Oven Heaven Coffee Roasters

This month I’m super excited to bring you two fantastic coffees from Oven Heaven Coffee Roasters in Bordeaux, whilst also getting an exclusive release at their new packaging before it even gets launched!

TELL US ABOUT OVENHEAVEN COFFEE AND WHY DID YOU GUYS START ROASTING COFFEE?

Oven Heaven is craftsmen project located in Bordeaux, France, that includes a specialty coffee roastery and a fine French patisserie. Back from Melbourne, we wanted to share our customer oriented approach with people. We think that amazing products mean nothing if you don’t show empathy and love to your customers. We also realised that specialty coffee has been introduced in France as a luxury product and, as we don’t agree with that approach, we wanted to show that good coffee can be easy and fun so people can feel comfortable in this new world.

WHERE ARE YOU FROM AND HOW DID YOU GET INTO COFFEE?

We are originally from Arcachon bay (1 hour driving from Bordeaux). I got into coffee 5 years ago (I used to be an Air traffic controller in the Air Force, had one that for 10 years). It was not a coffee drinker (found it too bitter and like drinking tobacco juice) but once, I really needed a kick so I sat in a café and had a beautiful specialty coffee espresso, it was like a revelation to me and I chose this path as my after duty reconversion :) I then started to work for two coffee places in Bordeaux and ended up in Melbourne (working for Padre coffee) before getting back home.

WHAT IS THE BEST COFFEE EXPERIENCE YOU’VE HAD EVER?

As a customer, I’d say Patricia coffee brewers in Melbourne. The first time I got there, I was served both the best batch brew and the best flat white ever. The fact that the service is super friendly and always on point certainly helps. I feel like sometimes coffee professionals can’t make the difference between taking what we they do and taking themselves seriously, these guys can.

TELL US ABOUT THE COFFEES FEATURING IN THIS MONTHS BREW BOX?

The first coffee, for espresso, is our Colombian Catalina Vasquez (Finca la Colombia, Café Lumbus, Antioquia). We met Catalina in our shop 6 months ago and we sat for 2 hours talking about quality, sustainability and relationship between farmers and roasters : it was like a professional crush. This natural process red Caturra is very sweet, fruity (hello strawberries!) and rich. It is perfect as an espresso or as a milky bevy.

The second coffee, for filter, is our Panama Don Cubilla (Volcan Baru, Chiriqui). We chose this coffee during an event at our main green broker’s facility and we kinda had to fight for it! It’s a beautiful example of what Panama can offer : fruitiness, complexity and delicacy. Because Panama is not only about geishas, we wanted to propose this washed process Catuai as our summer refreshing filter option.

TELL US SOMETHING UNCOFFEE RELATED ABOUT YOURSELVES?

I am a huge music fan (can’t roast without good tunes) but I am the worst singer ever. Sometimes passion and skills don’t match right?

WHAT IS THE PLAN FOR THE FUTURE? WORLD DOMINATION?

First of all, this question reminds me of Pinky and the Brain so I love it! So yes "the same thing we do every night, try to take over the world!"

More seriously, the plan would be to get specialty coffee to present itself in France as a professional alternative to commodity coffee and try to get more customers attracted to what we do. There is a lot of work to do over here and we’ll definitely do our share to help the specialty coffee industry grow in our country. Also, we wanna make coffee look more accessible and easy (we believe in coffee as an experience in which the customers should never feel unworthy of it).