Ief & Ido Koffiebranderij

More About Ief & Ido Koffiebranderij

Ief & Ido Koffiebranderij was established in 2018 in The Hague by Ief van Zwet and Ido van der Waal. Local media describe the founders as representatives of two different generations. According to the company’s history, they met through Ido’s son.

Ief has a technical background and links his interest in specialty coffee to an espresso he enjoyed in Berlin. Ido had been roasting coffee at home for over fifteen years before the company was founded. The business emerged from a desire to experiment on a small scale with roasting equipment and processes.

The original production site was located in an industrial building in the southwest of The Hague. In 2023, a combined espresso bar, shop, and roasting space opened at 114 Prinsestraat. A later product page lists 2024 as the opening year, resulting in some inconsistency in the publicly available information.

Roasting Method and Production

The roastery uses a Giesen W15 drum roaster. The roaster manually controls the process, monitoring temperature, time, and color. According to the documented methodology, automated programs do not determine the roasting profile.

A batch contains up to fifteen kilograms of green coffee and takes approximately twelve minutes. Based on this, the website cites a theoretical capacity of sixty kilograms per hour. This equates to a maximum of 480 kilograms during an eight-hour workday.

The coffees are roasted in light and medium profiles. Production typically takes place weekly or biweekly. Custom roasting profiles and blends are also available for business clients.

Assortment and Origin

The webshop featured sixteen coffee listings and noted that approximately fifteen coffees are usually available at any given time. The selection consists primarily of single origins. In addition, an Ief&Ido Lungo Blend and custom business blends are documented.

The assortment includes, among others, Colombia Yirgacheffe, Costa Rica Helsar, Ethiopia Keramo, Brazil do Lobo, Colombia Bubblegum, and Mexico Bloom. The documented countries of origin are Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kenya, and Mexico.

Colombia Yirgacheffe comes from Villa Betulia, the farm of Luis Anibal Calderon in Huila. This naturally processed coffee grows at an altitude of 1,500 to 1,600 meters. Guatemala Sendero comes from the El Sendero Cooperative in Huehuetenango. The member farms cover an average of three hectares and are located between 1,500 and 1,900 meters.

Sourcing and Transparency

The mentioned sourcing partners are Grounds Costa Rica, Avian Coffee, Sucafina, and Falcon Coffee. Forest Coffee supplies Colombia Decaf from El Vergel Estate. This coffee is decaffeinated using a sugar-cane-based ethyl acetate process.

Primavera Coffee handles the described direct-trade supply of Guatemala Sendero. The roastery states that coffees are traceable to a farmer, farm, or cooperative. Farm-gate prices, FOB prices, and formal long-term contracts with producers are not publicly documented.

Packaging and Sustainability

The company uses reusable coffee containers in a rotation system. Hospitality clients also receive reusable packaging. Private customers can choose between a return container and a bag.

The El Sendero Cooperative processes coffee pulp into fertilizer and treats water from the production process. The roastery has also discussed the collection of coffee grounds for oil extraction. However, no public documentation of an implemented application of this process has been found.

Certifications such as organic, Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, or B Corp are not publicly documented at the company level. As a result, the available assessment of sustainability remains largely limited to individual practices and supply chain partners.

Sales, hospitality, and education

Coffee is sold via the webshop and the shop on Prinsestraat. According to published information, webshop orders are shipped on Mondays and Thursdays. The roastery also supplies cafés, restaurants, and other businesses.

Named hospitality partners include Boulderhal De Campus, Plenty, Sipsy, Cami, Kunstbar, and Restaurant Flora. An external business directory reports delivery to more than fifty regional locations, including restaurants and the music venue Paard. This figure does not come from a company report.

The location on Prinsestraat serves a variety of coffees from the assortment. Individual grinding allows for comparisons between origins and roast styles. The shop also sells coffee beans and brewing equipment.

In addition, the company organizes workshops for small groups. An introductory session lasts two hours and is available in Dutch and English. The three-hour home barista workshop covers topics such as grind size, espresso, milk frothing, latte art, and tasting. A separate group tasting session lasts approximately two hours and requires a minimum of twelve participants.

Disclaimer: We do our best to keep all information in this article as accurate as possible. Have you come across something that is no longer quite correct? Send a message to the editorial team at [email protected] and we'll update it!