Etapa 2: La Vuelta Café'a España

Espresso Mafia, Girona

From the Capital City: Madrid to ….. Enter the New Capital of Cycling: Girona

First the story of La Fabrica, the story behind Espresso Mafia

Christian and Amber Meier moved to Spain over a decade ago when the promising career of a Professional cyclist was offered to Christian in Girona, Spain. Christian started as a Stagiaire (meaning in English: An amateur rider who is taken in by a professional team during the season), he was able to work his way to the top tier of the peloton, riding in races he had only dreamed of as a kid. World Championships, One Day Classics in Europe to the National Championships in Canada, which is his home country, he was riding them all. Time was flying fast and while Amber was happy to support him, but her passion was elsewhere.

A couple days after Christian had finished his dream race, The Tour de France, they decided they were going to try and open a small, specialty coffee shop in their adopted hometown of Girona.

They found the location, put into a design all their ideas and slowly started to chip away at what they thought their ideal cafe would be. It was a big risk back then as there were NO specialty coffee places in Girona but they had faith and truly believed if they built it, the people would come.

With a menu based on all the places they had travelled around the world like Bali, Japan, Australia and Europe and incorporating a design aesthetic that would honour the century old vintage carpenter's shop they had chosen as their “down the alleyway” location, paired with strong, double shot, freshly roasted coffee, and few months later they opened La Fabrica.

La Fabrica was the beginning of them making their dreams a reality. They were able to see such a diverse group of people, from students to locals, tourists visiting from Barcelona and of course, Christian’s friends and cyclists from the peloton.

How Espresso Mafia was born?

Fast forward to 2015 and they knew they wanted to be in control of the whole coffee process, they wanted to be able to experience the best possible coffee and the roasters they were working with were not open to any new ideas, flavour profiles or changes.

Christian was still a professional cyclist with a huge passion for coffee and Amber was always driven by hospitality and creating small boutique places that delivered a memorable food and beverage experience.

La Fabrica was already up & running, and they were going through a lot of coffee. Christian & Amber saw an opportunity. They wanted to source the coffee beans themselves and control the process, to the best of the ability, to deliver the best cup of coffee.

They opened the first in-city roaster that Girona has ever had. Christian self-learnt everything about coffees by himself, and jumped into the world of single origin, specialty coffee roasting.

To this day they source all the beans themselves directly, from around the globe. They keep their beans on rotation, highlighting countries like Ethiopia, Guatemala, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia to always have on offer something exciting and exquisite.

Espresso Mafia uses fresh milk from a local farm in Esponella, using a double shot for all of their coffees. Their cakes are from a local bakery in Banyoles and Croissants and Xuxos (Girona Special 😊) get delivered every morning from Jordi, the baker. They now have an international team, all passionate about coffee to give you an exceptional caffeine experience.

In the blog, you’ll see my picture with a gentleman who’s 100% local Girona resident. His name is Francesco & he calls Espresso Mafia his second office coming over here regulary for his caffeine fix. He pretty much knew all professional riders like Robert Gesink; Sepp Kuss – Team Jumbo Visma and we had a nice chat over everything around Cycling & Coffees.

Now the Coffee from Guatemala

Coffee produced and harvested by women in the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala. Intense fragrance of cocoa and flowers, creamy texture with aroma of milk chocolate and notes of berries. It is an all-terrain coffee that you can prepare in any method.

Red de Mujeres is a group of 830 women coffee producers from five different areas of the department of Huehuetenango.

It is a region focused mainly on coffee production. That is why the crisis that occurred between 2001 and 2004 hit this area hard, forcing many families to leave their lands and seek opportunities elsewhere. Red de Mujeres is made up of women who lost their husbands during Guatemala's 36-year civil war or abandoned them during the coffee crisis.

This group is proof of the courage and solidarity of its founders and members. With the support of the ACODIHUE cooperative, these women have been able to organize and collaborate to sell their coffee in international markets. ACODIHUE has been a constant help in the development of these producers, providing them with training in organic farming methods, from the generation and use of fertilizers to the use of pest and disease control methods.

Grind this coffee and you will immediately get its intense fragrance of cocoa and flowers. Its intensity contrasts with its delicacy that will allow you to enjoy it in all infusion methods. Each of them will highlight some characteristics over others.

Make yourself a slow pour over in V60 and hallucinate with the notes of raspberry and flowers. The silky texture is still present in this method and will accompany you until the last sip.

• ·       COUNTRY                                Guatemala

• ·       REGION                                   Huehuetenango

• ·       GROUP OF PRODUCERS         Women's Network

• ·       ALTITUDE                                1700 – 1950 m.a.s.l

• ·       VARIETAL                                 Caturra, Bourbon, Typica

• ·       PROCESS                                 Washing

• ·       CERTIFICATION                        Organic

• ·       CUPPING SCORE                85.5

• ·       TASTING NOTES                      Raspberry and red fruits, creamy body with

  notes of milk chocolate