COLD BREW à la Suisse

Long time no see - how are you, our dear supporters? We have fanstastic news: In time for the summer season we’ll open a coffee shop with a nice terrace in the heart of Basel. We’ll start in May and we already want to invite you for a delicious & directly traded cup of coffee - via our new crowdfunding project: https://wemakeit.com/projects/coffee-shop-at-gundeli

Thanks for supporting & sharing :) See you soon! Marie & Michael

Today, we finally reached the 100%. We: That means Michael and me – but even more, it means you :) Thank you. Tausend Dank. Merci infiniment.

For sure, we bought some more bottles and brewed some more brew than the ones that are ordered now. Just in case … So don’t be shy. There is still some Cold Brew to be drunken!

The preparations have started!

After three weeks of travelling all over Switzerland to meet you and make you taste our Cold Brew, we now head down the home stretch.

The preparations for the bottling of the now 534 Cold Brews have already started: We received the bottles last week, the labels and the boxes for the sixers today. And we organized some big industrial filters. Thanks to your support, we know that we will need them! As our apartment is too small, all this stuff is now stocked in the hallway of our building. Thank god we’ve got nice neighbors!

Good news

Over the weeks, we realized that even the bigger containers we bought to brew might not be big enough. Again, the crowdfunding campaign helped us. We met Mark, who is normally producing sirup and he offered us to use his mini bottling station that he uses to experiment on new drinks. That means: We can use a way bigger container – and as we fill the bottles in a more controlled environment than in our kitchen, the expected minimum shelf life might go up to 6 months. Well, anyway, we’re sure you will drink the bottles before that! :)

But first: We have to make it!

Almost finished – but we still need some support! Because if we don’t reach our goal … well, let’s not think about that :) «Yes, we can.» «Wir schaffen das.» Is there a french version? … But we cannot make it on our own! So please, don’t be shy. Tell all your friends about us.

We will brew today, bottle tomorrow, and hopefully send out on Monday!

That’s how we used to do it in the very beginning. Now the method is a little more sophisticated :). Still, the simple version gives you a very nice Cold Brew – if you take a very good coffee, for sure. Because it depends on the natural aromas your coffee’s got whether you get a good tasting Cold Brew or not. If you want to try it, we suggest you our café crème at www.directcoffee.net. Enjoy!

Each Bottle helps one child

Today we reached the 50 percent – which in total means 342 bottles of Cold Brew that you ordered upfront. This is a great feeling. Thank you!

But what makes us even happier: With these 342 bottles you, our wemakeit-supporters, COULD help 342 children in Ethiopia with a deworming treatment.

This COULD be a major step towards our goal to implement a deworming day at Bufeta Gibe School during our journey to Ethiopia in November. The children of the coffee farmers that grow your coffee go to this school.

Why deworming?

Why deworming? You may ask. Because intestinal worms are one of the main reasons for children in developing countries not to go to school. The small little pills are therefore a very efficient way to increase attendance in school – and to make success in school and later in life possible for thesechildren. Read more about this on our blog and in this article by the Poverty Action Lab at MIT.

We implement our projects only when we have the means to support all children of the Bufeta Gibe School. Which means we want to finance a deworming treatment for 1004 pupils and thus we want to sell 1004 coffee bags or Cold Brew bottles before we start with the project.

Before the wemakeit campaign 169 coffee lovers already supported the deworming project with their coffee deliveries. This means that thanks to you we COULD support 511 children – which is already more than half of the pupils at Bufeta Gibe school!

Why «COULD»?

I write «COULD» because it is not yet clear whether our wemakeit project will be successful.And if we do not reach the 100 percent or more, you will not get any bottles and the children will not get the deworming treatment. These are the rules of wemakeit.

That’s why we want to ask you to tell your family, your friends, and colleagues about us.Invite them to one of our Cold Brew tastings or write emails to those, that could be interested in Cold Brew and the social projects. Thank you :)

Eine kurze Geschichte des Cold Brew

Wenn wir die Leute bei unseren Kaffeeverkostungen in der Schweiz fragen ob sie jemals etwas von einem Getränk namens «Cold Brew» gehört haben, schütteln fast alle den Kopf. Die «neue» Art des Kaffeegenusses hat die Schweiz noch nicht erobert. Einige Zeitungen haben Artikel geschrieben, einige Kaffee-Nerd-Cafés bieten ihn an … aber obwohl selbst der Kaffeekettengigant Starbucks begonnen hat, Cold Brew in der Schweiz zu verkaufen, ist das Getränk den meisten Schweizern unbekannt.

Die Cold Brew Manie hat ihren Anfang vor etwa zehn Jahren in den USA. Einige direkt handelnde Kaffeeröster fanden eine Methode, die all die natürlichen Aromen ihres Spezialitätenkaffees hervorhebt – ohne die bitteren und sauren Stoffe herauszuspülen. Das Ergebnis ist ein milder, karamelliger Kaffee voller Aromen mit einem fast süssen Abgang. Eigentlich ist die Methode jahrhundertealt. Laut dem «Guardian» waren es die Japaner, die Kaffee erstmals lange in kaltem Wasser ruhen liessen – und das schon im 17. Jahrhundert. Auch heute noch trinken die Japaner den sogenannten Kyoto Kaffee, der eine Art kalter Filtertropf-Kaffee ist.

In den USA wurde der kaltgebraute Kaffee schnell zum Trend. Kurz nach dem ersten Auftauchen wurde er in Cafés im ganzen Land «on the rocks» serviert. Einige Brauer füllten ihren Cold Brew bald auch in Flaschen und Dosen ab. 2014 erreichte die Cold Brew Welle dann Grossbritannien und 2015 sprang schliesslich auch Starbucks auf den fahrenden Zug auf. Heute kann man schon die ersten Nachrufe auf den Trend lesen – während die Schweiz weiterschläft.

Und das ganz zu Unrecht! Wir wollen das ändern und den Cold Brew in die Schweiz bringen. Versuch unseren leckeren Brew und unterstütz unser Crowdfunding und teile es mit Deinen Freunden.

Brève histoire du Cold Brew

Quand nous demandons aux gens lors de nos dégustations dans toute la Suisse s’ils connaissent le «Cold Brew», la plupart font non de la tête, le regard interloqué. La nouvelle manière de boire le café n’a, semble-t-il, pas encore conquis la Suisse. Il y a eu bien quelques articles de presse par-ci par-là, et on peut le trouver dans de rares bars à café comme chez Auer ou au ViCafé à Zurich – mais le Cold Brew est encore bien inconnu en Suisse, bien que le géant Starbucks y ait commencé à en vendre.

La Cold Brew Mania a commencé il y a environ 10 ans aux Etats Unis. Des torréfacteurs spécialisés en café de pure-origine ont découvert en effet une manière de préparer le café qui faisait ressortir les délicieux arômes du café – sans en extraire la substance acide ou amère. Ils ont obtenu un café doux en bouche, fruité et avec un arrière-goût de caramel. En fait, c’était plutôt un redécouverte car l’infusion de café à froid semble connue depuis des siècles : selon « The Guardian », elle était utilisée par les Japonais de l’ère Edo au XVIIème siècle déjà. Aujourd’hui, les jeunes Nippons branchés continuent d’ailleurs à se délecter du « Kyoto coffee », un café tiré à froid au goutte-à-goutte.

Aux Etats-Unis, le Cold Brew est très vite devenu incontournable, servi « on the rocks » dans les cafés et bars à travers tout le pays. Et des entrepreneurs ont vite commencé à le mettre en bouteille et à le dans les marchés et épiceries. En 2014, le Cold Brew a atteint les côtes britanniques, est devenu culte à Londres, et en 2015 Starbucks s’y est mis aussi. Aujourd’hui le Cold Brew est même devenu trop mainstream pour certains puristes de Seattle, la capitale américaine du café, alors qu’en Suisse le café tiré froid n’a pas encore pris son envol…

Nous voulons changer cela, et apporter les joies du Cold Brew aux Helvètes. Devenez vous aussi des pionniers du Cold Brew : Essayez-le à nos événements annoncés sur notre FB, soutenez-nous sur wemakeit.com et parlez-en à vos amis – pour plus de Cold Brew dans la vie !

A Short History of Cold Brew

When we ask the people we meet at our coffee tastings around Switzerland whether they’ve ever heard of something called «Cold Brew», most of them shake their heads. The «new» way of drinking coffee has not yet conquered Switzerland. Some newspapers wrote articles about it. And you can find it at a handful of coffee-geek-cafés – but even though the coffee giant Starbucks started selling Cold Brew in Switzerland, it’s mostly unknown to the Swiss.

The Cold Brew mania started out some ten years ago in the US. Directly trading coffee roasters found a method to brew their specialty coffee in a way that brings out all the delicious natural flavors of coffee – without extracting bitter and acidic compounds. What they got was a sweet and smooth coffee full of flavors and with a caramel like finish. In fact, the method is already around for some centuries. According to «The Guardian», it was the Japanese who first steeped coffee in cold water for extended periods of time back in the 1600s.

In the US, Cold Brew quickly became a popular trend. Soon after its first occurrence, it was served on the rocks in coffee shops all over the country. And people also started bottling the brew. In 2014, the Cold Brew wave also reached the coasts of the UK. In 2015, Starbucks jumped on the bandwagon. These days, you can already read obituaries of the trend. While in Switzerland, it didn’t even take off …

We want to change that and bring the Cold Brew to the Swiss. Try out our delicious brew and support us on www.wemakeit.com!

The first quarter is already done! Thank you so much, that was very quick :) Looks like we have to increase the production soon.

Here some pictures of our first spontaneous tasting at Impact HUB Zurich where we spoiled the hard-working co-workers with Cold Brew on the rocks.