A nose for coffee in the Bregenzerwald

There is little in Andrea Trevisan’s eventful life story to suggest his actual profession: The 32-year-old Italian has run his own coffee roasting facility, the Trevo Coffee Roastery in Au in Bregenzerwald, since the summer of 2019. He is a certified and award-winning barista, roasting trainer and one of only 5,000 people worldwide who have successfully completed the world’s most renowned coffee sensory training, the Arabica QGrader programme.

Despite the many twists and turns his life has taken thus far, coffee beans have always been a part of Andrea’s life. His father Roberto ran a small coffee roasting business near Bologna in the 1980s and his son Andrea grew up with the distinctive aroma in his nose. In 1991, Roberto moved to Prague and opened a coffee roasting business: “I often accompanied my father on these journeys in our small van packed full of coffee and he acquainted me with the secret pleasures of a great cup of coffee.”

Making coffee his profession was not Andrea’s first instinct: “I used to be a computer service technician. One day, my boss described my career path to me in detail and I was very shocked.” In 2009, he moved to London and landed in the middle of the “third wave” of coffee preparation: A movement that sees coffee not as an everyday drink, but as a high-quality luxury food. So began Andrea’s training as a barista and coffee roaster in London: “In Italy, coffee is an industrially produced commodity. In places like London, Berlin or Australia, on the other hand, people appreciate its aroma and are more familiar with the varieties, roasting and preparation methods. A cup of coffee is so much more than just a source of caffeine.”

It wasn’t coffee but snow that eventually led the enthusiastic snowboarder to settle in the Bregenzerwald: “I love the mountains and nature. I missed both very much during my time in London, so I took a seasonal job with a company that builds snowparks.” Andrea built his first snowpark in the winter of 2010/11 on the Diedamskopf. During this time, he became acquainted with Vorarlberg’s mountains, the Bregenzerwald dialect, and Corinna from Au.

After constructing countless funslopes and half-pipes throughout the Alpine region, coffee once again took centre stage in 2014: Andrea gained three years of coffee experience at the Molinari coffee roastery in Modena. His training covered everything from product development and quality control to marketing and sales: “It was an instructive time, but I was never completely happy: my own ideas about coffee never quite fit in with the company strategy.”

Since he also had a long-distance relationship with Corinna and the Bregenzerwald, he naturally decided to move back. After first considering a small coffee roastery in Innsbruck, Andrea instead decided to open his own business in the Bregenzerwald. In 2019, he founded the Trevo Coffee Roastery and started roasting pure coffee in the garage of his house in Au, focussing on small quantities and roasting entirely according to his own ideas. “The coffee beans come from cooperatives or farmers with whom I have direct contact. I want to know exactly where the coffee grows, when it is harvested and how it is cleaned.”

Numerous hotels in the Bregenzerwald are now among his customers. You can purchase Trevo coffee in all Alpine cheese dairies and taste it for yourself at Andrea’s own shop (Trevo Coffee Roastery, Platz 30, 6870 Bezau). As an entrepreneur, Andrea recognises the importance of following dreams. “At some point you have to wake up and smell the coffee beans.” Which is a round about way of saying that to accomplish your goals you’ve got to have a nose for success. Andrea’s nose for coffee has led him to the Bregenzerwald.

Issue: Winter 2020-21 Bregenzerwald Travel Magazine
Author: Babette Karner