Pure Coffee: a good brew from behind bars
A coffee roastery in a prison? There’s a story behind that. And what a story: founder Jemuel Lampe ended up behind bars as a young man and kept going further down the criminal path. Until he’d had enough, got opportunities as an entrepreneur and saw the possibility of setting up his own business in the prison in Heerhugowaard: Zuivere Koffie.
What does your coffee maker have to do with prison? You can also scoop Zuivere Koffie into that filter bag: coffee roasted in the prison in Zaandam. The coffee roastery helps inmates prepare for life outside prison. The roastery behind bars was Jemuel Lampe’s idea. He had been in prison himself and realised how difficult it is to turn your life around. Until an entrepreneur gave him his business card, Lampe tells the newspaper Trouw. ‘Because he saw potential in me and wanted me to come work for him. Potential? No one had ever said that to me before…’
Tea too
That made all the difference. After a few more hurdles, Lampe managed to convince the director of the prison in Heerhugowaard of his idea for a business behind bars. That’s where Zuivere Koffie started the first coffee roastery in a prison. Five years later, the result is proudly featured on the website, in Waar shops and in a mobile coffee cart that drives around to parties and events. Great design, and the coffee is finger-licking good too. The beans are now roasted in the prison in Zaandam, and he has also set up the tea brand Guiltea, which operates from the women’s prison in Nieuwersluis, while Jailbird Bakery bakes cookies to go with the coffee (and, according to FavorFlav’s Sharon, the best brownie she’s ever eaten—a definite recommendation!)
60 inmates
Delicious coffee and tea, tasty cookies and a major impact. Zuivere Koffie has now helped place 71 candidates, with an 87 per cent success rate. That means more than sixty inmates have chosen the straight and narrow through the roastery. A good brew, indeed.
Also read:
- New: Bajes Beach Club, inside the Netherlands’ most famous prison
- People who completely lose it (really!) when the food goes wrong
- Sonja Bakker admits: her recipes aren’t always her own
Source: Trouw, image: Zuivere Koffie
