Maarten, a former editor in chief for a coffee magazine who had toured coffee scenes around the world, and Mark, a barista and trainer at a roasting school, founded Giraffe Coffee Roasters in Rotterdam in 2013, choosing the name to represent their mission of finding the gem of highest quality coffee in places nobody else can reach. They started by renting a roaster and within less than two years had opened their own roastery in Rotterdam, committing exclusively to certified organic coffee from the very beginning and building the operation around transparency, fair pricing, and a long term vision for the sustainability of the farmers they work with. Every Wednesday morning the full team gathers for blind cupping sessions run with the intensity of a small competition, and all staff are involved in checking the roasting of every coffee and updating profiles weekly to account for the changing variables that affect each batch across seasons. Giraffe varies its roasting profiles deliberately across different coffees to express terroir as faithfully as possible, even applying distinct approaches to beans from the same origin country, and selects only Arabica coffees with the most exceptional characteristics for inclusion in the range. The roastery now rents out its equipment to young up and coming roasters as well, passing along the same opportunity that Maarten and Mark once relied on, and runs SCA courses and home barista workshops through Giraffe Academy at their Coffee Bar and Academy in Rotterdam.