Cloud Picker

Getting to know the team behind Cloud Picker.

How did the journey of Cloud Picker began?

Established in 2013 by Frank Kavanagh & Peter Sztal. Our coffee isn’t just roasted in Dublin, it’s chosen for its personality which means we go beyond the usual places to find it. The name 'Cloud Picker' came from our trip to Northern Thailand where we visited a coffee farm in the Doi Chang area on the Thai / Burma border and where we went up through the clouds to see the coffee pickers! Thailand wasn't known for its specialty coffee back then so it's so beautiful to see how far it's journeyed since.

Can you share more about Cloud Picker's approach to sourcing and roasting coffee?

We like the idea of going where no one has gone before. That’s why we’re not afraid to venture off into new coffee zones to find the best coffee on the planet.

Picking beans at the right time is crucial to their flavour: the small producers we work with care as much as we do about great coffee. We make sure our pickers are treated more than just fairly, so that they’re happily invested too.

What was the inspiration for Cloud Picker to decide to put coffees into the convenient capsule format?

For us the main reason was sustainability, producing pods had long been on the agenda but being able to produce a pod that not only tasted amazing, but also did not add to landfill was vitally important to us. Our pods came onto the scene for us in 2022, they are home compostable, which means people can place them in their home compost and they will decompose away perfectly.

Coffee is fuel to get us moving throughout the day, especially in the morning. What is your daily morning ritual like?

At Cloud Picker our ritual is simple, we start every morning with a shared batch brew cycling through the single origins we have available, the team loves comparing notes and there is always a fair bit of competition with who can make the best tasting batch brew, or a bit of heckling for a bad brew too!

What are you most excited about right now and for the future of Cloud Picker as a brand/business?

We truly have a lot of projects in the works so it's honestly a 'watch this space' time for Cloud Picker. Projects are happening in every area of the business, from cafe customer participation, to bringing the roasting process closer to the consumer, to broader brand awareness via new exciting partnerships and a B-Corp application. We do see the coffee capsule, instant and RTD markets as huge growth markets in the EU but as always it's about ensuring our footprint and the sustainability focus is kept as priority.