invite us therefore as often as necessary at the cupping table. Nice!

Thank you for this support Patrick and Laurent and all those other friendly and helpful people from Efico.

Website : www.efico.com