About Gringo Nordic
Gringo Nordic Coffee Roasters is Swedish specialty coffee roastery. It was founded in 2018 by Johan Ekfeld who co-founded Johan & Nyström in 2004.
After selling the company (Johan & Nyström) and 4 years in the wilderness, I am back where I belong. I have truly missed roasting coffee. I love turning on the roasting machine in the morning, smelling the coffee all day long och work directly with the farmers. It has been a journey getting back to the first love of coffee, and I am thankful that I am in many ways back where I started, a true love for coffee and the industry with all the passionate people.
Can you please introduce your roastery in a few short sentences?
We are Gringo Nordic, a curious little coffee roasting company in Gothenburg, Sweden. Established in May 2018. We source 100 % fully transparent speciality coffees from single farms, estates and cooperatives. We slow roast our coffee in small batches on a Loring 35 kilo. We focus on drink-friendly pleasurable coffees with a distinct personality.
What is the story behind your name and logo?
Johan, the main owner of the company, owns a coffee farm in Cauca Colombia, where the workers, and his part owner, simply calls him Gringo. So the name derives from that simple fact. For the logo we just wanted a clean simple style, to contrast the strong name (that has a lot of connotations for a lot of people).
What is the hardest part about being a roastery?
To make it work financially.
What is the one thing people still don’t get about coffee?
That coffee is not supposed to be bitter (read dark roasted) and is actually a fruit and should be considered as such.
Which one thing do you wish you’d done differently since starting a roasting business?
I have roasted coffee for a very long time, more than 20 years, so the biggest mistakes I left at my old company - Johan & Nyström - and try to learn from those mistakes (there I did a lot).
Is there a person in the industry people should know about?
Mario, who is our exporter in Huila Colombia. He helps out so much with the farmers he works with and the coffee he manages to export are just phenomenal.
What’s been your biggest failure?
I have done some serious failures in the tea-department and learnt that one should do what one understands. In my case I have learnt that I do not understand at all what goes on in the tea-world.
What are you most proud of?
That I, after almost 25 years of roasting, still love turning on the roasting machine in the morning, smelling the beans, make that first cup of coffee. There's a love for coffee that never ceases, which makes me proud, but mostly happy.
How will the specialty coffee market look like in 2025?
I have no idea, I am here and now, I never look that far ahead.
Tell us little bit about “The Cup” - best cup of coffee you’ve ever tasted?
Of course I have had a lot of great cups of coffee also at the cupping table, I cup every day, and it would be easy to say that this or that Geisha blew my mind. But usually the coffee you get in Yirgacheffe after a day on the road, tastes magically. Or the coffee I brew out in nature after a few hours of hiking. So maybe I just answer, I do not know, I have had too many.
- Johan "Gringo" Ekfeldt
