news & stories

goes to Long Miles Coffee's solar cell project in Burundi

Christmas. Besides crack, Donald Duck, seven kinds of herring and Silent Night, Christmas is a lot about caring. An opportunity to stop in the middle of the mess and think a little extra about our fellow human beings - both those close to us and those we may not even know. 

From all of us to a coffee producer

We, Johan & Nyström, also usually take the opportunity to give a little extra like this at Christmas time. Several of our coffee producers, with whom we have long and close relationships, operate in countries and areas that have to struggle in a different way than most of us here in the Nordics have to do. Being able to contribute a little extra together with you, our customers and coffee enthusiasts, therefore feels very good!

The coffee berries are sorted in the evening

The coffee growers in Burundi work all day picking coffee berries on their farms. When evening comes, they take the day's harvest to the Long Miles washing station where the berries are to be sorted, washed and then dried. By this time it has gotten dark and lighting is needed at the sorting tables so they can see which berries are of the right quality and which need to be removed. This process of course requires electricity! So do water pumps and other machines, such as those that separate the beans from the pulp.

Electricity - a scarce commodity

Today, diesel generators are used to get electricity, and since it is difficult to get hold of fuel, operation becomes very unreliable. The fuel is also expensive and environmentally unsustainable!

Solar cells - a way forward!

Together with Long Miles, we have started a project where we will build solar cells on the roof of the washing station. Thanks to the energy the sun can then generate, operation will be both more stable and cheaper. And at the same time better for the environment!

SEK 20 per kilo of Christmas coffee sold goes to the project

For us at Johan & Nyström, the coffee producers are the most important we have and it feels great to be able to give a little extra this Christmas. And the best thing of all is that you also join in and contribute! The more Christmas coffee we sell in 2022 the closer the Long Miles Coffee Project in Burundi gets bright, sustainable evenings.

 

The first roast in June 2017 marked the start of our new roastery in County, south of Stockholm, which has been made custom-built coffee roasting process also house our green coffee storage,

Subtitles by Anders Boajé

The dream of building the most modern speciality coffee roastery in Europe was more than a ladold once it was finally.., as we started dreaming of this quite soon after Johan & Nyström was started back in 2004. Our first roastery, the inin Tullinge south of Stockholm, started out small with a tiny room for a small roaster, a hand-packing station, and a desk for admin work. With the rapid growth of Johan & Nyström and our speciality coffee revolution, we're curious account to! There was lots of charm, the word, clearance and the "thermal events" (a.k.a. fires).

Soon enough, we know that the old factory building had its physical limitations and that our dreams were much more. So, we started planning for building the roastery that would define Johan & Nyström for this and coming generations of coffee lovers, big words but in our but in our view, this was the only roastery dream worth dreaming.

Our Head of Production Joakim Ahlund has actually been the whole roastery process, in MS Paint.

After many years of planning, we could finally start building Europe's most modern speciality coffee roastery in 2016 and completed the task by mid-2017. The ambition was not only to move our production and team to a new facility, but to enable an immediate immediate doubling of coffee-ing since we had been given the ' s for all of Espresso House's coffee, I some 1 million-500 cafés, and to prepare the roastery for doubling these combined s many times over in the coming years and I am.

As a deal, we want the roastery to be an open and I place that, the teamwork that is essential for speciality coffee with a strong connection to our accession to our deposit in origins across the world.

• Full Next Full With every new roast batch : every 12 minutes a roast batch is completed and a new one starts, for which we have full blocks to blend green beans before or after roasting, send beans to any roaster, use the grinder or bypass for whole beans, and send any batch to any of our packaging machines. This fully-fully-filled for every batch and that's to always roast the coffee on orders and freshly roasted coffee.

• Full, full, of every coffee bean's journey : with our transport systems we have, all manual document steps while also the 'lots of checkpoints with data capture along the way so that we can trace any green coffees and roast batches in' in minute detail.

• Full transparency along the roasting process : all the more can follow the roasting process and interact with the production staff, there are no hidden steps.

For a Inquisitor, we want you to feel The roastery has the daily life from customers, partners, coffees and coffee-interested people. Some come for the experience, some to be 'on espresso', some come to coffee blends and some to help us develop further-but all should leave with fond roastery, tasted great coffee and met some truly passionate coffers.

Text: Jonas Hult

It goes without saying that the past year has been very challenging, to say the least. For us at Johan & Nyström, restrictions and regulations have led to a drop in sales and volume together with many uncertainties about what’s laying ahead. However, that’s nothing compared to the uncertainties that coffee producers have been facing this year. Some of the challenges they have been facing and questions that they have been asking themselves are; Will the buyers/roasters even be there after the pandemic is over? Will they own up to their contract or will they default? If they are, will the coffee get shipped in time?

This past year we’ve seen massive disruptions in the logistical chain, which is crucial for coffee. Lack of containers, congestions in ports, not enough vessels, higher shipping costs all happening at the same time, in some sort of “perfect logistical storm”. Even if producers get the coffee out, what about next year? What necessary investments can be made in the farm? What investments can be postponed? Are they forced to sell the coffee to the lowest bidder at a loss to simply cover our losses the best they can?

As said earlier, we’ve seen a drop in sales compare to previous years. Obviously, that leads to less coffee being used and subsequently, less coffee that can be bought from producers. This year, it was especially three producers that were facing lower volumes from us at Johan & Nyström. When working with producers for more than 10 years, giving that sort of news basically makes you feel like the worst person in the world. Needless to say, you try your hardest to come up with a solution to at least ease the blow.

Together with the producers, we tried to find the best way going forward. Surely, us buying as much coffee that we could this year was a given. However, no one benefits from us over stocking on coffee. A big problem for many producers is access to finance, and often (ridiculously) high interest rates. Over 15% isn’t unusual, given the lack of collateral. A signed contract can act as such. That’s why, the second step was extending the length of the contract, to reach into 2023 and 2024.

The third thing was to pre-finance part of next year’s purchase. Meaning that we pay the producers now, for something that we will receive in 12-14 months. I.e., we’re paying for coffee that doesn’t even exist yet.

On a personal note, I’m very proud that we were able to do this, in the middle of a pandemic given the risks that comes with it, as well as the strain it puts on our liquidity in times when basically all other investments are at a stop. I also realize that this might seem like a big pad on the back for ourselves. In part, that’s true. Because I think it’s important for everyone working at Johan & Nyström to feel proud of what we’re doing. However, this is also a big pad on the back for all of you who’s buying our coffee. Without your support, it’s impossible for us to support the producers. So, a socially distanced toast to you!

How do you pack one of the world's most expensive coffee in a way that clearly conveys the exceptional quality? In connection with today's very limited release of Los Lajones Geisha from Panama, we also launch a brand new design that does just that. Curious about the creative process and the way there? Read more here.