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Fortin

Fortin has grown in Den Bosch into a coffee roastery, café, and bakery featuring single-origin coffee, direct trade, freshly roasted beans, matcha, and their own patisserie.

Fortin Beans

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More About Fortin

The Growth of a Bossche Coffee Roastery
Lars Mueters and Jettie Creemers founded Fortin in late 2019. According to local media, the concept was born during their studies at Avans. By then, they had already gained significant hospitality experience in Limburgse lunchrooms. The first café opened on November 9, 2019, at Ridderstraat 6 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, which remains their flagship location today. The start of 2024 marked a new chapter with the opening of a second location at Visstraat 19. This historic building, dating back to 1375, offers more seating and a full take-away service. The brand proudly positions itself as a combination of roastery, café, and bakery, and is open seven days a week.
Quality Standards and Roasting Philosophy
Fortin exclusively serves ‘single-origin’ coffee in their cafés. A fixed, public signature blend is consciously absent from their approach. The quality threshold is set extremely high; every coffee purchased scores at least 85 points, well above the 80-point threshold for specialty coffee. The roastery works with small batches and always roasts orders fresh. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the designated roasting days for the consumer market. Roasting profiles are developed through continuous experimentation and precise adjustments, always aiming to present maximum flavor and complexity in the cup.
Web orders for consumers leave the premises on the same day if in stock. For coffee that still needs to be roasted, the roastery maintains a delivery time of two to four days.
Direct Trade and Sustainable Relationships
The company’s supply chain is intentionally compact. They buy directly from trusted producers and importers. Coffee lots are carefully selected based on origin, altitude, climate, and the skill of the farmer. The vast majority of the coffee offered is organically certified. Where this certification is missing, they choose partners with strong, sustainable agricultural practices. Fortin views it as a primary responsibility to ensure that farmers receive a living wage.
For their Ethiopian coffee, they work closely with Pure Africa. This partner pays significantly more than standard Fair Trade prices and provides microloans to farmers. Other key partners at the farm level include:

The Mutira Cooperative in Kenya, a union active since 1975.
The Terimbere cooperative in Burundi, representing the interests of approximately 400 small-scale farmers.
Producers in Colombia, including Finca Milán, Aroma Nativo, and Finca la Riviera.

The Flavor Profile and Featured Beans
The standard base for espresso in the cafés is the ‘Classic – Ethiopia’. This is a washed Limu, grown at an altitude of approximately 2000 meters. This versatile bean offers distinct notes of dark chocolate, caramel, nuts, and red wine. Alongside this robust classic, several other profiles are available.
The Kenya Mugaya is a washed lot consisting of the SL28 and SL34 varieties. This coffee undergoes a 24-hour dry fermentation, resulting in a flavor profile of orange, lychee, blueberry, vanilla, and caramel. The Burundi Gasura, a washed Red Bourbon from the Kirundo region, grows between 1300 and 1800 meters. This bean is characterized by flavors of sweet almond, lime, and dark chocolate. Additionally, the cafés serve exclusive lots, such as the Colombia Finca Milán with a ‘Vanilla Process’ and the Colombia Finca la Riviera featuring the rare Pink Bourbon variety.
Equipment and Strict Service Standards
Both locations utilize high-end espresso equipment. The Ridderstraat spot features a La Marzocco Strada, while the Visstraat location is equipped with a La Marzocco Linea PB. Additionally, the shops use Victoria Arduino Mythos One grinders and Mahlkönig gear, including the renowned EK43. Water is filtered via Brita systems. Alongside traditional espresso, the cafés offer manual pour-overs using methods such as the V60, Kalita Wave, and Aeropress.
The specially trained baristas’s work according to strict internal guidelines. They pull exclusively double shots and use fresh milk for every individual order. For this, they use creamy Jersey milk, though plant-based alternatives are, of course, available on the menu. To maintain a calm atmosphere in the cafés, laptop use is prohibited on weekends and public holidays. Orders at the bar consistently close fifteen minutes before closing time.
Commercial Market and White-Label Services
The roastery is particularly active in the B2B market, providing customized solutions for shops, offices, hair salons, and clinics. Fortin positions itself as a primary roaster, guest roaster, or as a secondary partner for filter grinding. Business clients are assigned a dedicated point of contact and benefit from direct communication with the production team.
The minimum order value for business orders is 200 euros, with fixed weekly roasting and shipping cycles. Shipping costs are waived for orders over 75 euros within the Netherlands and 100 euros for the rest of Europe. Payment terms start at fourteen days and can extend to thirty days. Through the white-label service, clients can choose green beans from the assortment or provide their own. The team then develops a unique, custom roast profile including packaging.
Expansion into Matcha and In-House Patisserie
Beyond the focus on coffee, the company takes matcha extremely seriously. They have spent years refining their preparation method following a successful first introduction to authentic koicha. The matcha comes directly from Kagoshima in Japan, a region praised for its mineral-rich shirasu soil. The drink is prepared artisanally using traditional bamboo chasens.
Additionally, the company operates as an unconventional bakery, producing as many items in-house as possible, from cakes to various curds. For the enthusiastic home barista, the webshop sells professional brewing equipment, including the V60, the Origami dripper, Barista Space milk pitchers, and merchandise. While Fortin is open about coffee origins, some operational details remain internal. There is no public transparency report available, and specific data regarding roasting capacity, annual volumes, or team size are not publicly shared.

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