About Pikola
Can you introduce your roastery in a couple of sentences?
The roastery was founded at the end of 2018, primarily for the needs of our cafe Pikola in Šumperk. In the beginning, we created a completely new and parallel brand for it- Kafe Jesen, with the intention that it would run independently. However, certain circumstances and time restraints forced us to merge the two under one brand- Pikola. We always roast only a few batches at a time in order to have the capacity to fully understand each and every one of them.
What's the story behind your logo?
Pikola was originally a coffee shop of 6m squared with only 10 seats. Gradually, we started expanding our operations by including a kitchen, a bakery, and our most recent addition has been a speciality coffee roastery. It's been our dream since the start to have our own roastery, but we had to take it to step by step to save up for it.
What's the most difficult thing about running a roastery?
The hardest part is sourcing great coffee and maintaining consistency in your final products.
What's one thing that people still don't get about coffee?
That it never can and never does taste the same.
What's one thing you would like to do differently if you could start all over again?
Find a bigger location. One that's not in the city centre.
Who's someone in the coffee world that everyone should know about?
Tim Wendelboe.
What has been your biggest failure?
The first pallet of green coffee beans that we ever bought.
What's your proudest moment?
That we have found a fantastic supplier of green beans that's transparent in their processes and understands our needs.
What is the speciality coffee market going to look like in 2025?
Hard to say... when I heard an interview with Heleanna Georgalis about the draughts and current situation in Ethiopia, it got me concerned about whether there's going to be any coffee at all. But I do hope that there will be greater emphasis on better conditions throughout the whole coffee production chain.
Tell us something about your "THE Cup"- the best cup of coffee you've ever had?
It would probably have to be the cup of Honduras origin, natural geisha Caballero filter coffee from Tim Wendelboe that I had alone on a bench in front of his espresso bar in Oslo. It was an explosion of aromas, fruity-jasmine tea.
