Who are you and what is your position at Boot?
I am Darja Koster and have been Managing Director for a year now. When Barend asked me about 1.5 years ago how I would feel about leading this fine company, I was at first very surprised and once the idea had landed a bit more, enormously honored. Being thrown into the deep end that is kind of indicative of my career at BOOT Coffee. If there is a challenge, it can be taken. So through our store and espresso bar, giving the workshops, entering orders, training the hospitality industry on location and sales in the field, I also embraced this challenge with enthusiasm!

Why do you work with coffee?
I work with coffee because it is a great product, with which everyone actually has a fine association. Even the non-coffee drinker. I work with good/beautiful coffee because it is a natural product. There is always movement, it never gets boring and also here there are continuous challenges to ensure that it can actually keep going well and to propagate that it is also important to consciously enjoy good products like coffee. To surprise people with a diversity of flavors. The wide palette of flavors of these quality varieties and letting people experience what you can taste in coffee. To give farmers a stage for their hard work. For many people today, the origin of products grown nearby is self-evident. It is also visible and often tangible. For coffee (and also tea and cocoa, among others) this is further away and seems to be less important. That's why I - and BOOT Coffee - can help create a place to have and keep clear lines of communication throughout the chain. To keep improving in that as well. I really learn every day and I think I will never stop learning in this world!

What is your most memorable moment as a coffee professional?
That's like asking what the best day of your life is ???? I don't have 1 of those, I'll name a few: A conversation with the Hartmann family about their developments from the beginning until now and the fact that we have been working with them since the early 90s. A meeting with farmers from the Coffee For Peace Project (Colombia) who were extremely happy about the fact that their coffee could be tasted and bought from us, so that the farmers there become more and more motivated to grow mainly coffee and not other addictive substances....
The amazing smell of strawberry jam the first time I smelled a natural Geisha, freshly roasted from the roaster.
Very loyal, dear business customers who, especially in the past few years, showed so much perseverance and creativity.
Also in the year of 50 years of BOOT Coffee to get the start as a board of directors and keep BOOT heading forward with a fresh wind.
I hope to pin and experience many more memorable moments on BOOT's timeline!

In your opinion, what is a coffee that everyone should try?
All of them, of course! I really get very happy with beautiful floral and fruity flavors in coffee, sweetest filter. Then Ethiopia and Colombia and a very nice start to 2024, the Don Juan Limited Edition, where I was really surprised by the tone of black olives combined with honey!