Founded upon the passion for coffee
The Beginning - A short-story written by Robin Salten
In the year 2005 after a fifteen-year-long passion
for espresso and cappuccino I registered the arising abundance of the
most various specialty coffees. I wanted to understand what was
behind this and so I began to try out different coffee beans.
Quite
quickly it became obvious that the espresso machine was perhaps not
the best preparation method to experience the differences between
coffees. This was mainly for practical reasons. Anyone who grapples
intensively with the preparation of espresso knows that with a change
of coffee the degree of grinding must be adapted to the new coffee.
And this process consumes a certain amount of coffee in order to find
the perfect degree of fineness.
Still
I wanted to understand what was behind all these different coffee
beans. That was why I began to try out various methods for preparing
coffee and thus realized that simply brewing was much less
complicated and more condoning of mistakes than espresso preparation.
Beyond that it was much easier to taste out the varying coffee
aromas than with the literally compressed tasting experience of an
espresso.
The Journey
Hence a fascinating excursion through the world of coffee aromas and manifold flavours began. I never would have dreamed what awaited me after I had not only pushed open the door to specialty coffees but also to the diversity of brewed coffee. I quickly learned that coffee flavor is not defined primarily by the brand, but -similarly to wine- by the nuances of taste through variety, growing area, ground conditions, altitude and so forth.
If you have to do with a coffee which is graded by variety, harvested at the perfect degree of ripeness, cleanly processed and then also gently roasted to the point, then you realize: it makes sense to occupy yourself more intensively with manual brewing methods. A coffee brewed by the parameter of beans to water ratio, brewing temperature, and contact time between water and coffee can differ immensely in taste.
This diversity can best express itself with the
use of manual brewing methods.This diversity can best express itself with the
use of manual brewing methods.
.
The AeroPress
In the year 2006 I stumbled over a device which I at first found rather disconcerting. It consisted of a plastic cylinder, a stamper and a filter holder and had been introduced to the American market as the coffee and espresso maker AeroPress.
The inventor and engineer Alan Adler developed the AeroPress in 2005 as a product of his own personal wish for making good coffee. Alan Adler is among other things the inventor of Aerobie Pro-Rings and founder of the company Aerobie Inc.
Since the AeroPress was at that point in time practically not available in Europe I decided in spite of my scepticism to order the device in the USA. After some trial and error I realized that this was the ideal device to really get down to the bottom of the difference in character of diverse coffees. Aside from the verifiable preparation parameters of other preparation devices the AeroPress had one further one - the pressure. In that with the AeroPress the hot water is pressed through the filter by the stamper it is possible to choose the degree of grinding independently of the intended contact time between water and coffee.
In spite of my prejudices I began to appreciate the new possibilities that the AeroPress opened up for me.
The Foundation
After I saw that even two years later the AeroPress had still not managed the bound over the Atlantic, the thought began to grow in me to import the device myself and to sell it wholesale to coffee roasters.
I began to work out a concept to build up the connection between producers and coffee roasters and finally in 2009 founded BESTbrew. Next to the retail for pottery demands which I had already had for ten years I started to import the first AeroPress on the same premises.
Aside from my desire to busy myself with something that I really enjoyed my primary wish was to make the AeroPress known in the DACH-countries. Especially this should give small roasters who dealt with specialty coffees the possibility to offer their clients a practical preparation device with which they could really experience the specific diversity in the tastes of different coffees.
The Development
Just as it probably is for many people who start a
company out of their own enthusiasm and completely ignore the fact
that they have no market for their product, it was the same for me.
I did not reap the same excitement over the article that I had, on
the contrary I met mainly scepticism and sometimes downright
rejection.
That was why I began to build up contact to other
producers of innovative and useful coffee preparation tools and why
in 2010 the collaboration with the Japanese producer Hario began.
Fortunately I did in the long run meet, next to
the sceptics, just as many mostly young people who were fascinated
by specialty coffee. With great enthusiasm they opened “Third
Wave” coffee shops and organized events out of which a very
vigorous specialty coffee scene emerged. Their strong dedication
transmitted the spirit of specialty coffee. From the beginning I
supported their efforts as well as possible with brewing devices of
all kinds. As of 2012 a substantial market for specialty coffee had
developed and with that a market for manual preparation devices as
well.
BESTbrew Today
After that things went very fast: In 2013 I had to hire the first employees and in 2015 to give up my former company for reasons of space and time. In 2016 followed the construction of our new company building in Wolfenbüttel where we moved in 2017 and in 2019 already had to enlarge.
Today BESTbrew employs twenty colleagues and once
again the warehouse is 1000 pallet spaces too small. So it remains
exciting and we are looking forward to the further development. We
are also very happy for the collaborative relationships with our
distributors and producers.
The BESTbrew team will do everything in
our power to support the business activities of all of our partners
and the propagation of the idea of specialty coffee.







The company´s history review
2009 Foundation and distribution begin of AeroPress in the DACH region
2010 Distribution begin of Hario products
2012
Participation in the “World of Coffee” in Vienna together with Hario, Tokyo, Japan
2013
Hiring of the first employee
Begin of the distribution partnership with
Commandante, producer of the
legendary Nitro Blade handmill
2014 Distribution begin of Baratza coffee mills
2015 Closing of the pottery requisites company in
Cremlingen
2016 Construction of the new company building in
Wolfenbüttel
2017 Relocation into the new company building
2019 Expansion of the company building
building
2020 Takeover of the EU distribution of the brands
Rhino Coffee Gear and Brewista
2021 Implementation of a new ERP in all business areas