With Miro Coffee in Zurich, Daniel and David Sanchez run a coffee roastery, two cafés, and offer coffee from their coffee truck. Philipp talked to them about their roasting philosophy. Openness is the keyword if you want to be successful in the specialty coffee scene.
"We roast differently today than we did six years ago," Daniel Sanchez tells me. Back then, in 2014, Daniel started roasting coffee in a gas station. An unusual place for a coffee roastery, but one that you don't forget. At the beginning, Miro Coffee roasted much lighter and a bit "quite edgy," says Daniel during our conversation. Shortly thereafter, the Sanchez brothers launched a coffee truck, where they made coffee daily in front of ETH Zurich. That allowed them to gather a lot of feedback and meet a broad audience.
"From construction workers to physics professors, we make coffee for everyone."
Daniel Sanchez
The vast amount of feedback helped to refine their roasting language. It is an exciting process for every roastery to develop their own approach to roasting.
There is your own idea of what specialty coffee should taste like. Then there are personal preferences for certain coffees. And then there are the customers you need to find for those preferences so that the strategy pays off. The more open a roastery is here, the more it allows them to strike a balance, whether wide or narrow.
"We have simple specialty coffees, but also those that don't taste like coffee at all anymore – so there's something for everyone." Daniel brewed me a washed coffee from Ethiopia that was floral and tea-like, but still tasted like coffee. The espresso from Colombia that followed was definitely no longer a coffee for the masses – it was a fruit bomb of a coffee that tastes like a dessert, especially as a cappuccino.
Daniel Sanchez from miro coffee, Zurich
Growing organically and staying open at Miro Coffee
Today, Alfonso roasts with the 5kg Probatone roaster. Alfonso comes from Southern Italy and grew up with dark, Robusta-heavy espressos. "If I bring my family coffee from here, they turn it down. They say it's not coffee, it's nothing," Alfonso jokes and laughs. Coffee is a cultural asset, and our origins shape how we all understand coffee.
The roastery is separated from the café by a glass wall, providing insight into the craft. There are no secrets, which is why I visited Miro. They see themselves as craftspeople, not artists.
Next to the roastery is the office, which is gradually filling up. Here, David, Daniel, and their growing team take care of the café, sourcing green coffee, marketing, and the further development of the company.
"We aren't stressed," Daniel tells me, "and we don't need to grow at all costs. But we do want to grow; however, organic is the keyword."
Daniel Sanchez
And in doing so, Miro Coffee wants to remain open – and continue to focus on the people they see every day. They are now located at the main train station in Zurich, where they will meet commuters – and there are incredibly different coffee preferences there, too. Just as we at Kaffeemacher do in the Basel train station, or Adrianos does with their specialty coffee offer in the Bern train station, Miro is now adding to that in Zurich.
David Sanchez in conversation with Philipp Schallberger
Not loud, but present and level-headed
I have known Daniel since 2014, when we met at the World Barista Championship in Rimini. Then, in 2015, he served me a coffee at the Swiss Filter Coffee Championships. He was a participant, and I was on the jury. I had to give him some feedback and tell him that he was disqualified because he had exceeded his time.
Championships are an emotional affair, and not everyone manages to remain level-headed – especially in a moment when you have actually served a good coffee and yet have been disqualified. Dani did just that. He accepted it, stayed cool, and said that it was about the coffee anyway, not about him.
Those words stuck with me. After my last visit in September, I realized that he didn't just mean that, but that it's how Miro Coffee functions. Miro Coffee puts good coffee and the craft in the foreground. Without attitude, and yet trendy – it's great that you are helping to shape the Swiss coffee scene.
