History
Gothenburg
Our personal coffee saga began in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1981. My wife, Berglind and I lived there for a while. I was working as a chef at a hotel, while she was studying – and busy being pregnant with our first child. We really caught on to how exciting it is to shop in small coffee and tea shops. We especially fell in love with one place in central Gothenburg where we would regularly drink morning coffee. They had two Husquarna ovens and would bake cakes and buns in one and roast coffee beans in the other. We would often buy un-roasted coffee beans there and take them home to prepare in our own kitchen oven. Having totally fallen for the experience we started discussing how great it would be to bring this amazing coffee culture, with all its secrets and romance, home to Iceland. And that’s how the idea of Te & Kaffi was born in our tiny Gothenburg kitchen!
Te & Kaffi in Iceland
We really put our all into making the dream come true from the beginning of 1984 and were able to rent a place in the basement of Baronsstigur 28 (in central Reykjavík). That’s where we opened the first Te & Kaffi on the 28th April 1984. To start with I worked purely in my field as a chef and Berglind concentrated on the business side of things; which was actually both of our biggest concern and often kept us working night and day trying to make it work out. Before long we decided we wanted to open a small café as well as the shop – something we managed two years later in the back of Laugavegur 24. At that time our hobby had become both of our jobs and our bread-and-butter. We were full of ideas about the company’s future and in 1987 we got our hands on a place in Hafnarfjörður (a town very close to Reykjavík) and started preparing to produce our own coffee.
Professionalism at the fore
Right from Day One we have strived to build up a business with professionalism and knowledge at the fore and the company still displays an intimate knowledge of the products and services it produces and sells. Whether it’s the raw materials themselves or the production methods and equipment, we always find the right solutions for our customers and do our best to pass on knowledge and added value to their own customers by, for example, running our Coffee School for baristas.
We also place great emphasis on continuing to be a socially-responsible production company. Working for us we have a fantastic group of interesting, expert, hard-working people who have been with us for years – and some for decades. Our goal is to carry on producing quality coffee and tea, and to share our knowledge and experience.
We run a very well-equipped coffee roasting facility which is the most modern of its kind in Iceland; and we work to the strictest codes of quality control and environmental protection when roasting beans. The expertise we have gathered over the years, in how to roast and how to handle the raw product, comes to good use at our roasting plant as we strive for coffee products of the highest possible quality. It is our ongoing goal to teach everyone in Iceland to recognise good coffee and to choose high quality every time; whether at home or away.
Our 20th anniversary
The company’s 20th anniversary in 2004 was something of a turning point, as at that time our products were really starting to get out into the general market. Many people knew Te & Kaffi from its shops and cafés and the company’s production side was going well; but business customers were still almost all restaurants/bars and offices. Now our products are available in third-party shops and supermarkets nationwide.
Much had changed during those 20 years and the nation’s appreciation and interest in good coffee had shot up. The anniversary year saw Te & Kaffi get a new logo and branding. By that time our skilled team was full of ambition and our baristas started to regularly take part in international competitions – winning more than a few.