Rum Baba Coffee Roasters 

Rum Baba is a quality-driven coffee roastery based in Amsterdam, a city that’s becoming increasingly well known for its thriving speciality coffee scene.  

After exploring espresso bar culture from New Zealand all the way to African origins, Jereon and Lusan opened the doors to their first coffee bar with the aim of sharing their love for speciality coffee, origins and cup characteristics with their local neighbourhood. 

They combined their expertise and passion for coffee, began roasting their own ethically sourced beans as Rum Baba in 2018 and haven’t looked back since!

We value nothing more than high-quality and transparently sourced coffee here at Brew Box, so we’re delighted to partner with such an incredible brand for our February coffee subscription box. You can learn more about the people behind the brand below!

How did Rum Baba come to be? 

Rum Baba originated from a specialty coffee bar called 'Coffee Bru' here in Amsterdam, which my partner Lusan and I started 10 years ago. The whole idea was to get people in the local neighbourhood in touch with what we call now specialty coffee. 

Getting people interested in the origins and different characteristics of coffee - that was really the early stage of specialty coffee here in Amsterdam. 

From a so-called independent coffee bar as we called it at the time, we started roasting coffee ourselves and started up Rum Baba coffee roasters.  

We have always enjoyed the direct relation with our customers! It is great to be the link between the customers on one side (either wholesale partners or direct consumers) and the supply chain of growers/producers or export partners on the other side. 

Tell us something about yourself non-coffee related!

Lusan was a graphic designer in her former life - she always likes to draw and design new funny things. 

Outside of work we usually still talk and do food and tasting related stuff (that's something we really enjoy, but in doing so we usually end up talking about coffee and the business again..!)

We have three kids growing up, one is getting towards a teenager and the youngest is a girl growing up with two big brothers. It is great fun.

What's the biggest learning you've taken away from 2020?

Be creative and appreciate what we have. 

As a roastery with a relatively good focus on the consumer market with several local shops/take-out locations established, we were lucky to be able to adapt to the new situation in a relatively successful way. Some of our Cafe partners and colleague roasters in business did experience a more tougher situation to adapt to. 

BEST coffee you ever had… Where? 

During the early times of Rum Baba coffee roasters, we visited Kopenhagen for a coffee and food 'crawl'. A cappuccino drink at the Coffee Collective really set my idea of how I like a cappuccino to be. 

I often still refer to this cup profile when talking to our baristas! The level of intensity of the coffee, sweetness and character of the espresso within the milk.

In person, I mainly enjoy drinking black coffee. But from a roasting and brewing perspective, a moderate milk drink like the cappuccino which counts for 70% of average cafe sales in The Netherlands takes my interest.

What do you want to change most about the coffee industry?

As an industry, I would say more transparency on how coffee trade is taking place, creating more awareness and understanding among consumers. 

Favourite food item to pair with an espresso drink… What ya having?

A grand old classic, the chocolate & vanilla marble cake!

If you want a bag of Rum Baba coffee beans delivered straight to your doorstep in February, simply visit our subscription page and purchase 2 bags or more before the 31st January 2021! 

Any questions? Feel free to contact us at info@brewbox-coffee.com. 

We're always happy to help!

Team BB x