Back to Black Coffee Roasters – Weteringstraat

Back to Black Coffee Roasters established its first location in this district at Weteringstraat 48 in Amsterdam-Centrum. According to the company’s own information, this location opened on July 19, 2014. As such, the Weteringstraat spot serves as the starting point for a business that later expanded to include a second coffee bar, a roastery, and a bakery.

The company was founded by Noortje Vlutters and Inge Bulthuis. Public interviews describe them as childhood friends who knew each other through scouting. During travels together, they visited coffee bars abroad. According to these interviews, that experience provided the inspiration to start their own coffee-focused hospitality business.

In the early years, the focus was on the coffee bar itself. In 2015, Back to Black also began roasting its own coffee. In public communications, the company presents this work as artisanal and house-roasted. Furthermore, the company emphasizes coffee, homemade pastries, and transparency regarding the journey from bean to cup. In later reports, Inge Bulthuis is mentioned as co-founder and head barista.

The concept of the Weteringstraat location thus extends beyond simply serving drinks. In public media reports, the founders stated that the bars also provided space for rotating exhibitions by young artists and products from local designers. However, no public, structured event calendar was found for the Weteringstraat location.

The Weteringstraat location serves coffee roasted by the company itself. The business presents itself on its own website as an Amsterdam coffee roastery. This places the location in a model where roasting, brewing, and product development are closely intertwined.

The current menu at this location showcases a diverse range of offerings. Alongside classic espresso-based drinks, you’ll find filter coffee and cold options. A variety of milk alternatives are also listed, including soy, oat, and coconut. An external cafe profile further confirms that espresso, filter coffee, and cold brew or drip are the standard brewing methods at this spot.

Additionally, the company’s product pages feature several house-label coffees. Examples include Colombia Excelso EP Washed, Peru Sugarcane Decaf – Aprocassi Cooperativa, Kenya Gichathaini Washed, and India Mooleh Manay – Excelsa. This selection indicates that the company sources beans from multiple origins and utilizes various processing methods.

Back to Black also links its coffee bar to knowledge sharing within the industry. Their wholesale page mentions that new business partnerships begin with a cupping, described as a coffee tasting. By doing so, the company positions tasting as the essential first step in commercial relations and product selection.

Furthermore, a public interview from 2018 mentions that the company had an official SCA training facility where certified coffee courses were conducted. Such activities place the business not just in the hospitality sector, but also in the professional development of baristas and other coffee professionals. However, no publicly documented, recurring workshops or tastings were found specifically for the Weteringstraat location.

The company’s sustainability information focuses primarily on sourcing, packaging, and waste streams. According to their own description, Back to Black chooses green coffee importers who support farmers with higher prices for better-produced coffees. The company also mentions providing advice on harvesting, processing, and storage as part of that chain. Transparency and traceability from cherry to cup form the foundation of this approach, according to the same explanation.

The company lists This Side Up and Cultivar as their Dutch partners for green beans. Additionally, it describes various measures regarding materials and logistics.

The bakery is also mentioned in this context. According to the company, cakes and pastries are baked in-house. Weekly specials frequently feature fruit that, due to cosmetic imperfections, doesn’s make it into stores. Furthermore, the company states that a large portion of the cake and pastry selection is vegan.

Back to Black appears in a series of publications focusing on coffee, hospitality, and urban hotspots. On its own press page, the company lists mentions by both international and Dutch media platforms. Additionally, the company appeared in later editorial guides regarding coffee bars and coffee roasteries in Amsterdam. For the Weteringstraat location, no specific awards or distinctions were documented in the sources consulted.

Based on the available information, the Weteringstraat location describes itself primarily as the original Amsterdam site of a business that combines a coffee bar, its own roasting operations, bakery activities, and supply chain transparency. The documented strengths lie in the company’s structure, the beverage offering, the role of training, and the focus on origin and material usage.