The Story of Ebenica Coffee
The quality deserves to be appreciated
How does every journey begin? Only with you. With your decision, your taste, your determination. Just the way you are. I am a man with a strong relationship to quality, convinced that good things deserve to be patiently followed.
I like good food and fine drinks. And I followed my vision many times. Since I was working in multinational companies, I traveled a lot and tasted local specialties. I was most interested in the coffee that tasted better abroad. I was specifically appealed to the work of small manufacturers. They were doing things well, and I appreciated it. They inspired me.
I said that even Slovak coffee could get to the top. Inspiration has grown into an idea, and that was the beginning of the journey. I took a tenacious deep breath before the first step of a long and demanding expedition for quality.
Everything can be done, you just need to be patient
What is the next step when you decide to make good coffee? Make good coffee.
Nothing happens by chance. Nothing happens immediately. Naturally, you have to know something about coffee. If you do not know, read. In Slovakia, I did not find the necessary literature, but what is an obstacle in today’s world of Internet?
The beginnings of my journey towards quality looked like this: Me, one big box of Amazon books, and a great will to learn everything necessary about coffee. And a few great people by my side.
The joy of adventure is good to be shared
If the enthusiasm is big enough, it begins to spread unstoppably. I am very glad that I managed to transfer it to the people around me.
With my wife, I have been discussing coffee endlessly ever before. With my brother, I have been through my first barista experience. My parents were so captivated, that they were also both involved in the company for some time. The enthusiasm is visible on my colleagues, too, they understand the way we have taken together. I think fate can be shaped only by the strength of self-determination, but the help of family and friends cannot be called in any other way than great happiness.
A long, passionate way towards quality is an adventure and the best you can do is to share it.
Walk towards big dreams and stay yourself
Two years have passed since the primary idea of selling the first final products.
We have set up our own café. Small space. Four tables. At the beginning only a bunch of customers. However, their priceless views and insights gave us the feedback immediately. It was a great school of practical knowledge how to make coffee and manage a café. For example, on one hand we were taught how to prepare coffee professionally, on the other one, we unprofessionally burned ourselves several times on the coffee machine. Never mind. When having big plans, you always have to count with burning yourself occasionally.
When we wanted to develop the taste, we were helped by the experts, a roaster and, of course, customers. We were regularly sending the samples of coffee to a group of people who were evaluating it and after all, they contributed to the present result.
However, the resulting product is not just coffee – it has to be wrapped in something. We were looking for a way to pack it as simply as possible. We were weighing the grains, wrapping them into packaging with special machines and sticking the labels. Even though the most important was inside, we did our best to build an image of our brand. It was not just about patient harmonizing of tastes, but also about building the brand.
And the brand actually gained strength. The company grew, the number of customers started to increase in private, corporate, hotel, café and restaurant segments.
However, no growth has prevented us from remembering family values and behaving in this way towards the first employees and the customers. It’s not just empty words. The first Christmas took a lot out of us. Everyone in the company was preparing gifts for customers. And since then, all Christmases were like this, but it is all definitely worth it.
The result reflects the consistent way towards it
To watch the growing success of our coffee was a very pleasant experience. But if one is determined to create quality, they must be very demanding with the evaluation. And if they want to create the highest quality, the demands have to be even higher.
That’s why I secretly sent samples of our coffee to the Coffee Review in the USA, world-renowned coffee rating organization.
The feeling, when an incredible volume of determination and patience is transformed into incredible success, is amazing. All 3 caffeinated coffees – Ebenica Intensivo, Ebenica Harmonelle and Ebenica Piano – earned 90 points. Ebenica Gurmano even got 92 points. All of this is the equivalent of gold medal, making it one of the top 10 espresso coffees in Europe.
We gradually attracted other customers and started to export to other countries such as the Czech Republic, Austria or Saudi Arabia. We became a partner of one of the world’s most prestigious wine competitions – Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. Our coffee has already been served to several presidents and other prominent people.
The only right way is your own way
I would like to let you the have the same feelings. That’s why I decided to share with you the story of EBENICA: it may inspire you. It might be something totally different. Everybody should go their own way. Though the paths vary, the most important stays the same.
This story is a proof that if you have an idea, get down to it and then work patiently on your goal, incredible things can happen.
That’s our story.
The story of EBENICA COFFEE.
A quite long text about living in the world of short slogans and news reports. If you have come to the end, you are one of us. You are among those patient, determined people who respect the quality. You are interested in stories which are in the background of things worth to be known.
I’m glad there are still more of us. Quality always comes to those who are passionate about it.
Marek Fajčík