Journal — April 2023

Happy April! We hope you’re enjoying the longer, warmer days. Here in NC, the rain has finally started to wash way our blankets of pollen, replacing those last lingering memories of frigid mornings with the feeling that summer could be just around the corner. At Yonder’s outpost in Durham, it’s been meaningful for me to watch people experience surprise and delight as they try each new coffee we share. I love how simultaneously personal and universal taste is. Every person has their own perception of every bean and every cup, but those parts make a whole, and it feels extra special to watch something bigger grow out of that shared love.

This month’s roaster approaches coffee with a similar intention. MAME was founded in Zurich, Switzerland by Mathieu Theis and Emi Fukahori. The two met each other at coffee competitions and fell in love with specialty coffee, while also falling in love with each other. They made the leap into their passions and decided to leave their corporate office jobs and started the roastery, MAME, in 2016. MAME means ‘bean’ in Emi’s native language Japanese (but I also think it’s beautiful how the word is made up of the first two letters of each of their names.) As simplistic and austere as it may appear, behind it the ethos of the roastery is made clear.

As successful and decorated as Mathieu and Emi are in the coffee world, their own descriptions of their coffees have a certain candor to them. Coming in sleek black tubes, MAME opts to describe their coffee on a color wheel describing shades and hues, with broad, simple descriptions to characterize their beans. Instead of defining the coffee for you, MAME opens the floor for you to explore your own experience; to ask: Why do I love this? What does this mean to me? There is no pressure to conform to any molds but rather an invitation to partake in their passion and share their joy.

I first visited MAME on a long layover through Zürich soon after they opened. I arrived late in the afternoon on a cold Wednesday in November, and Mathieu and Emi were both on bar brewing coffee.

That visit became one of my favorite coffee experiences, and I think about it often. I hope you enjoy this month’s coffees as much as I enjoyed that first cup Emi brewed for me back in 2017.