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Manhattan Coffee Roasters

Manhattan Coffee Roasters from Rotterdam has built a strong reputation with specialty coffee, direct relationships with farmers, modern roasting techniques, and international championships.

Manhattan Coffee Roasters Beans

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More About Manhattan Coffee Roasters

A Rotterdam Coffee Icon with Global Impact
Manhattan Coffee Roasters was founded in Rotterdam in 2017 by Esther Maasdam and Ben Morrow. The name refers to the city’s maritime history and the local nickname “Manhattan on the Maas”. From the start, the founders’ goal was crystal clear: they wanted to make competition-level specialty coffee more accessible to the European market.
The company is led by a highly experienced core team. Esther Maasdam focuses on the coffee community and various projects with producers. Ben Morrow manages the sourcing of green beans and the development of roast profiles. Head Roaster Denys Nickolaienko, originally a mechanical engineer, works closely with Ben on daily production.
Behind the Scenes: Technology and Production
The roastery operates out of a large facility on the Hongkongstraat in Rotterdam. The company emphasizes that this location is a factory, not a café or a shop. The workspace now spans nearly a thousand square meters. This facility includes a production floor, a quality control laboratory, and dedicated training rooms. Here, orders are roasted, packaged, and shipped daily to both consumers and commercial clients.
In May 2025, Manhattan switched to an electric twenty-kilo Typhoon fluid-bed roaster. According to the founders, this machine produces a cleaner roast and significantly reduces the ecological footprint. A special ESP filtration system reduces emissions from the roasting process and is cleaned every three to four weeks. Each specific coffee profile is thoroughly pre-tested and activated with a simple press of a button.
Sourcing and Direct Relationships
The sourcing strategy revolves entirely around ethics and close collaborations with local coffee farmers. For example, since 2017, Manhattan has worked directly with high-end producers such as Inacio Soares and Fincas Mierisch. The Viani coffee illustrates the brand’s social impact in practice. Together with importers, the company supports more than four hundred small-scale farmers in this region. These farmers receive better compensation for quality improvements, such as the use of GrainPro. In Yemen, the company pays prices well above market value via partner JabalBon.
From Specialty to World Class: The Assortment
The coffee offering is structured into five clear and recognizable categories. This setup helps customers align their taste expectations with their specific budget. The main lines consist of Specialty, Rare, Exceptional, Competition, and World Class. Roasted beans are sold in 125 gram, 250 gram, and one kilo packages. The company’s successful subscription model follows this exact same structure.
Manhattan’s signature style shines through in their diverse range of blends and single origins. Some prominent examples from the current selection include:

City Limits: A consistent espresso blend from Brazil and Honduras with tasting notes of black cherry, dark chocolate, and brown sugar.
Brooklyn: An espresso blend featuring Brazilian beans and Panamanian Geisha. This complex coffee offers elegant notes of candied orange, praline, and cream.
Sweet Valley: An exclusive Colombian single origin from Cafe Granja La Esperanza. Following a controlled fermentation process, this coffee delivers flavors of candy apple, plum, and hibiscus.

Quality, Education, and Championships
Strict quality control is a fundamental part of the production process. For instance, the laboratory creates its own water profiles because the quality of Rotterdam’s tap water varies significantly. For home brewers, Manhattan always shares precise and measurable guidelines, recommending a ratio of 1:16.5, using sixteen grams of coffee and water between 99 and 100 degrees Celsius. Additionally, the company offers structured education, including an intensive one-day training session for owners of a Typhoon roaster.
The brand is deeply connected to the competitive world of international coffee. Esther Maasdam is a four-time Dutch Latte Art champion. Ben Morrow has won multiple international titles in cities such as New York and London. Team member Ilithyia Meriën won the Dutch Cup Tasters championship in 2024 and successfully defended this prestigious title in 2025.
Growth and International Markets
Manhattan operates primarily as a large-scale production roastery for the B2B market and direct-to-consumer sales. In February 2025, the Rotterdam-based company entered into a major partnership with Onyx Coffee Lab, becoming the very first partner in their International Roasting Collective. This ambitious project optimizes European wholesale and consumer sales. Recent reports from 2026 confirm Manhattan’s current status as a robust and respected exporter of specialty coffee.

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