Story number 3 will be about a specialty coffee shop in Constanta, my home town, and they are the special people of Corretto Coffee Shop. I am writing this in my home office, and I have just roasted some Peruvian beans. I can only tell you this : it smells like hopes and dreams, it’s a very good coffee.

I went to their place for the first time 3 years ago. I heard about their cafe a bit before that and I was following them with big interest. Having a coffee roastery and a specialty coffee shop in Constanta is a rare thing as there are not so many, that was also why I was so interested. I will admit that I have never ever gone home motivated by the good coffee that I could drink in Constanta.

After the first visit at Corretto I came back every morning during my holiday. That involved 9 days of walking up super early and traveling 30-40 min (in traffic, cause in summer Constanta is just a too busy city, full of tourists), just to drink a flat white and eat a croissant on their terrace. What a good summer that was!
Besides, the place became a hot spot for meeting all my friends. I brought them all there and introduced them to the wonders of specialty coffee in Constanta. Good old times.

The story of Corretto is quite curious, Stefan, the founder, not being initially a coffee drinker (yes, you read it correctly!). His big passion for coffee started after spending 2 nights reading on a forum discussion about 2 interesting topics : espresso machines and coffee. After 100 forum pages, he decided that he should look more in depth and find out more about this coffee world. He started by buying an espresso machine and a grinder, both Gaggia, and later on, while improving his technique he bought others too. What’s interesting to know is that he didn’t only buy and used them. No, he changed parts, replaced with others so he’d make them better.

If ever you’ll have the opportunity to get in contact with Stefan and talk to him about coffee, you’ll observe that he can get quite technical. He sometimes tells his story with such a passion that even if you don’t understand everything he says, you won’t want to stop him. Such a good story teller, catches your attention and makes you thrive for details. When he first told me about how this all started and how many changes he did to the Gaggia tools, I found it extraordinary. It’s amazing to see people going the extra mile once they discovered they have a passion for something. By the way, we discovered that we even have matching tattoos :

Developing this passion for coffee after only 2 years of discovering it, Stefan participated in a lot of coffee competitions organized by SCA. In 2014 he won the national championship of coffee tasting.

Going further, he started buying green coffee directly and roasted it. His friends showed a big interest in the coffee he obtained, so they started asking about it and also bought it more and more. This is how he started roasting for a restaurant, and afterwards he moved all his coffee equipment at the roastery, and opened it for visitors too. Curious visitors used to now come and taste, experiment specialty coffee and this is how Stefan built a coffee community in Constanta.

The coffee culture of our hometown is marked by Turkish influences, so we drink a lot of ibrik coffee. This is also one of the main factors motivating Stefan to participate and win multiple ibrik contests. He got 3rd place, and 2nd place and in a roasting competition he got a 4th place. Afterwards, he obtained certifications for Green Coffee foundation, Sensory foundation, Barista foundation and Roasting foundation.

Thomas, the coffee roaster and their “locomotive”(inspired from the cartoons) can be found today in the coffee shop opened in mai 2018, on Tepes Voda Street 16A in Constanta, this project being consolidated by Stefan and his good friend Eugen.

The place is indeed the friendliest and it offers the best specialty coffee, so don’t miss it when in Constanta, Romania. They prepare coffee in all ways, from the traditional ibrik to the fancy espresso, or pour-over coffees. I’d say you should go for ibrk and flat white, these are the best 2 in my opinion, but it’s your choice to make.

Hugs,

Miruna