From our Coffee Roastery back in Antwerp, Belga & Co takes great pleasure guiding people throughout the coffee world. Providing them with fresh coffee, crafted with an eye for detail, people will enjoy new experiences.
It all starts with the right coffee
Great coffee starts long before the beans reach the roaster. At Belgacoffee, it all begins with finding the right beans. We look for coffees with distinctive flavour profiles and the potential to bring something special to our range.
Before making a decision, we roast small samples of different coffees and taste them to discover their unique aromas, flavours and characteristics. This gives us a better understanding of what each coffee has to offer. Only after carefully tasting and evaluating the samples do we decide which coffees make the cut and are worth bringing into our range.
Freshness through regular roasting
Coffee continues to evolve after roasting, which is why timing matters.
By roasting regularly, on a weekly basis, we can adapt our production to demand and consumption. How often we roast each coffee depends on demand as well as the characteristics of the beans themselves.
After roasting, the coffee is given time to degas, allowing the carbon dioxide released during roasting to escape. This resting period helps the coffee develop before it is brewed.
Our goal is to deliver carefully roasted coffee that retains its character and quality, allowing every coffee to shine in the cup.
Always tasting, always refining
Cupping is an essential part of the way we work at Belgacoffee. It allows us to understand each coffee, evaluate its flavour profile and make sure we get the best out of every bean.
We start tasting from the very first sample roast, using cupping to assess how the coffee responds to a particular roast profile. We look at its aroma, flavour, acidity, body, sweetness and aftertaste. By tasting different coffees side by side, we can identify their unique characteristics and decide how best to bring them out through roasting.
But for us, the process doesn’t stop there. Developing a roast profile is never a one-time decision. Based on what we taste, we make adjustments and continue refining the roasting process until we achieve the flavour profile we’re looking for.
Even after roasting, we keep cupping our coffees as part of our quality control. This helps us check for consistency, ensure each coffee maintains its intended character and make adjustments whenever needed.
Cupping is also a way to share knowledge across the team. By tasting together, we develop our palates, learn more about the coffees we work with and help our baristas understand what makes each coffee unique. This knowledge allows them to fine-tune their brewing and share the story behind every cup with our customers.
For us, great coffee comes down to continuous learning, tasting and refining — from the first sample roast to the final cup.
Why we roast our own coffee
For us, roasting our own coffee is about more than simply controlling a technical process. It gives us the freedom to shape the flavour of our coffee and bring our own vision to life.
By carefully balancing temperature, timing and roast profiles, we can bring out different flavour notes in each coffee.
We experiment, taste and refine until we achieve a result that reflects our approach to coffee. Our coffees are more than just beans we buy and resell. We take the time to understand each one, develop its flavour profile and fine-tune the roasting process to get the best out of it in the cup.
Transparency and thoughtful choices
For us, great coffee starts with understanding the product and the choices behind it. That’s why we want to show not only how we roast our coffee, but also how we select our beans and why we make certain decisions along the way.
The origin of the coffee, the selection of the beans, the development of each roast profile and our quality control all play a part in that story. Direct trade relationships can also play an important role. By being transparent about how we source our coffee and where it comes from, we want to give our customers a better understanding of what they’re drinking and the thought that goes into every coffee we offer.
