- Our story -

 

We are Al-Gharb Coffee Roasters, a family run business, founded in 2019, in the heart of the Algarve, Portugal by Henning and Chantell. They are coffee crazy and opening a specialty coffee roastery allowed them to turn their daydream obsession with coffee into a full time job.

 

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. 

 

And finally, 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 over 5 centuries of Moorish rule before it was absorbed into the Portuguese kingdom in the 12th century.
 

- Our Values -

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

We are known for the exceptional quality and freshness of our food and coffee, and live by the rule of sourcing as local and fresh as feasibly possible. 

 

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 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. 
 

- How we roast -

 

Most of us grew up with traditional roasting methods that are dark, oily and often with the burned toast underlying 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 roast as light as possible to bring out the flavours of the raw coffee better.  

 

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.