Meet Felipe,
the founder behind Ayni
Coffee runs four generations deep in Felipe's family. A few years ago, he found the farm where his own forefathers once picked coffee, and bought it back. It became the spiritual home of Ayni, and the living link between his family's past and what he's building now.
Ayni is not only about bringing amazing Colombian coffee to the UK. It is about sharing something of the Colombian way of drinking it.
In Colombia, coffee is often more than a drink, it's a ritual. People say 'Tomamos un tinto?' - shall we have a coffee? But the invitation can mean more than that. Shall we stop for a moment? Shall we talk? Shall we sit together?
Tomamos un tinto?
Shall we have a coffee?
We live in a culture that rewards speed, noise, constant movement. Most of us drink coffee on the go, in front of a laptop, in the rush before we leave the house. Ayni wants to offer a different relationship with it. A pause, a cup shared with someone else, or a few minutes kept entirely for yourself, before getting on with the rest of the day.
Specialty coffee tends to focus on origin - the variety, the process, the place. For Felipe, that's the foundation, but not the whole story. What matters just as much is its destiny: coffee made with care, and shared with someone who understands what went into it. Give something, receive something. That's reciprocity, and it's where the name Ayni comes from.
What does Ayni mean?
'Ayni' is an ancient Andean principle, Quechua in origin, the belief that what we receive carries a responsibility to give something back. Its spirit runs throughout the communal traditions of Colombia too. For us, it means building a more reciprocal relationship between the people who grow the coffee, the people who drink it, and the land that makes it all possible.
So, have a pause, have a tinto. Pick a coffee that sounds like you, make it your way, and let the cup do the rest.