Getting up with Piqant's coffee

Piqant, the new online destination for ethically-sourced coffee has unveiled an innovative new tool to help people pick their perfect brew.

The unique app delivers a selection of carefully curated coffees personally matched to each

customer’s individual tastes – without any need to puzzle over origin or altitudes – allowing coffee lovers to discover exciting new global favourites from a huge range of independent local roasteries in one place.

Coffee enjoys a complexity similar to wine but while drinkers may confidently shop for a preferred tipple, navigating coffee from Bolivia to Brazil can be a headache. Harvesting, growing and processing method, terroir, roast level and varietal influence coffee flavour, and many coffee fans don’t know how to interpret these myriad factors.

Once Piqant’s tool has computed a customer’s appropriate tasting profile, they can choose to purchase their ideal coffee match, or try it with a selection of three similar bags for a discovery experience a world away from the supermarket. Alternatively, customers can subscribe to their tasting profile and receive perfectly matched freshly roasted coffees regularly to their door.

Whichever coffee Piqant selects, customers can trust that beans have been ethically-sourced and each bag approved by Piqant’s network of experts. As a family business, coffee is in their blood - thanks to Dominican and Italian heritage – and Piqant prides itself on coffee curation.

Founder Rosanna Nibbs says: “We are a family of coffee addicts and love exploring the best coffee beans around the world. Piqant realises our dream of an online coffee shop, linking up the best independent growers and roasters with people who want to drink better coffee. And now our AI app takes all the information you need to find your favourite flavour too; all you need to do is stick the kettle on.”

Fist of all, congrats on the catchy name. How did you come up with it? We have to admit that we had a lot of fun trying to find the best name for our business. At first we tried some catchy names with the word “coffee”, but nothing convinced us. Then we realised that the perfect way was to try to describe how coffee feels in the mouth. Here the name Piqant came out. Piqant /ˈpiːk(ə)nt/ is a contraction of the word Piquant, which means having a pleasantly sharp taste or appetising flavour.

Where is Piqant based? We are based in East London.

Being a family business, don’t tell me you never fight on who’s making coffee first in the morning? We have to confess… YES! It’s actually an issue here! Whenever someone wakes up they have to make their own coffee, but during the day, there is a real fight. We play “rock, paper, scissors” to decide which one has to prepare the coffee. But at the end, we have a lot of fun, trying different coffees, brew methods, and some latte art here and there.

You got me at the word “coffee”. What is your own fav taste and why? Very difficult question. It’s like asking “what’s your favourite song”, nearly impossible to pick just one. We prepare coffee based on the moment. We love coffee exactly because it gives us the flexibility to prepare a different cup every time, if you want to. There are several elements that can affect the taste, and the best way to discover it is to try. For this specific reason, we created a small quiz on our website, to cut through the noise of what coffee to pick.

Why the idea of creating a new world of buying coffee? Coffee enjoys a complexity similar to wine but while drinkers may confidently shop for a preferred tipple, navigating coffee from Bolivia to Brazil can be a headache. Harvesting, growing and processing methods, terroir, roast level and varietal influence coffee flavour, and many coffee fans don’t know how to interpret these myriad factors.

Our app delivers a selection of carefully curated coffees personally matched to each customer’s individual tastes – without any need to puzzle over origin or altitudes – allowing coffee lovers to discover exciting new global favourites from a huge range of independent local roasters in one place.

You guys have so many different types of coffee, how did the selection go? Coffee can have a wide variety of different tastes, and in order to be the go-to marketplace for better coffee at home we need to be able to match the taste of every coffee-lover. When it comes to selecting the roasters to onboard on our platform, every single one needs to align with our policy for sustainability and traceability. And each coffee bag needs to be ethically-sourced and approved by Piqant’s network of experts.

Describe coffee in one word but also Piqant in one word?

Coffee in one word? Easy, that’s Piqant, which is how we think everyone should feel about their coffee. Piqant in one word? We’ll cheat a little and go with cut-through-the-noise. There’s many options out there but we’re making it dead simple to pick the right coffee.

Enjoy Piqant HERE.