But first coffee
I’ve always loved coffee. As a kid, the smell of coffee in the morning made my day. Although I loved the scent, I didn’t like the taste. This came only years later when I was introduced to speciality coffee. I learned about coffee regions, production facilities and roasting profiles. However, loving coffee is not a job, so I learned the skills of television production and worked for 15 happy years in a national broadcast company. Television production is a hard job, with long days and I drank litres of coffee, bad coffee 
. At that time, my wife and I wanted to take a break so we decided to go travelling for one year with our three kids. Discover the world, reconnect together and, for me, travel in search of new coffee adventures. Here is where the journey started.
Enjoy!
Bert Gielen
Our Journey
Road trip through Southeast Asia
In 2018 to 2019, I went on a one-year road trip through Southeast Asia with my family. We had a great time discovering this beautiful continent, meeting fascinating people and from time to time settling down to sip a refreshing iced coffee, a Vietnamese phin cà phê, an Ipoh white coffee, or a latte in a plastic bag in George Town. The amazing world of coffee opened up its secrets to me.
Delicious Cold Brew
At Q Kaffa in Malacca, Malaysia they did not serve a refreshing iced coffee, but rather a cold drip coffee. Even though I knew the concept, this was the first time I could enjoy it. To my great surprise, the acidity of this cold coffee was not masked by condensed milk and sugar. This was pure coffee, with a deliciously smooth bite and a real coffee taste. An idea was born.
Let the science begin
Back home, I started to play around with coffee beans, cold brew temperatures and steeping times. Coffee beans from numerous regions, terroirs and producers were tested and tasted. After a while, I found the perfect combination to go further. Now how do we get this great drink into cans and bottles?
The perfect partner
Finding the right partner for roasting the beans and producing cold brew coffee in large volumes was not easy. We wanted our cold brew coffee to be a craft rather than an industrial product. Cold brew coffee is not common in Europe and working with a coffee roaster who has the same approach was fundamental. Jonas Braun and his team at Kaffee Braun have been a huge help to me and they took care of the large batch production.
Nitro it is
Another important partner is the Belgian Nitrobeverages.eu. Jurgen and Julien supply state-of-the-art nitro taps essential for the delicious nitro cold brew coffee. Great for coffee shops, restaurants or co-working spaces. The Brum™ nitro dispenser is not only suitable for infusing nitro into cold brew coffee, but it also creates a creamy foam and adds a smooth taste to all kinds of drinks and cocktails.
It's all in the name
A great product is essential, but the branding is just as important. It has to be appealing, sexy, innovative and even mysterious. With these elements and some secret ingredients, Quatremains created our brand identity and designed the packaging.
Our first samples
After all these formulas, tastings and try-outs, our first sample batch was produced. All of our hard work finally resulted in this velvet smooth cold coffee drink, lightly sparkling with infused nitro and a great source of natural energy. Now let's go to the market...
Change of plans
The Covid-19 virus was a horrible wake-up call for every individual and every company, small or large. We decided to postpone the production of our nitro cold brew in cans and to focus on local coffee shops and restaurants. We developed our cold brew concentrate and ready-to-drink cold brew packaged as a bag-in-box to fit the purpose.
