Casino Mocca, the best (yet) hidden secret coming out of Budapest, Hungary

Casino Mocca, the best (yet) hidden secret coming out of Budapest, Hungary

After nearly a decade on the market Casino Mocca – created by world champions Zoltán Kis and Lajos Horváth – is finally ready to be known worldwide. 

 

The idea of Casino Mocca was born almost a decade ago, when Lajos Horváth, Szabolcs Temesvári and Zoltán Kis – all three participants in barista competitions – felt that the Hungarian specialty coffee scene lacked a competent and consistent roaster, a local reality willing to be progressive and experimental. What they felt surrounded by at the time were only realities that limited themselves to satisfying the taste of the masses, without a spark of originality. This is why they grew restless and finally decided to create what the market lacked and in 2013 Casino Mocca was born.

 

At first, they did not have a real business plan, they just wanted to do something better, something different. But everyone already had a great deal of experience in the specialty coffee world and they knew that it should have been enough, after all, Lajos was the 2013 World Cup Tasters Champion and Zoltán was the 2012 Cezve/Ibrik World Champion.

 

 Lajos Horváth, 2013 World Cup Tasters Champion

 

Sure, at the beginning they had no clear idea about how to roast but Zoltán, trained as a UX engineer, knew that he could apply his engineering background to the roasting process. And that’s how Casino Mocca became the first and only specialty roaster in Hungary to apply what Zoltán calls an “engineering mindset” to coffee: a system of meticulously polishing quality control that helped them achieve an extremely consistent roast! This mathematical approach, coupled with the trio’s excellent sensory skills, was and still is the key behind Casino Mocca’s high quality roasted coffee.

 

Today, Casino Mocca is still a bit of a well-kept secret. Its coffees are served at only a dozen or so cafés outside its native Hungary, and nearly all of them are located in Europe. But things are changing, and fast: word of mouth is finally having its right effect, and Casino Mocca is now ready to be discovered in every corner of the world.

 

Casino Mocca

(Est. 2013)
Hunyadi János út 3
Budapest 1117
HUNGARY
https://casinomocca.com

 

Dame Dabaye by Casino Mocca

 

Dame Dabaye

Origin: Ethiopia
Roast Type: Filter
Process: Washed
Region: Oromia
Altitude: 2000m
(Coffee #02 in 2022 June CHAMPIONS edition)
 
In the 2022 June's Coffee Club CHAMPIONS edition we featured 'Dame Dabaye' Washed Ethiopia imported by Ethicoffee roasted by Casino Mocca. With this edition we went backstage with four incredible roasters all highly experienced in competing AND winning some of the biggest coffee competitions in the world - World Barista Championship, World Cup Tasters Championship, Coffee Masters & World Roasting Championship - and Lajos Horváth the co-founder at Casino Mocca represented World Cup Tasters Championship with his win in 2013. 

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Article byTanya Nanetti

Tanya is a specialty-coffee barista, consultant and Barista Hustle coach, a freelance writer (for everything coffee-related and much more), a traveler and a dreamer. When she’s not behind the coffee machine (or visiting some off the beaten track locations), she’s busy writing for Coffee Insurrection, a website about specialty coffee that she’s creating along with her boyfriend.