Daniel Riou

My name is Daniel Riou, I’m from Lisbon Portugal, I’ve been working in the coffee business since 2011. I have a degree in Marketing and Advertising but by working in the family company, I’ve always been interested and very close to every stage of the process. I am owner of Buraca Coffee Roasters.

Coffee was already important for me without even being aware of its importance. Coffee roasting is our family business and before I got in love with the coffee world, I was already working on it helping the company and family since an early age.

The first time I got in touch with specialty coffee was back in 2014 after a trade show in UK. We started working in a new project where we would develop the brand and the roasting for a new coffee shop that wanted to use direct trade coffee’s and 100% arabica coffees.

At this point we felt that the market for coffee in EU was changing (for the better) and we started learning, doing SCA courses, working directly with farmers and learning how to roast the coffee lighter and enhancing its natural characteristic’s… since then we have learned and improved so much, and we feel that the coffee business as never been so interesting as today.

Mornings are not always fun for me, unless I’m leaving my daughter at school… Monday mornings are the worst. A good cup of coffee will help going through the week.

I love the v60, it’s been my favorite for a while. I just think you get a brighter and cleaner coffee. I love the acidity of the coffee’s and I think this method favors it. Every morning I do a V60 and for me it’s the one where I can really understand the complexity of the coffee’s I’m drinking.

It’s hard to say, I’ve had so many good coffee’s… probably a Panamian geisha from Graciano Cruz. I’m a big fan of Ethiopian coffee’s, always been. But today you can find amazing coffees from any region. It’s crazy…

Ethiopia. Just because of the history behind and the Ethiopians coffee profile. I think that Ethiopian coffees are naturally good. For me simple is good and that is what you get with Ethiopian coffees. There is no need for “anaerobic controlled fermentations” and crazy processes. If we talk about espresso, I will choose Brazilian coffees. I love a sweet, round and very balanced espresso coffee. And Brazil can offer that and much more.

I’ve had the chance to visit the roastery and taste the coffees from La Cabra in Denmark. They always have a good range of coffees and I love the brand. It was a big pleasure to see how they work and their roasting approach. If we want to go to a more “exclusive” approach, I recommend the micro roastery from Alexander Ruas Standout coffees from Sweden.

They only source and roast coffees that are used in Barista or Brewers cup competitions, they have an amazing 100g subscription where you can taste the best coffee’s in the world from farms like  @cafegranjalaesperanza,  @ninetypluscoffee,  @graciano.cruz and @geishavillage in Ethiopia.Some of these lots are less than 10 kg and therefore are very rare and unique.

I’m still learning.

It’s been very challenging, not easy, we feel that we will take a while to recover from this year and a half. However, the coffee business is growing, and people seek quality and transparency. We think that there are new opportunities for who, like us, want to “make coffee better”.

I think it will grow so much that you will get to a point like Australia where it’s just “coffee”. Specialty coffee will be the “new normal”…wouldn’t that be just great?!

Hopefully doing what I do today… opening coffee shops for Buraca Coffee Roasters and developing private labels and projects for coffee professionals.

Don’t be lazy, aim to the stars and work with passion. Repeat the day after… never give up!