About us

Our Story

How it all began

Al-Gharb Coffee Roasters is an independent coffee roastery and brunch restaurant, founded in 2019, in the heart of the Algarve, Portugal by Chantell and Henning.

They are coffee crazy and opening a specialty coffee roastery allowed them to turn their daydream obsession with coffee into a full time job...near the beach.

Passion for coffee

They come from a diverse multinational background. Henning is German and lived in Canada and Switzerland, while Chantell is Portuguese, born in South Africa and lived in many countries.

Their shared love for travel and history has inspired the creation of the international brunch menu you see in Al-Gharb Coffee Roasters, while still paying respect to local ingredients and the best produce Algarve has to offer.

What does Al-Gharb mean?

A quick history lesson: “Al-Gharb” is the old name for the Algarve, meaning “the West”. It is the Arabic name given to the region during more than 5 centuries of Moorish rule; before it was absorbed into the Portuguese kingdom in the 12th century.

Quality

We believe in bringing great coffee to Everyone. Portugal is steeped in a rich coffee tradition and we are part of a new generation of coffee roasters that adds a page to bring fair priced and sustainable coffee that is still affordable to all coffee lovers.

Our Values

Sourcing

Customers can rest assured that our beans are traceable back to origin, knowing that the small farms and micro-lots are paid a fair price for their produce and can sustain natural high quality harvests, even in bad yield years.

People

We believe in a stable and fair living wage. We are open all year round to serve our community and counter Albufeira’s seasonal tourism and the instability that that brings to the labour market. We recruit staff who share our core values and their work ethic is reflected in everything we do. Happy staff make happy customers.

Flavour is king

Most of us grew up with traditional roasting methods that are dark, oily and often with that underlying"burned toast" flavour. Roasters could mass produce consistent flavour with sub-par beans.

Today, there are more and more micro-roasters, who specialise in high quality beans and who roast as light as possible to bring out it's natural flavours.

How we roast

Middle of the roast

Al-Gharb Coffee Roasters is more middle of the road - medium roast - most of the time. Each coffee has their own natural flavour notes, depending on their region and where they are grown.

Our roasting method is specifically tailored to extract those natural flavours and to maximise the experience of each brewing method.

This is why some of our coffees will taste like peaches, jasmine and others like hazelnuts or dark chocolate. We respect the beans and let them tell their own story.