OUR STORY
Olfactory /ɒlˈfakt(ə)ri/
The name Olfactory was first inspired by a play with the words “old” and “factory”, based on the building that the roastery was built. Olfactory is also the sense through which we perceive smells, and it also plays an important role in taste. We always rely on our olfactory senses when we are selecting and tasting new coffees.
Not such an old tale
It started back in 2010 with a couple that became obsessed with coffee during their university studies in Cornwall. But it was rather difficult trying to keep the late nights of study going over a cup of stale, over-roasted coffee that tasted of rubber, produced by a tired commodity focused industry. The couple decided to change that and Olfactory Coffee Roasters was born in 2013. They envisioned Olfactory with a set of specific values that meant it running for the long term – quality, transparency and ethical trading. To this day, these values have not changed. The idea implied travelling and meeting some of the world’s best speciality coffee producers who share those values and forming long term trading relationships.
Being the cooperative members farming quarter of a hectare of land in a remote region in Kenya, or the super high-tech farm producing experimental varietals in Brazil, we seek the best and most exciting coffees. The team will then extensively experiment, profile and roast those coffees to bring out the exciting flavours and characteristics and offer them at their peak of freshness and deliciousness. We are truly privileged to be able to work with producers that we thoroughly admire and deliver the most amazing coffees that we love to drink every day.
How we go about roasting
We profile and roast our coffees on two custom Diedrich roasters, built and shipped from Idaho, USA. These roasters are state-of-the-art machines that allow us to control every aspect of the roast, meaning we can achieve precision and consistency every day, with every single roast. Coffee roasting is a balancing act of the roaster’s senses and knowledge, but also a science. Thus, our equipment enables us to achieve perfection in our roasting and extract all the beautiful flavours of the different coffees.
We believe in freshness
We roast and ship our coffees daily. We believe that the fresher the coffee is, the better it tastes. This means that the coffee you receive from us will always be within a few days of roasting, tasting rich and delicious. Straight from the roasting drum, the beans are cooled and packed in our custom-designed recyclable pouches that offer the best environment for the coffee to rest and retain all its beautifulness and flavour.
We appreciate the small things
We have learned an enormous amount during this journey. A journey of travel, discovery, meeting people and hearing their stories. We learned that not everything goes to plan, but also that we should never give up. We learned that the quality of the coffee is a result of many factors, some of which uncontrollable. We imagined a world where we can drink better coffee daily, where speciality coffee is available to everyone, and where our small company can make a big impact. We think we’re on the right track.
Our people
Our team is composed of the most knowledgeable, talented, and kind people in the industry. We believe that the work environment should be filled with enthusiasm and excitement, and coffee of course! We very much love what we do, and that shows through our passion, care and attention to detail.
Passing by? Come and say Hello! We have an open door policy to the roastery.