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P atrik Rolf Karlsson has a simple but bold Patrik Rolf explained: “April was founded around the
Coffee quality is largely determined by its taste, as
vision. He wants to make the best coffee in
the world. And that starts with making coffee
trying to make the best coffee in the world. Everything
taste better. need to explore how to make coffee taste better. We are
The CEO and founder of April Coffee Roasters has I did initially when starting April was focused on creat-
worn many hats in his career. He’s been a barista, brew- ing an environment where we could explore quality.”
er, businessman and, most recently a product designer;
an impressive list of skills and experience for someone Facing a Challenge
so young — Patrik Rolf is not yet 30 years old. The com-
pany he launched has a lot going on too. April is a coffee Making good tasting coffee is hard — a fact that
roastery, a media company producing podcasts and Patrik Rolf thinks is often overlooked. While he believes
training videos, and a work wear supplier. Yet everything coffee in general doesn’t necessarily taste bad now, the
Patrik Rolf and his team do is powered by a shared pas- main challenge to improving it is achieving consistency
sion for coffee and making theirs the best. and progression in taste.
Swedish-born Patrik Rolf first entered the coffee “The ‘every-mans’ coffee that we see in supermar-
industry when he became a corporate consultant for coffee kets and big chains today is not getting better and a lot
roastery da Matteo in his hometown of Gothenburg. The of ‘Specialty Coffee Roasters’ around the world are
roastery’s founder, Matts W. Johannsson, soon invited getting less progressive. I want to see more innovation
Patrik Rolf to join the company full time. He worked for and progression of the low level,” he explained.
da Matteo over the next two and a half years. He first be- Discovering the secret to roasting and brewing a
came a barista, working behind da Matteo’s bar and honing consistently tasty coffee has proved to be tough. When
his skills by competing in barista competitions around the facing a challenge like this, Patrik Rolf doesn’t try to
world, before turning his attention to coffee roasting. He reinvent the wheel. Instead he looks to build on the work
soon came to believe that coffee had to be improved — and done by people before him and, most of all, draw on his
he would be the one to do it. own deep curiosity.
“I believe that there is very little ‘new knowledge.’
Often it’s simply application of old knowledge in new
Setting the Highest Standards situations that makes us progress,” Patrik Rolf mused. “So
far, the main driver has been my own curiosity. I taste a
His quest to create the world’s best coffee saw coffee product, and I ask myself how I would have done it.”
Patrik Rolf set a course from his native Sweden first to After years of experimenting with how coffee could
Germany, where he completed a stint with the well-re- be made to taste better, Patrik Rolf believes he has the
nowned Berlin roaster Five Elephant, then on to Den- solution with the April Brewing Kit, a pour over brewer,
mark. His April Coffee venture was born in Copenhagen designed to put great tasting coffee within easy reach of
in the summer of 2016. home brewers.
“I started in Copenhagen because I believe it’s a His inspiration was a long-held belief that, “the
I believe that there city that is home to quality; the standards are the high- roasting and the brewing (of coffee) is connected. I
started out as a barista who became a coffee roaster and
est in Europe and only the best survive,” Patrik Rolf
is very little ‘new explained. the April Brewing Kit project was a way for me to get
back to my roots. It took us almost three years to come
April has not only survived but thrived. The roast-
knowledge.’ Often it’s ery has gained a reputation for high-quality coffee and up with the finished version of the Brewer and sure
enough, I encountered a lot of challenges along the road.
now has an impressive international client list. But
simply application Patrik Rolf won’t supply his coffee to just anyone. But every challenge made the Brewer better.”
“We want to work with people who share our pas-
of old knowledge in sion for quality. That is all there is to it. It’s not about Making a Bold Move
size or having a lot of followers on social media, it’s
new situations that about wanting to always do better,” he stressed. “We Rather than trialing his new design behind closed doors
makes us progress. have a very clear aim and vision — nothing is more im- April Brewing Kit or releasing it quietly with a ‘soft’ launch, Patrik Rolf chose
to reveal the Brewer in the most public way possible — by
portant than the quality of our coffee.”
using it in competition at the 2019 World Brewers Cup.

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