Na water and tea, coffee is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. But coffee is like wine; there is infinite quality in terms of coffee beans, in terms of how they are roasted, ground and blended. Coffee lover Jop Bröcker (42) only roasts Brute Beans in his roastery; these not only make for the tastiest coffee, but also for sustainably produced coffee. 

Bröcker's roastery began at the kitchen table ​with​ a friend from whom he had bought an espresso machine. "When I drank coffee at his place, it always tasted top-notch. At home, I never managed to match that taste and that's despite buying the most expensive beans from the supermarket." It was because of the beans, they were not freshly roasted, was his friend's advice. "A few days later he came by with a bag of fresh beans, roasted by himself, and he put a fantastic, syrupy espresso in front of me. 'Wow, those are brutal beans!', I exclaimed."  

The two then started a successful business sending freshly roasted beans through the post every week​t​ to consumers and businesses, as well as catering establishments, such as Papermoon in Voorburg, Café Soof in the Nutshuis and the coffee bar of the National Archives. But Bröcker had more ambitions. "I thought to myself: what if I am 65 later and then look back on my working life, will I be happy with the idea that all I did was push coffee through letterboxes? Have I done something with the impact then?" An article in the FD about how 'agroforestry', forest agriculture, is revitalising deforested areas, was the spark for Bröcker to start looking for not only the best beans, but also the most sustainably produced ones. 

Hanging in the Brute Beans Espresso Bar are metre-high tropical plants, including real coffee plants.

Swinging monkeys

But what is unsustainable about coffee? Most coffee plants in major coffee-producing countries like Vietnam and Brazil are grown as so-called monocultures. This involves always growing the same crop on the same piece of land. The disadvantage of such monoculture is that the soil is quickly depleted if it is not fertilised, and plant diseases can spread more quickly, resulting in the use of many more pesticides.

It is much more sustainable to let nature take its own course and grow coffee in the shade of other trees and crops that all make their own contribution to the soil. This happens a lot in India, Bröcker discovered during his trip to coffee plantation Kerehuckloo Estate in the state of Karnataka, which grows its coffee plants in the middle of the forest. "I walked through the plantation and heard birds all around me, saw insects and monkeys swinging in the trees, and apart from coffee plants, cardamon and pepper were also grown here: here, biodiversity reigned supreme! Here, an ecosystem was simply maintained without fertiliser and without pesticides."  

Roasting the beans is also done at Zodiac Square.

These beans from India now form the basis of the coffee blend sold by Bröcker. Together with beans from smaller forest agriculture plantations in Bolivia and Guatemala, a perfect balance has been created. "The roasting process has a hint of magic around it, you want to bring out as much flavour as possible from a specific bean so that a balanced blend is created. It's like cooking. For instance, you notice that if you heat the beans from India slowly in the roasting process, you get a nice spicy flavour. The beans from Guatemala you process more like a steak; you roast these briefly and at a high temperature." 

Espresso bar

In June, Bröcker opened Brute Beans Espresso Bar at Zodiac Square on Binckeiland. It is where his beans are roasted, but also a place to impart the story behind them to guests. There are photos of the plantation in India and metre-high tropical plants, including real coffee plants. The bar also lends itself well to tours and barista workshops. "I see it a bit like Brute Beans' flagship store. This is where it all happens: the roasting and packaging of the beans, but the story is also told here and, of course, you can taste the coffee here. My goal is to ​​enticing people to eat and drink as plant-based as possible. Sustainable choice does not necessarily mean not liking something, but rather how delicious something can be that is produced in a sustainable way." 

Beans from India take on a nice spicy flavour in the roasting process.

Chocolate

In Bolivia, too, forest agriculture is - thankfully - on the rise again. Another interesting bean that also grows among the coffee plants here is the Criollo cocoa bean, one of Bröcker's latest loves. This cocoa variety is quite fragile and produces relatively ​small​ beans compared to other varieties

Criollo bean

The big advantage, though, is that the Criollo bean has a much more complex and delicate flavour profile. Reason enough for Bröcker to produce its own chocolate with this very bean: Brute chocolate, which is also for sale in the coffee bar and online for the business market. "We import these refined beans and ​then process them at our sister company at The New Farm in The Hague using traditional methods​. Most people who taste this chocolate for the first time ask me if it doesn't have raspberry or some other flavour added to it, that's how fruity the taste is." 

Jop Bröcker (right) during a working visit to India.

How Jop Bröcker would prefer to look back on his life when he is 65? "Then I hope that the coffee industry has changed and that consumers have come to understand that they have a choice, that they no longer close their eyes to poorly produced coffee from Brazil and know where really good coffee comes from." Not for not​s​ it says on the back of the T-shirts of the staff in the espresso bar: 'Now you know​...​'. That message is clear. 

 www.brutebonen.nl