Wu Wei Coffee is a specialty coffee roaster. I founded Wu Wei Coffee out of a spare bedroom in my parents’ home, during the midst of the COVID 2019 lockdowns. I’ve been in the coffee industry for nearly a decade, and as a creative person I’m always looking for ways to create and challenge myself. Up until the Pandemic, I had worked in barista & management positions, but never as a roaster. ~ the pandemic hit the service and retail industry hard. Most cafés and restaurants were forced to shut down, leaving us without work. I quickly re-framed this time and saw it as a gift, the gift of ‘dead time,’ Robert Green, the author of ‘Mastery’ & ‘The 48 Laws of Power’, writes about a concept he calls “dead time’ and ‘alive time’ This idea came to Green after studying Civil Rights activist Malcom X.  X spent several years in prison, then came out on the other side to what he describes as ‘Alive’. As stoic philosopher Epictetus writes ‘He was sent to prison. But the observation ‘he has suffered evil,’ is an addition coming from you.” Many would call a forced lockdown, a form of imprisonment.

what matters to us.

  • Design + Art Focused

    We understand that the world is interpreted through all of the senses. For that reason, we believe that everything we do, should not only taste great but look great. We put just as much attention to the bag, the box, even the tape, that we seal the box with. Our goal is to always strive towards beauty.

  • Community

    Community is everything to us. From the farmers who plant and harvest the coffee trees, to the suppliers we work with. Without a solid community, we wouldn't be here. Coffee is our vehicle of choice when it comes to communicating with the world.

  • Direct Trade

    Sourcing good coffee is equality import to roasting good coffee. You can't do one, without the other. Direct trade means that we've personally built relationships with the coffee growers. This is important because we know exactly where our coffee is coming from, and we are assured that coffee growers are fairly compensated for their hard work, and that we pay a fair price.

  • Growth

    Growth is key. We understand that if we are not growing, we are not progressing. For that reason, we invest in the evolution of Wu Wei Coffee, not only as a coffee brand, but as a community.

Why Wu Wei?

The idea of learning to roast coffee came to me as a flash of insight as I was lying on my couch one afternoon during one of the initial lockdowns. With all this ‘dead time’ on my hands I challenged myself to learn how to roast coffee. I quickly found myself down a rabbit hole. I purchased a small 1KG ‘Huky 500T’ propane gas roaster, one of the smallest, most adorable roasters at the time. it’s an almost completely manual coffee roaster, with minimal controls, in contrast to commercial roasters where everything is controlled. You quickly learn to pick up on the different smells and colours that develop as the green coffee roasts. A roast involves a very complex molecular reaction, yet it’s still a fun & creative process. What ultimately defines good coffee is taste, not the periodic table .
I have a background in creative arts, I see the business journey akin to the creative process of visualization, taking action, and allowing the outer word to interpret it. Coffee is the vehicle I choose to express my creative vision, I find harmony in It, and see it as a dance between the senses.

"As a Latin American, I’ve always felt a deep calling to meet, learn, and understand the individuals who work endlessly to bring this delicious cherry to our part of the world. In 2020 I travelled to Colombia in search of a deeper coffee understanding, and of course in search of the perfect cup of coffee. I soon realized that the perfect cup does not exist. Rather the memories you create around coffee and how the experience interacts with your senses, are what make a cup of coffee great."

Allan Watts is one of my favourite teachers, particularly because of his teachings on Zen. When conceptualizing an idea (in this case coffee), my goal has always been to express my vision in its purest form, using the concepts at my core. The concepts of Minimalism, Essentialism, and Zen have changed the way I live my day-to-day life and guide me when faced with challenge, or decision making. These components are the foundation of Wu Wei Coffee. We see opportunity that may seem invisible, we follow the tide in creative harmony with nature and allow flow to be part of everything we do.

Wu Wei is the art of sailing, rather than the art of rowing. It can be seen as the alignment with the rhythm of the elements both within and without our bodies, recognizing the forces of nature and acting accordingly. Wu Wei Coffee was born during one of the most challenging times. Uncertainty creeping behind every day, I had no option but to follow the tide, where all I had was my imagination and my pen to think and incubate ideas that one day could see the light of the physical world. Wu Wei Coffee is the result, and my contribution to the Specialty Coffee industry.