The WHOLE BEAN DRAGOS MANCIU started roasting coffee on a machine he made himself. Now he operates this 60kg roaster.
The Handyman of Hedone Passion for coffee drives Dragos Manciu of Hedone Cafe, Romania’s first and only maker of espresso machines.
D
ragos Manciu got his start in coffee when he bought a broken espresso machine for 200 Euros. He disassembled the unit and repaired it himself. A short time later, he found a Ditting grinder on the fritz and fixed it. Next, Dragos needed some coffee beans to test out his repairs, so he bought some commercially roasted coffee beans. But once again, something wasn’t quite right. Dragos sensed the taste was off; it needed fixing. So, Dragos, the do-it-yourselfer with a degree in food chemistry, read up on
20 | JULY 2018 » freshcup.com
coffee roasting and built his own home roaster. He fashioned the drum out of an Ikea cutlery drainer, a cardboard box became the chaff collector, and a car’s wiper motor became the drum’s rotary motor. Driven by his passion for coffee, Dragos and a friend opened up a small coffee shop in their hometown of Craiova, Romania. Dragos roasted the coffee on his handmade roaster and pulled espressos on the repaired espresso machine. Dan Barbu, a regular customer, was so impressed by Dragos’s ambition he proposed starting a coffee business together, called Hedone Cafe.
The name was inspired by Hedone, the Greek goddess of pleasure, enjoyment, and delight. Hedone is the daughter of the Greek gods Eros (Cupid) and Psyche. She is associated more specifically with sensual, hedonistic pleasures. “We associate coffee with pleasure,” Dragos says. “We have pleasure roasting it, smelling it, drinking it with friends: it’s all a pleasure.” Hedone Cafe has grown from its original small shop with three employees to a company that not only roasts and serves coffee, but produces professional espresso machines and grinders,
P HOTO COURTESY OF H ED ONE
By Dan Petrisor
