When a Hungarian boy falls in love with Colombian espresso!
The story of Café Revolución began a long time ago in the UK when Hungarian Zsolt Papp was working in an English café making coffee.
Open a café? Yes! But – where?
Zsolt knew he had landed when the desire to own and operate a café one day crystallised as a passion, and then a genuine possibility.
Jump forward twelve years and Café Revolución was born after Zsolt fell in love with Colombia and decided to make Medellin both his home and the place to fulfil the dream of opening his first café. Four years on and both Zsolt and his business partner Peter Kramer have moved the operation up a gear – why sit back when you have aspirations a-plenty, and plenty of motivation.
“So it’s a very exciting time for us. Both…Peter who is also from Hungary and I still work in the cafés to keep daily contact with our customers.”
A sound business and social decision since locals like nothing better than dealing with the prime movers.
But the game-changer in this story is the quality of the coffee! Growing coffee in Colombia is big business and increasingly coffee aficionados are requesting Colombian coffee due to its diversity on one hand and its unique growing qualities on the other.
Zsolt and Peter experimented extensively to find the right beans.
“What we use for our espresso comes from the Tolima region in Colombia; it’s a dark Italian roast. We also have two medium roast single origin beans one from Salento, Quindio the other is from San Agustin, Huila.
Part of “…our motto is to of course always serve the best cup of coffee which we are very proud of. “
While the partners love what they do it wasn’t easy going to begin with, “It was hard to educate Colombians to drink espresso, what they were used to was…tinto which is a dark watery brew that sits in a pot all day…”
Their own love of espresso and on a mission to spread that love, soon broke down local barriers to change.
On top of that, tourism in Colombia is on the rise so things have been improving on both fronts for some time. This status quo is not surprising because they have the inspiration for their work syncd,
“We always wanted to create a place where people can feel at home. “
“We are open for breakfast and sell a lot of home-made foodstuffs, from banana bread to oatmeal cookies, panini’s and many other cakes and special treats!
“Home is not a place it’s a feeling…”
The adage adopted by Café Revolución says it all, and is duly enhanced by the quality of the coffee experience.
But there is another aspect which adds to the whole experience and that is the vibe in combination with the interiors. For a ritual nut like me, this is important.
There is nothing better than starting the day with a beautiful creamy flavoursome latte and a treat (the bigger the waist-enhancement the better!) in a down-to-earth but cool interior.
The wall mural, plants and little exterior garden all contribute to Café Revolución’s natural reach for a top-shelf aesthetic adventure. So wonderful to see!
It is great to hear stories of success and innovation, people are drawn to others via their passions and dedication, and dedication here means the team have opened another café in Laureles, which is one of the nicer areas of Medellin. “It’s a very calm neighbourhood full of restaurants and bars and little designer shops.”
