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C Story / Zhoe Zhang Photo / Man Met Bril Koffie

Paul Sharo
Rotterdam’s Coffee World Builder

I f you have to ask what Paul Sharo’s life re- coffee industry, Sharo worked in a restaurant. Back then,

volves around, it would be coffee. Almost ten
he already liked coffee, but just like most of us, he was
years ago, he started one of the first special-
coffee. Sharo got interested and asked the person who
ty coffee roasteries and coffee shops – Man the amateur. At that time, the restaurant decided to sell
Met Bril Koffie in Rotterdam, Netherlands. And next year, was responsible for it, but only to find out that the guy
he is going to open the first-ever coffee hotel in the world. did not know much about the coffee they chose, nor could
He didn’t think much before he got his hands on it. He he give him any advice on coffee making. He recalled: “I
didn’t plan too much of a long-term goal. All he knows is had questiosns about how I could make better milk foam
that he does it all because of coffee and all for the coffee for coffee as I’ve seen people make these forms in milk.
community. “I really couldn’t do anything else. Rolled However, they really couldn’t give me any information.”
into it. And cannot imagine a life without it now.” Sharo
told me during the interview.

The Coffee Shop
"Make mistakes. That’s the only way I’ve ever learned Paul Sharo was born in Rotterdam and moved to the
in my life. Make as many mistakes as you can." US when he was two. Lived there until thirteen; then
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moved back to the Netherlands and started his coffee
journey in his motherland. Sharo joked that his encoun-
ter with coffee was an accident. Before stepping into the

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