OUR MISSION

We are Ray & Jules, coffee freaks, people lovers and technology geeks. By 2050, we want to make the coffee industry 100% petrol-free and 100% fair.
Challenging ? Sure. Necessary ? Very much. 60 million tons of CO2 per year.

Our first step was re-inventing the roasting process. Then, we want to go further. Reusable packaging, transport on renewable energy, the revalorization of coffee grounds. It’s all on the list. We aim on working together with local farmers, to produce and later roast coffee together in the countries of origin. To create fair value and make local economy grow.
How ? With a large indefinite amount of positive energy : the fuel to live life to the full.
That’s why we’re called Ray & Jules : Ray as in ‘sun ray’ and Jules as in ‘Joule’, the unit of energy. Ray & Jules have a dream and we strive for it. Together with you, coffee lovers, we strive to remodel the coffee business. So let’s change our world, cup per cup.

OUR TECHNOLOGY

We asked ourselves : “Why does a roaster need so much energy ?”

In a classic drum roaster, beans are roasted by hot air while swirling round. In this method, used since 1880, the hot air is only used once. The industrial roasters even do worse. They bake beans at high temperature for short time. More energy is required and besides, this ‘over roasts’ the coffee bean, which kills a lot of the aromas in the coffee. A bit like baking a steak too hard.

Such a pity, we thought. So Ray & Jules invented ‘the machine around the bean’. A continuous roaster, slowly roasting the delicate coffee beans at low temperature. The beans travel through small chambers, hot air recirculating several times between them. This process combines the artisanal taste of slow roasting with tremendous energy efficiency. By cutting energy need by three, we are able to roast solely on solar power.

100% petrol free. 100% tasty.

ON OUR WAY, SUNNY SIDE UP

A bunch of technology geeks of our sister company CEE (Creative, Economical and Environmental experts in energy efficiency) had a wild idea. Well, not that wild, more of a very well overthought and rational idea. We analysed in which sectors we could make the largest difference and we thought of products we love. Guess what ? Coffee it was.

Instead of optimizing the old technology, we started again from scratch.

In 2017 we took over an artisanal roasting facility ‘Artizan Koffie’. Lieze and her sister Sarah, our roasters, took in decades of knowledge and authentic recipes. And a classic Probat Roaster. Trying. Practicing. Learning. In the small town of Hamme-Mille, our roasting facility grew, right next to the school of our children.

2019 : Comes in, the solar roaster. After months of analyzing, building & tuning, it worked. Our own patented, solar powered roasting machine. Since September, blind tasting with European top baristas also proved that the quality of our solar-roasted coffee is not just good, but really good. Around the same moment we got the fantastic news that Ray & Jules are FairTrade certified.

Are we there yet ? Of course not. All good things take time.

Our sunny challenge for next months : to broaden our great tasting, 100% solar-roasted ànd FairTrade assortment.