Some coffee conversations deserve a room of their own.
Cafe Imports Europe invites roasters and green buyers to Berlin for the first installment of AFTER HOURS, ALL DAY on October 15-16: a free, all-day educational gathering built around the knowledge, questions, and connections that shape our work in coffee.
Schedule
Hosted at our Berlin hub, the day brings together talks, panels, workshops, cuppings, and conversations on sourcing, sensory, green buying, market insights, roasting, and more. Think of AFTER HOURS, ALL DAY as coffee education hidden in plain sight: built on the work we do every day, and aimed at the kind of direct exchange that usually only happens once the pitches and presentations are over.
15 October 2026
Kickoff
6:30 PM – Dinner with guests and CIE team
16 October 2026
Group 1
8:30 AM – Pastry Breakfast
9:00 AM – Coffee Rose Talk with Ian
10:30 AM – Cupping Round 1
12:00 PM – Talking Transparency with Dylan
1:00 PM – Light Lunch
2:00 PM – Cupping Round 2
3:00 PM – Roest Presentation
4:00 PM – Cake Break
4:30 PM – Panel Talk
6:00 PM – Aperitivo
7:00 PM – Dinner
Group 2
8:30 AM – Pastry Breakfast
9:00 AM – Roest Presentation
10:30 AM – Coffee Rose Talk with Ian
12:00 PM – Cupping Round 1
1:00 PM – Light Lunch
2:00 PM – Talking Transparency with Dylan
3:00 PM – Cupping Round 2
4:00 PM – Cake Break
4:30 PM – Panel Talk
6:00 PM – Aperitivo
7:00 PM – Dinner
Talking Transparency
The coffee market has never been more unpredictable and has raised more questions — and the answers aren’t in the spreadsheets. They’re at origin and in the roasteries. So let us bring the conversation straight “To the Source”: a candid dialogue with green coffee buyers on the ground in producing countries and roasters with their eyes on the product. From market inversion and inventory planning to navigating economic volatility, they’ll share what’s really happening where it matters most — and what that means for your sourcing decisions.
Rose: Cupping Through the Noise
Cupping is full of inherited methods, ingrained habits, groupthink, and industry assumptions. This class uses Cafe Imports’ Coffee Rose methodology as a practical case study for cutting through that noise: identifying what sensory information a business actually needs, understanding how different cupping systems serve different purposes, and helping roasters build or refine programs that better support their own buying, roasting, QC, menu, and communication decisions.
Automating the Craft with Guro from ROEST
How do we fuse efficient coffee roasting and the handcraft of coffee roasting? What skills does the future demand from a roaster? The roasting scene is shifting towards more automated processes on all levels. ROEST is an active part of that transition, being a producer of efficient, automated coffee roasters in Norway. They have looked at how automation affects the roasting workflow, identifying steps that benefit and complicate automation. This session talks about the future of roast automation, artificial intelligence, and the coffee roaster as a craftsperson.
Panel: To the Source
The coffee market has never been more unpredictable and raised more questions — and the answers aren’t in the spreadsheets. They’re at origin and in the roasteries. So let us bring the conversation straight “To the Source”: a candid dialogue with green coffee buyers on the ground in producing countries and roasters with their eyes on the product. From market inversion and inventory planning to navigating economic volatility, they’ll share what’s really happening where it matters most — and what that means for your sourcing decisions.
Featured Speakers
Our Cafe Imports Europe team will be joined by several of our teammates from abroad, in addition to pals from ROEST and several roaster partners. We’re looking forward to a day of workshops, talks, and a panel to wrap things up with this stellar crew.
Ian Fretheim
Ian is the Director of Sensory Analysis across all Cafe Imports offices. He’s joining us from the US to cup, talk the Coffee Rose, and maybe enjoy a glass or two of wine.
Dylan Siemens
Dylan is Head of Education at Cafe Imports, where his work sits at the intersection of coffee knowledge, curriculum development, and content creation. Over the past few years, he’s developed ED+U, an open-access, 6-course coffee education platform.
Guro Handeland
Since October 2023, Guro Handeland has driven the UI and UX evolution at ROEST. With a café manager background and a Master’s in Interaction Design, she now creates designs that connect the real-world roasting floor directly to ROEST’s software and hardware architecture.
Bob Wenneker
Bob is from Delft (the Netherlands), and he likes coffee (that one might be a bit obvious). After university and some corporate accounting experience, he decided to do something else. That something was working at Friedhats for his brother Lex and his business partner Dylan. They needed some hands. He’s still doing accounting, but now with a side of green buying.
Alica Bánszka
Alica is a Head Roaster at Rebelbean in Brno and has been in specialty coffee for more than a decade. Her hobbies include judging championships, sensory science and tons of music festivals or art in general.
Claudia Bellinzoni
Claudia is a Senior Green Buyer with Cafe Imports, whose broad experience from international relations to anthropology eventually led her to the world of specialty coffee. Since joining our team, her focus has been on sourcing exceptional African coffees.
Nuno Silva
Nuno started his career in coffee in 2016 and is now the UK Head of Coffee for Allpress, where he covers all things coffee – from purchasing green, profiling, QCing and everything in between
Register to Attend
Taste, Learn, & Connect
Sign-ups are now closed, and the event is full. Thank you for your interest in joining us!
We hope to catch you at the next AFTER HOURS, ALL DAY!
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