Getting to know Paolo Scimone - Founder & Head of Coffee.
How did the journey of His Majesty the Coffee began?
His Majesty the Coffee is a project I started in 2013 inspired by the blooming of specialty coffee market in the UK. My first experience in coffee was in 2005, in London - I was working as barista and I fell in love with coffee but at that time the only commercial grade beans were available on the market.
Between 2005 and 2013, I owned and ran a coffee shop in Italy for 3 years and followed that by working at a local commercial roastery, based in north of Italy. At that time, I was already thinking about starting my own brand of coffee and the only thing missing in Italy, in the jungle of 1000 roasters, was specialty coffee.
I proceeded and started roasting only specialty coffee. Although the growth was slow (because the market in Italy was not ready yet), I'm more than happy of my decision now looking back.
Can you share more about His Majesty the Coffee's approach to sourcing and roasting coffee?
We like to source only the best coffee we find on the market, looking at interesting sustainable projects, where possible.
We also started our own projects like "For the Planet" and "Borderless Blend". The former is dedicated to our planet earth, where every bag of coffee sold, we donate the necessary amount to plant a tree in Kenya. The latter was started in support of a colleague in Ukraine - we donated the full amount of sales to support his difficult situation.
With regards to our roasting approach - we roast separately and differently for both espresso and filter coffees, dedicating our best to every lot we source.
What was the inspiration for His Majesty the Coffee to decide to put coffees into the convenient capsule format?
Instead of serving only wholesale accounts I wanted to reach the home consumer in 3 ways: Instant, Capsule and Infusion. I decided to proceed with capsule where we spent a year and a half to find the best roasting profile, and we're really happy about the result thus far.
Coffee is fuel to get us moving throughout the day, especially in the morning. What is your daily morning ritual like?
In the morning I like to have a cup of filter coffee, made with the team at the roastery. I don't like drinking coffee alone, because for me it's not a matter of the caffeine but enjoying a proper ritual.
What are you most excited about right now and for the future of His Majesty the Coffee as a brand?
I want to invest into instant coffee and single-serve products like coffee bags (similar to tea) to push people to drink a specialty coffee in every moment of their life, without any complication.
