To connect coffee lovers and professionals from all around the world, to inspire others, to make new friends.
Today we feature the story of :
FREDERIC BERTOLONE
Please tell us about yourself.
I’m Frédéric Bertolone. 28 years old coffee professional and entrepreneur.
I was born in Germany, son of a Sicilian-French father and German mother. I grew up in a little province before I lived in bigger cities like Cologne, Barcelona, Madrid, Santiago de Chile and later Bogotá.
I am scoring my personal achievements step by step by fulfilling the professional ones. When I started my first project four years ago I wanted to close the producer – consumer circle successfully. That worked out well, but was a lot of work.
I am a creator and a connector. Certainly others have started projects and businesses like mine, but everyone’s approach and execution is different. I am giving coffee farmers a voice and I am giving coffee roasters a choice. I teach and bring people closer to coffee.
What is your vision and goal?
I want to create long lasting relationships. Between several actors of the broad coffee value chain. I want that farmers meet consumers, that roasters receive great, transparently traded coffees, I want to raise awareness on farming.
My vision is that farmers get money for value, easy.
My goal is to bring as many people as possible to our partner farms. You need to experience coffee farming if you want to be a real coffee professional.
How did you get started in coffee, what made you fallen in love with it?
I started drinking coffee when I was 17 years old. My father had a La Pavoni Espresso Machine at home and would show me there and on trips to Italy that a real good coffee needs thick crema and that the sugar should last at least a few seconds on it.
It blew my mind when I got to know the so called Specialty Coffee scene, with different origins, processes and roasts. I discovered filter coffee to be my new favorite drink.
I deeply fell in love with coffee on my first visit of a Colombian coffee farm.
That’s why I need to show that culture and submit those values to everyone I know and can receive in Colombia.
If you weren't a coffee lover or professional what would you have done instead?
I’d be most probably on a sunny island working I tourism. That is what I did during and after my business studies to make a living. I enjoy being around people and show them around, make them feel comfortable and entertained.
What is your favourite coffee beverage ?
My absolute favorite coffee beverage is filter coffee, preferably washed with extended fermentation, prepared in a Chemex.
What do you see as the major challenges facing the coffee industry?
I see that the major challenges are the automatization of processes in the coffee production such as in Brazil, which lower world market prices to a level that small scale producers of less developed countries are not able to cope with.
If the consuming countries do not react by accepting prices that are the actual worth of coffee, more and more farmers will stop their cultivation, which will lead to an even more complex situation.
One tip to improve the coffee industry ?
Modern slavery stops when consumers get closer to the origin of the product.
If you’re really into coffee, go to origin, meet the producers.
If you’re a coffee lover, buy responsibly traded coffee from small roasteries.
What is your favourite quote ?
“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”
“No story lives unless someone wants to listen
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