The global city of Istanbul is home to one of the world’s great coffee cultures—past, present, and future. We’ve been covering the coffee scene there for the last decade, and the latest entry into Sprudge’s Istanbul archives is a new cafe called Krea. Their goal is simple, if ambitious: to offer a “competition-style experience” at the cafe level to the city. Let’s learn more.
The 2024 Build-Outs of Coffee is presented by Ceado and Dona. The 2024 Build-outs of Coffee is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, La Marzocco, Acaia and Ghirardelli.
As told to Sprudge by Orkun Ustel.
For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?
When establishing Krea, we built the entire brand by honestly answering the question of why our region needs a new coffee shop. The answer to the question was that we should provide a service with high experience and added value, unlike standard coffee shops.
Our goal with all this is to create a truly competition-style experience in the specialty coffee industry.
Can you tell us a bit about the new space?
Krea is a coffee shop based on three different positions. First of is of course coffee. Our coffee bar is based on 80-84 points espresso and filter coffee. Second position is exploration. In this part we have a second bar for coffee and we called Explorer’s Bar. In the Explorer’s Bar, we serve 84-92 cup scored coffees for espresso, cezve ibrik, and V60 in SCA’s championship concept. And the third position is experience. This part is related with coffee-food pairing workshops, tasting workshops, and technical workshops about coffee.
What’s your approach to coffee?
As the person who roasts the coffees we will offer, my approach to coffee is to elevate the total flavor experience by offering it within a quality customer service.
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
On the coffee bar we use a Victoria Arduino Eagle One for espresso and Mythos MY75 for espresso grinding. For filter we use Ditting 807 Sweetlab, for brewing we use BUNN ICBA Infusion.
On the Explorer’s Bar we use Eagle One Prima, Timemore Sculptor 64s, Soy Copper/Silver Plated inside Cezve’s, Timemore Crystal Drippers, and Etkin 2- and 8-Cup drippers.
How is your project considering sustainability?
We will manage the landfill and recycle planning at source with an organic material compost. To reduce our carbon footprint, we will immediately start our “to-go program” with mugs that will be beneficial for all guests; not only financially but also privileges from other cafe offerings. Energy consumption will also help reduce our carbon footprint thanks to A+ energy-efficient solutions. We are aiming to be carbon-neutral by investing in projects to offset our carbon at the beginning but the ultimate target will be net-zero by investing environmental solutions and green energy supplies.
We used reclaimed wood from a house that is over a hundred years old for all of our tables and interior design. As part of our commitment to the environment, we did not use chemical processes, but instead used natural wax and oils.
What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?
Our opening date is June 15.
Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?
Mr. Kenan Şahin is our architect and who deals with all problems on the construction process. We are all thankful and grateful to him!
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing us! We welcome everyone who comes to Turkey to experience our coffee!
The 2024 Build-Outs of Coffee is presented by Ceado and Dona. The 2024 Build-outs of Coffee is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, La Marzocco, Acaia and Ghirardelli.
