SHOW NOTES for Episode 3 with Carlos Vivas
(SYMVA coffee-roasters in Hove)
INTRODUCTION
Welcome back to Inspirations from Brighton podcast, episode 3!
My guest is Carlos Vivas, a managing director of his family-run business SYMVA coffee-roasters in central Hove. We will discuss their mission, what’s special about their coffee and how Carlos‘ family works together in the coffee industry for sustainability.
Carlos is a Colombian, settled in England for a long time with a large family. He was a financial administrator specializing in investment. He has worked in the UK hospitality industry for 20 years. And now with his family, he has been working together for two years. They decided to share their experience as coffee growners with their community here in Hove, providing them with specialty roasted coffee and teaching them how to prepare it in the best possible way.
Carlos says: “This way we can help the coffee sector to have better profits and also contribute to environmental responsibility for our planet.”
Make a coffee (or rather a tea, because you might run to get a cup of coffee after this episode 🙂 and enjoy our conversation with Carlos!
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EPISODE 3: INSPIRATIONS WITH CARLOS VIVAS
Hello, and welcome to Inspirations from Brighton episode number 3. My name is Klara Markovicova and joining me today is our guest, Carlos Vivas, who has SYMVA – family coffee shop and roasters in the central Hove. Carlos is a Colombian, settled in England for a long time with a large family. He was a financial administrator specializing in investment. He has worked in the UK hospitality industry for 20 years. And now with his family, he has been working together for two years. They decided to share their experience as coffee growners with their community here in Hove, providing them with specialty roasted coffee and teaching them how to prepare it in the best possible way.
Carlos says: “This way we can help the coffee sector to have better profits and also contribute to environmental responsibility for our planet.”
Let’s dive straight into our conversation with Carlos.
Klara: Hello Carlos. Welcome to Inspirations from Brighton podcast. How are you today?
Carlos: I’m all right. How are you?
Klara: Yeah, I’m very well. Thank you so much for joining the podcast today.
Carlos: I’m glad.
Klara: I would like our listeners, lots of our listeners probably know you already because you are based in the central Hove, but would you tell us a little bit about you and your background?
Carlos: Sure, of course. I’m Colombian. I’ve got a really big family. I came here to England about touring. Actually, it’s going to be 20 years ago, March, and to Brighton, 12 years ago. I did my degree on finance back in my country, and I’ve been working in hospitality basically since I came to the UK, so for 20 years.
Klara: 20 years, that’s a long time. And you successfully established your coffee shop here in central Hove. Would you tell us more about this coffee shop? Is it a family business?
Carlos: Well, I came to Brighton following my wife because she was moving from London to here. But the coffee business was more like an opportunity, like came across after I’ve been working here with different companies. And the opportunity came across with us in the family one day and we just took it. We said: “Let’s do that! Why don’t put our Colombian coffee here in Hove?!”
Klara: Because you call your coffee shop SYMVA Coffee-Roasters. You roast your own coffee. Where this coffee comes from?
Carlos: Yes, I mean a little bit more back. The day when we got the opportunity to set in the coffee shop here in Hove, we talked with our family back in Columbia. We have cousins and uncles that they farm coffee. We talked with them. We said, we wanted to do that. They said: “Yes, let’s go for it!” So basically, half of the coffee that we serve here at the coffee shop is Colombian. The other half is Brazilian. And we blend it together. We roast it here. And this is what we brew here.
Klara: That’s very nice. How do you transport it here to the UK? There’s a difference that it depends on the season of the harvest because we have to do this with a broker. So, we, sometimes we can deal ourselves. It depends on the price of the coffee; it depends on the price of the shipping. Sometimes, we need to go to the broker because we are just a little small family business. So, because of that, we have to share that with someone else. But basically, this is how it works. It comes by the ship; it comes by the plane. It is absolutely relative according to the demand for the coffee.
Klara: And I was thinking, do you have any relatives in its actual plantations?
Carlos: Yeah, of course. It’s in north of Colombia. It’s a big family. We’ve got cousins, uncles, and they run a farm over there. That’s very I mean, yes, it’s a kind of family product, but at the same time it’s more, the industry of the coffee is it’s been affecting for the big ones and little farmers like my uncle can feel affected because of that. So, we take that as an opportunity and we can support each other. We can pay a good value for what he does. And we put into that more than love, it’s more than that respect for the whole change. And the value of what it is and what can be done.
Klara: The other day when you were making the coffee, you kind of put the cup on this little scale, which is kind of special. I was surprised because I never saw it before. Why do you do that?
Carlos: It is more because, I mean, imagine that the original idea of having coffee here, it was more because we want to, not just want to share the coffee from our family, it was because when we think in the industry of the coffee, there is, I believe, there’s a big opportunity for little business like us that we want to do the things right. And one of the things, right, it means consistency. For that, you need the measurements. Measurements in this particular case and scale. So if I weigh out the coffee that I brew every single time when you or any one of our customers come here. And I brew that same coffee every single time, he’s going to have that – a consistent coffee of the flavour. That’s the reason because they chose us. Because we try to be as consistent as possible on every single coffee. That’s why it will happen.
Klara: I see, that’s why. Maybe lots of listeners even don’t know that for a single espresso there is a special grammage.
Carlos: Well, that goes to coffee shop, to coffee shop, to coffee roaster, to coffee roaster. That is called recipe. Yeah, so it’s not everyone does exactly the same. In terms of numbers, but in terms of the process of measuring, it must be kind of similar. So, we apply the same kind of principle and we apply it according with the recipe and we just stick to the recipe. We follow that, doesn’t matter who is the one who is making, we have to follow that recipe. Like that, we’re gonna have the consistency.
Klara: Do you offer decaf coffee as well?
Carlos: Well, yes, we offer decaf to our customers. The decaf that we offer is not from the family. Because the decaf coffee that we use, it comes from Colombia, but it comes from another farm, and it’s because of the process that they use to decaf the coffee on the farm is really special. They don’t use any chemical. They don’t use heavy machinery there to prepare the coffee. And as all the farms that we trade in, they tick all the boxes and the boxes in terms of sustainability. So that coffee, even though it’s a decaf coffee, it just give you that really, really nice crema here and it got a really good coffee. I mean, it’s probably one of the best things of our decaf coffee – it’s got flavour. It’s a nice coffee and it is green. What I mean by green is the coffee that is being taken care for not affect the planet with any chemical.
In terms of the blend, the blend is Colombian Brazil. So Colombian from our family, Brazil from a deal that we have with a family on another farm. And notes with, I mean it’s a really complex coffee in terms of the notes, but we can take that. Probably in a medium dark chocolate, nutty with a lot of berries on it.
Klara: It sounds delicious. I should try the decaf. I didn’t try it.
Carlos: Decaf is nice as well.
Klara: And when you were mentioning the term green, I also heard that your production in your family business helps the planet in terms of production as well. It helps globally. How does it help? What do you do?
Carlos: It’s like every little one, we need to put a little bit of effort to try to take care of our planet. So yes, there is in terms of the harvest, the production and the collection there are all the prepare of the cherries and the coffees from the soil. All that is thinking about the planet. Same like when it comes here. When we’re packing on these kind of bags, they are recyclable. And they’ve been recycled. So it’s the same. The same, the same product using it to packing and packing and packing. When we roast, we used to roast with gas, which is a little bit more of carbon involved in that. Now, these days, we can roast with induction, which is electrical, but in principle, it affects less. The coffee cups, same, they are recyclable. The deliveries, the local deliveries that is being done with on bikes by another really good company that is local in Brighton as well. Yes, I mean, every little step we try to make as green as possible.
Klara: That sounds very nice. You’re definitely helping the planet.
Carlos: Step by step, we do our part in the process.
Klara: I was also wondering you’ve got all these different types of coffees on offer for the customers (author’s note: available in the coffee shop). So, our listeners or your customers can just buy a whole pack of coffee that you roast here?
Carlos: Yes. I mean, the coffee, any kind of coffee, the blend coffee, the coffee that we use to brew our espressos or our bunch. Yes, our customers can get it here in store, or they can get it online on the website and but these days the majority of this industry is moving in something called subscription. So basically what they do is they go for what they consume within a month or within a week and we deliver it for them on their doorstep, whatever they need, anytime they need. And that works much better.
Klara: It’s definitely good to know. Where is your coffee shop based?
Carlos: We are on Church Road in front of the big Tesco store in Hove. The number is 164, so it’s just right in the central Hove.
Klara: And one last question, I was wondering, your coffee shop, your brand is called SYMVA.
Carlos: Yes.
Klara: It sounds quite oriental. What does it mean?
Carlos: Now, that is an interesting thing. At the day when we decided to have the business, that was a day after dinner at home. There was all of us sitting on the table. And Valentina comes with the idea of the logo in a serviette – the little face, some people think that it’s a cup. Some other people think that it’s a smiley face sticking out of the tongue. It’s dynamic, so we’re happy with whatever you think. But after that, I was thinking about this is a project, an idea that I would like to keep running for years and years. And thinking to the future, I said the name cannot be something related to me or related to the moment. It was more related to my little ones.
So, this is what I decided to put it, to create the name with the initials of every one of my kids. They’ve got five letters on the name, but I got just four children. And this is what it stands for. The S for Sofia, which is the small, the little one. And Y is a connector in Spanish – A as aunt. Mariana, Valentina, and Anthony.
Klara: Wow, that’s very original.
Carlos: So it’s not oriental, it’s my family.
Klara: I see. That’s very, very nice. I really like this idea. It’s definitely a family business.
Carlos: That’s where it comes from. So I’m always thinking more in the future because at the end of the day, that is the idea. The idea is that this keeps running for the family for as long as we can.
Klara: Are you planning to open another coffee shop somewhere? Or if that’s a secret?
Carlos: I mean, we’re thinking about expansion, yes. How quickly, don’t know. What kind of expansion, I don’t know yet, because It’s been quite dynamic, as I told you. But if we move in expansion, we’re moving more in expansion on the idea of sharing the coffee. Must know in terms of more like a coffee shop. It’s more like a give the opportunity for the people to try different kind of coffees.
Klara: And for those who are not based in Brighton, where they can find you in terms of being online? Do you have any websites?
Carlos: Oh yeah, it’s symvacoffee.com. Yeah, they can find all the coffee beans that we roast here, recipes, they can have the blog, they can have equipment, and everything related to the brewed coffee.
Klara: And I will put also the websites and the social media into the show notes for the listeners.
Carlos: Yeah, sure.
Klara: Thank you so much for being here with us.
Carlos: No, thank you very much for coming to see us. Thank you.
Klara: And before I let you go, I have five more questions.
Carlos: Go ahead.
Klara: Just for our listeners to get to know you a little bit better, I always ask my guests.
The first question is, what is your favourite drink?
Carlos: My favourite drink? In terms of coffee?
Klara: Can be, anything.
Carlos: Okay if I say something different it’s gonna be funny, but because I drink all day long just black coffee. But if you ask me what is my favourite drink to make? It’s probably cappuccino or cortado.
Klara: Oh, interesting.
Carlos: No, it’s just because I, in some point I said: “Okay, you can make a good coffee”, but coffee is a list of so many different coffees. So, black coffee, Americanos, Espresso, yes. And I said: “I like to be, like if someone said to me, you know what, the best cappuccino is the one that Carlos made. Not that SYMVA made it, the one that Carlos made!” I enjoy to try to make cappuccinos even better and better and better. I mean, it’s good.
Klara: What is your favourite holiday destination?
Carlos: Wow! Holiday destination. Okay, I got two places on mind that I’ve been enjoying a lot. And both of them have exactly the same similarity. And they’ve got the sea. One is called Taganga, which is a little town close to a city in Colombia, on the Caribbean. And I just really enjoy it because you can snorkelling a lot there. And I used to have a lot of passion for tropical fishing.
Klara: What’s your favourite day off and why?
Carlos: Sunday, I’m off. I don’t have to work.
Klara: And your favourite season of the year?
Carlos: Summer. Summer. No doubt. Summer, yeah.
Klara: And my last question is, is there anything you would like to share with our listeners? Can be anything, a message, or just one thing you would like everyone to know?
Carlos: What could it be? Probably, the majority of the people keep asking me if I like dogs. Yes, I love dogs. I love dogs. I got a dog. I would like to bring my dog here, but it’s not really possible. She’s so friendly. And we cannot keep her here, unfortunately. But that probably will be my dream, my dream to have a place where I can work and I have my dog next to me.
Klara: Ah, that’s nice. Well, thank you so much once again.
Carlos: My pleasure.
Klara: Have a nice rest of the day.
Carlos: Same for you. Take care.
THE END OF THE EPISODE
We are at the end of this episode of Inspirations from Brighton. Thank you so much for joining us. If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you If you just want to reach out, please get in touch with me via my website travelbrighttours.com where you can also find show notes for today’s episode. If you enjoyed the show, please share the podcast with your friends and family and don’t forget to subscribe and review the show.
I also invite you to Inspirations from Brighton: Motivation & Podcast group on Facebook where you can interact with other inspiring people and be motivated with different content shared out there. for listening. Thank you so much and as always, I look forward to share inspirations from Brighton with you very soon.