Benjamin Pozsgai

German Roast Master Benjamin Pozsgai, the owner of Benson Coffee, started his journey in the coffee world 10 years ago. Benjamin tells us how he started this journey. 

You can find out what he expects from Kenyan coffee and what he likes about Wertkaffee in this video.

 

Benjamin’s Testimonial

Chris:

Benjamin, I wanted to ask you how you came into coffee and how do you perceive your current role in the coffee supply chain? What’s your current role in the supply chain?

Ben:

I came to coffee ten years ago by just being not too much happy with the other stuff I worked till then and somehow I figured out, that coffee is very interesting and so interesting to me that I think I could imagine to work with it for more than the next five years or so. So it gave me somehow a perspective, even if I was totally new. Like I had a coffee machine at home, but that was pretty much it. And I was just, yeah, I was just interested in how everything works and stuff like that. And in Cologne there were already a couple of roasteries so I just went there and introduced myself and said I want to work there. And it worked out that I started working there. My current role in the supply chain, well, I’m a roaster, I buy green coffee and I sell roasted coffee.

Chris:

What’s the roaster that you are roasting on currently?

Ben:

On a Probat 12 kilo roaster.

Chris:

And how many coffees do you have?

Ben:

How many different green coffees I have? Maybe 12, 13. And it depends, but maybe something about.

Chris:

And for Kenyan coffee, what’s your expectation of coffee from Kenya?

Ben:

My expectation of Kenyan coffee?

I think my expectation is a very clean cup, a very sweet cup and cup with a lot of fruits going on there. I think when I started drinking coffee, it was mainly SL-varieties. So they had, in my opinion, a very strong blackcurrant flavor, which I totally love and like. And I think in the last years when the green coffees were more mixed varietals, I still find this in the cup, but not that present mostly at coffees that I cup.

But there are other flavors. I just need to understand that the SL-variety is not yielding very well. I didn’t know about that till when I was in Kenya for the first time. And they just told me that Batian is just better for the harvest because you get just out more, more output, so to say.

Yeah, I think it’s a coffee I would recommend for filter and maybe for cold brew.

Chris:

How did you find out about Wertkaffee?

Ben:

I once got I don’t know if it was even by mail or email, I don’t know, I think Jörn of Wertkaffee, once got in contact with me many years ago and then we found out about each other. And that’s how it started, yes.

Chris:

And what do you like about coffees from Wertkaffee?

Ben:

I think it has the direct trade approach, which you find in other countries more easily, I think. And for Kenya, it was maybe except of one other project I knew about. Back then it was hard to get good coffees that were traceable and you knew what’s going on there and who the producers were and stuff like that.

So yeah, it’s nice to to have the contact to the producer in the end and to know what they are about and where they’re located and stuff like that.

Chris:

So which coffee from Kenya are you currently roasting or looking forward to receive?

Ben:

Yeah, at the moment I don’t have any coffees from Kenya, but we picked the Meteitei lot. I liked it very much at the cupping this year so yeah, that’s the coffee we’re looking forward to.

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