On the new Matta Café bar in Portland’s Pearl District. All photos courtesy of Matta Café.

Colombian espresso firm Matta Café has opened its first retail location in the USA, providing tropical vibes and flavors each day and evening within the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon. 

The beverage hotspot is a collaborative house, operated by Matta within the daytime adopted by a cocktail and music idea referred to as Secret Grove after darkish.

Showcasing the coffees grown on the household farm of Matta Café Founder Aura Matta in La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, the espresso store is providing drip picks, espresso-based drinks and different flavored concoctions. 

“The particular [drink] is the coconut chilly brew,” Aura Matta advised Each day Espresso Information. “Once I sip on our farm’s espresso, it’s a connection to my roots, and the coconut chilly brew, with its distinctive mix of flavors, transports me to the new afternoons in Santa Marta.”

Secret Grove, based by underground occasions planner Daniel Maloney, carries the espresso baton into the nighttime with espresso martinis, coffee-whiskey combos, a coffee-infused Margarita Negra and a espresso aperol spritz referred to as the Sierra Nevada. Further cocktails keep the theme with agave spirits, aguardiente and different Latin American twists.

Meals accessible in any respect hours embrace pan de bono, arepas and Colombian empanadas. Each ideas additionally embrace the store’s pure wood-panel partitions, ample potted palms and ferns, handmade woven pendant lighting and different touches made by a collaboration with Colombian architect Julian Gomez.

“We aimed to create an area that embodies the essence of my roots within the lush espresso plantations of the Sierra Nevada and the colourful spirit of Santa Marta,” Matta advised DCN. “Our aim was to seize the sensory expertise of sipping espresso amidst the Caribbean way of life, with coconut timber, ripe bananas, and a cool breeze within the air.”

Matta based the enterprise in Colombia in 2020 as each a retailer and inexperienced espresso exporter. Right now, the corporate operates two retail bars in Santa Marta, one on the campus of the general public college in Santa Marta, and the opposite inside a cell Volkswagen espresso truck. All coffees for the bars in Colombia and Portland are roasted by Bogotá-based Vive Café.

Matta’s father, Manuel Matta, labored with producers in Colombia and El Salvador as an agronomist previous to establishing the household’s 59-acre espresso farm about 20 years in the past. 

Aura and Manuel Matta.

“My father laid the muse for our enterprise,” stated Matta. “Drawing on his connections with roasters throughout Europe, Asia, and North America, we have been capable of set up a robust foothold within the espresso market. Rising up on this atmosphere, I absorbed insights from influential figures within the business, which in the end formed the imaginative and prescient for Matta Café.”

Aura Matta beforehand labored at Procolombia, a state-sponsored promoter and export group of Colombian merchandise. The entrepreneur is at the moment pursuing an MBA at Portland State College.

“The town’s love for Colombian cafes and its welcoming environment for immigrants resonated deeply inside me, guiding me to take this leap of religion,” stated Matta. “It was not only a enterprise determination; it was a deeply private and emotional option to pursue after my aspirations and share a bit of my heritage with a brand new group.”

Matta Café is situated at 1425A NW Flanders St in Portland. Inform DCN’s editors about your new espresso store or roastery right here.