We’re happy to introduce you to the roaster Wide Awake, who runs a roastery and coffee atelier in Belgium. We' had the pleasure to interview the founders Senina and Rutger.

What’s the story behind Wide Awake? How did you get started?

Rutger: The idea of opening a roastery had been playing in my head for a long time. As a coffee enthusiast, I was always surprised and slightly frustrated to see how slow the scene was developing in Brussels. Even just 3-4 years ago, there were very few speciality bars and roasters. After living abroad for a year and experiencing the coffees and community over there, I started thinking more seriously about the idea but it was a chance encounter with Senina that gave the whole project the push that was needed. At the beginning of 2019, I was following roasting training in London.

A friend invited me to a Caffeine Magazine coffee tasting - I remember being pretty intimidated to be cupping amongst all these industry folks. I was talking to my friend about the Brussels scene and the project I had in mind and Senina overheard that. She was the Production Roaster for Assembly/Volcano in London at the time and had been thinking about moving to Brussels as she fell in love with the city. So the next half year we skyped every week, talking about the project and exciting coffees but also just vibing on the music we both loved. That really helped us connect and we translated that element in our brand and coffee names. In the meantime, I was scouting for a good roastery location in the city and roasting samples on a tiny Huky gas roaster in my apartment. Fun times haha! We opened during the Brussels Coffee Week in October 2019 and pretty soon after made some relations and got our core hospitality accounts. That really got us going and we’ve been growing steadily ever since.

How will Wide Awake develop in the future? Have you got any set goals or projects that you would like to share with us?

Rutger: There’s not one specific crazy goal or project. We want to grow business and the team healthily. Become a trusted roaster for every quality-oriented hospitality place in Brussels and beyond. Keep releasing exciting coffees and being creative with both our coffee offering and brand. One of the core beliefs on which Wide Awake was built is that the speciality scene needs to be more inclusive. If we want to have a material impact for farmers at origin and improve the local coffee scene, we need to grow speciality beyond the pure hipster crowd. So we do a lot of work on the education-front, but we’re also always thinking about how to communicate about our coffees in a way that is accessible for people that love coffee but don’t know every washing station in Ethiopia.

As soon as this covid situation is more under control, we also want to go back to organising events. We did lots of cuppings, workshops and even industry panel talks for the local community and found that very rewarding. In the meantime, we’re introducing some more funky coffees to the Belgian scene and are building our sourcing network. So a lot is happening, but it’s all building on what we’ve started in the last 12 months.

What is the Brussels coffee scene like, and how would you like to change it?

Rutger: The Brussels scene is quite interesting. It’s a reflection of the cultural melting pot the city is. Speciality coffee is quite established in the dutch speaking cities in Belgium (Antwerp, Ghent), but for a long time Brussels, which is mainly French-speaking, lagged behind. There were only 2 or 3 Brussels-based speciality roasters before we started. The french-speaking community historically leaned closer to the French & Italian coffee culture while the dutch speaking community was always closer to Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon culture. But anyway, all of that is changing rapidly now. A bunch of new roasters have started or will start soon, and there are more and more good coffee & brunch/lunch places opening every day. Even some more traditional bars are curious about improving their coffee game. We’re trying to support that transition as much as we can through education, open events, cuppings and of course our amazing coffee ;)

Do you have a favourite brewing recipe you would like to share?

Senina: This is a recipe I’m pulling out of my almost constant standard brewing pack. I’ve been brewing a hell lot on the origami, first to try out the device but then actually finding it the best to brew for maximum sweetness and depth while maintaining a good balance, which is what I always search for.

This is intended for the Wildcard Colombian where you want to savour a little more than a small brew cup because it’s so moreish! The main bit is the water, I don’t know about you, but our water here is ridiculously hard and dampens acidity too much. I use Peak filtered water with a 140ppm hardness, boiled at 92° degrees and then grind 20g of beans at 28clicks on the Comandante. Place a Kalita filter in the origami and rinse thoroughly. Drop the coffee in, start the timer and add 60ml water and soak for about 45 secs to fully absorb. Followed by 130g of water and a gentle spin, then a third gentle pour of 130g at 1.30min and a last spin before letting it all drain through. Total brew time should be 3.5mins. You should try to have a flat bed and not much coffee residue down the sides of the paper. An extra tip I can share is for ageing coffees (if you have something sitting for a long time in the cupboard) or even something too fresh roasted like a day ago only, I highly advise a longer soak of 1.5 mins to extract more flavour out.

This is the first time we have Wide Awake in the box. What can our subscribers expect from the three featured coffees (Strawberry fields from Rwanda, Wildcard from Colombia, and Easy Rider from Costa Rica)?

Senina: Maybe we first should mention the strange names we give our coffees, we call them Coffee Series and the names are all music and pop-culture inspired. We currently have 9 of those series, each one representing a specific taste profile. The coffees we picked for Bean Portal's subscribers are some of our personal favourites

On Easy Rider we have a honey processed Catuaí from Los Ureña in Costa Rica. It’s the second season we have this coffee from producer Paúl Cascante Ureña, and we love it. It’s delicate, sweet and buttery, with a slight acidity. It’s just such a balanced, smooth drinker.
Next, we have our Strawberry Fields series which is currently occupied by a natural Red Bourbon lot from the Gitega Hills mill in Rwanda. This one is a complex beauty with a syrupy character, notes of candied orange, strawberries and pineapple. It’s basically like a bunch of Tutti Frutti.
And finally, we have this massively funky Colombian micro-lot from Finca La Cumbre on the Wildcard Series. This natural processed Caturra is intensely fruity with wild fermented pineapple notes. It’s a tropical blast with lactic undertones.