Lukas is a Cold Brew producer and lives in Klagenfurt (Austria), I met him on a coffee trip through Colombia.
1. What is it that links you to coffee? Why do you work with coffee?
Coffee has always interested me. As a child, my grandfather had a big coffee tree for many years, which stood under the apple tree in the garden in summer, and in his living room in winter. Pretty unusual for our latitudes. The tree also regularly bore fruit, which we picked, peeled, dried and then roasted together. Then I was allowed to taste some coffee. Later I spent a lot of time in Italy and loved the Italian espresso. By the time I got to know Specialty-Coffee and 3rd Wave Coffee while travelling through Australia and New Zealand, there was no stopping me…
2. What did you do before you worked with coffee?
Before I made coffee my profession, I studied sociology and global studies. I then founded 25 GRAMS, my cold brew company, as a spinoff from the university.
3. What is the most important thing about coffee for you? What is „good coffee“ for you?
Taste is definitely an important component. Although it is quite complex with coffee, because the flavor is created along the entire value chain.From the farmer to the plantation of a bean to the cup, there are countless steps and usually half a world journey that coffee makes. And many of these steps influence the taste. In this respect, transparency is extremely important to me. I prefer to know exactly where the coffee comes from, what’s inside and why it tastes the way it tastes, rather than having a coffee that just tastes great but you don’t know why. So for me it is the taste of the coffee combined with transparency that makes for a good coffee experience.
4. How do you drink your coffee (preferably)?
Well, as a Cold Brew producer, I really like Cold Brew. Through the cold extraction you often get more interesting tastes than with the hot preparation. But I like to drink almost every kind of coffee preparation. Filter in the V60 is on the program almost daily and a good espresso or flat white can always inspire me.
5. What do you think about fair trade?
That’s very important! The Origin Trip to Colombia especially showed me again how much effort is involved in growing and processing coffee, not to mention the transport, especially in impassable and remote regions. This is where I believe transparency helps, if you know exactly who puts in how much effort, you can reward them fairly. And this must go in both directions: the customer should know, for example, how much of his €3.6 cappuccino ends up at the farmer’s and vice versa, the farmer should also be given insight and a say in the pricing. Initiatives like the Red Ecolsierra in Santa Marta, for example, are already doing some things like this right.
6. Is there anything else you would like to add?
It was a great trip, it was very nice to meet you and as always it ended much too fast…
Learn more about Lukas and his delicious cold brew coffee: https://25grams.coffee/ or follow him on Facebook or Instagram: @25gramscoffee
