A perfectly roasted cup of coffee!
You’ve probably already come across it – at a market or on the road: the CafeTree coffee truck. Yann Castagna and his wife will serve you whenever you feel like a hot, strong cup of coffee. Their freshly roasted coffee is of course also available in bags at Letzshop.
Please introduce yourself
CafeTree was created in November 2015 by me, Yann Castagna and my wife to offer high quality coffee specialties from a mobile coffee bar, the CafeTree Coffee Truck, mounted on the ‘back’ of the mythical Piaggio Ape.
Since then, we have been present with our coffee trucks all over Luxembourg, and even beyond its borders on fresh produce markets, music festivals, folk festivals, exhibitions, trade fairs, conferences, open houses, etc. to serve our espressos, cappuccinos, caramel lattes and other specialities.
In March 2020, we opened our own coffee roasting shop. This means that we roast the coffee beans ourselves, which are then prepared by our baristas and served to our customers.
What about coffee?
When we were students, we ‘dreamed’ of opening a cosy coffee bar. A place to meet and relax. After several experiences as employees, we decided together to try entrepreneurship. Looking for a business idea, we saw a coffee truck and thought it was the perfect idea for us. Thus, we could make our idea of a café happening, but in a mobile version and without taking a big financial risk.
So we launched our first coffee truck at the end of 2015 and that’s how our passion for coffee took root. Today we are not only baristas in our coffee trucks, but also coffee roasters.
From the coffee bean to the coffee cup.
For us, it all starts with the choice of the green coffee we want to process. We select our green coffee beans according to specific and well-defined criteria. First of all, we pay particular attention to the quality of the coffees we wish to offer you. We only buy coffee whose exact origin we know and we avoid coffees sold on the stock exchange. Unfortunately we are too small to buy directly from the producers, but the wholesaler we work with has a direct and trusting relationship with the producers. We also know that prices paid to these producers are higher than the minimum paid for a ‘fairetrade’ labelled coffee.
Then we roast the coffee in our roaster. During this stage the green coffee beans are exposed to a heat source in a drum that rotates on itself. While they roast, their aromas are revealed. The duration of roasting, the heat applied, the speed at which the heat is applied and many other factors will determine the taste of the roasted coffee. Roasting is thus an extremely complex and precise process and we’ll never get to know all the details. This is one of the beauties of the job.
One of the many ways to prepare coffee is with an espresso machine. This is the way we prepare our coffees on our coffee trucks. A large part of the complexity of preparing a really good espresso lies in the setting of the coffee grinder. If the coffee is ground too coarsely or too finely, the extraction will not be perfect. Then, with the help of an espresso machine, the drink is extracted on the spot for the customer to enjoy hot. We use espresso as the basis for a wide range of caffeinated drinks such as cappuccino, latte, espresso macchiato….
Discover the product range of CafeTree!
How do Luxembourgers enjoy their coffee?
Luxembourgers are used to drinking a large cup of coffee. So we serve them an ‘américano’ (a mixture of hot water and a double espresso). But espresso, cappuccino, pistachio cappuccino etc. are also very popular. There is not really one kind of coffee that is the most popular.
What is your favourite variety?
We don’t really have a favourite. Every coffee has its own nice taste. For those who are undecided, we offer therefore a discovery box with our five varieties.
CafeTree presents itself
Further articles
