It all started in Kenya, where founder Joonas Reinikainen's grandparents lived most of their lives in Embu. That connection to East African coffee country led Reinikainen to arrange Finland's first direct trade green coffee import in 2013, initially having the beans roasted elsewhere before purchasing a 2 kg Discaf roaster in 2015 and launching Kahiwa in the lakeside town of Lahti. In 2020, Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas returned to his hometown during the pandemic, discovered Kahiwa, and was so impressed by the coffee and the vision that he became a co owner, since traveling with Kahiwa beans to every race on the F1 calendar. The roastery sources as directly as possible from farmers in Colombia, Rwanda, Honduras, Costa Rica, Brazil, and beyond, with a philosophy that outstanding coffee can only exist when producers are thriving.