Renart, the French Coffee Roaster That Brought Specialty Coffee to Alsace

Born from the dream of Xavier Nonnenmacher, crowned Roasting Vice Champion in France in 2019, Renart pioneers the specialty coffee scene in Alsace.

Hohengœft is a small town in the Bas-Rhin department in north-eastern France, 30 km from Strasbourg and – like the rest of Alsace – it is for sure not known as a specialty coffee destination. Renowned for its wine route, for the world famous Christmas Markets and for being one of the few French areas where storks can be found, lately Strasbourg and the surrounding region are becoming a small hub where to find a handful of specialty coffee shop and a few tiny coffee roaster.

Renart Atelier Torréfaction (roasting workshop) – born less than 2 years ago, right in the middle of the first stage of the pandemic – is the final realisation of a long-standing dream. Sifting through the social media of Xavier Nonnenmacher it possible to get to know him a little better, to try to understand where this dream comes from: a cyclist (who cycled across Canada for 9600km back in 2017), a craft beer and art lover; and then, here comes the specialty coffee.

In just a few years a quick jump: from home cupping to being a finalist at the Cup Tasting in France in 2019 and – in the same year – the be crowned as France Roasting Vice Champion. At that point, it was pretty easy to understand what his dream was: it didn’t matter Covid, it didn’t matter not being in a big city… Xavier just wanted to open his own coffee shop and roaster, and in the end he finally succeeded.

Here is what lies behind Renart, his fulcrum: there is simply Xavier, self-taught and passionate, who selects and roasts the best beans he can find, always with an eye to small producers and sustainability, doing everything in his power to give the final consumer the best possible experience in the cup.