Recommended Swiss coffee roasters?

[S.L.]

Any Swiss folks on the board? I'm having a heck of a time finding fresh coffee here! There must be something in Zurich or Geneva but I'm just not finding them. Any leads?

[roadman]

You bet. Check out Rast Kaffee in Ebikon. You can order online and have it a day or two from roast. They usually roast on Monday and Tuesday. I get the single origins as I find their espresso blends are roasted too dark for my tastes.

Since we're talking mail order, you may want to consider going further afield.

Hasbean in the UK has terrific beans. Order Monday and it comes on Friday.

Caffe Fresco in the States ships quickly at a reasonable price and the beans come between 5 and 7 days from roast. Terroir Coffee also takes about as long from the US to CH. Both roasters are way fab.

A word of caution though, as you may already know, customs in Switzerland can really slow things down when they are busy or short staffed. The shipping times quoted above are for when the planets are aligned and all goes well. Don't even think about ordering out of CH during the holiday season unless you like your beans 2 or 3 weeks old before you get them.

There's also some places around Zurich that a fellow HBer knows. I'll let him know about this post.

Jon

[welone]

I would recommend Rast as the best option too; they are the only ones [EDIT: in Switzerland!] I saw, with a precise declaration of their greens and indication of the roast date.
If you would prefer to go directly into the shop there at least four places to get fresh beans in Zurich:
1. Cafe Noir: the few badges I had were nice, but nothing overwhelming (=medium)
2. Hemmi Kaffee: medium to good; like almost all roasters in CH they
generally roast their espresso blends quite dark
3. Schwarzenbach: their 'Brasil Santos' and Latino were quite good altough a bit boring to my taste buds. Be careful with buying their expensive coffees, the 'Hawaii Kona' and 'Jamaica Blue Moutain' I got were stale.
4. If you're totally into dark roast you could also get fresh beans (less than 4 days from roast) at the Globus store, watch out for 'Caffe Ferrari'

greets

marco

[S.L.]

Hey thanks for the replies guys- I'll contact Rast and see how their French or English is. My German is miserable. I'll check out the Globus in Geneva too, never thought to look for coffee there nor to expect it to be fresh!

[welone]

Hey thanks for the replies guys- I'll contact Rast and see how their French or English is. My German is miserable. I'll check out the Globus in Geneva too, never thought to look for coffee there nor to expect it to be fresh!

Sorry I didn't specify this sufficiently: the Globus in Zurich has beans from 'Caffe Ferrari' a local roaster (from Dietikon) and gets them two times a week. I don't have a clue about the other Globus stores.

[welone]

Finally the swiss SCAE has their own website; with a complete list of their members.
Have a look at the roaster's section: http://www.swissscae.ch/mitglieder.cfm

[Mefisto]

Yo,
i have been in Lugano for 5 weeks, on a mission to find the best coffee in the area.......my result, Cerutti, they are situated in Novezzano. That is close to Mendrisio and Lugano. Another very good roaster is Mocca EFTI, situated in Mendrisio.

[Mefisto]

Yo,
i have been in Lugano for 5 weeks, on a mission to find the best coffee in the area.......my result, Cerutti, they are situated in Novezzano. That is close to Mendrisio and Lugano. Another very good roaster is Mocca EFTI, situated in Mendrisio.

[Mefisto]

Yo,
i have been in Lugano for 5 weeks, on a mission to find the best coffee in the area.......my result, Cerutti, they are situated in Novezzano. That is close to Mendrisio and Lugano. Another very good roaster is Mocca EFTI, situated in Mendrisio.

[S.L.]

Hey Jon- Which SO's do you like from Rast? I tried their Roma espresso blend and it's heavy duty!

[roadman]

I find all of Rast's espresso blends to be too darkly roasted and avoid them. I've had good luck pulling shots of their SO coffees, Tres Rios and Yirga Cheffe being the current favorites around here.

The finest coffee I've had the pleasure to drink here in CH is Costa Rican Cafetalera Herbazu from Hasbean in the UK. As a matter of fact I'm about to order more today.

Jon