A Matter of Concrete

A Matter of Concrete was founded in Rotterdam in 2021 by Rob Clarijs, a Dutch barista who had accumulated competition-stage recognition before launching his own roastery. The brand's guiding phrase — "decisions based on vision and hard data" — signals a deliberate, analytical approach to quality that sets AMOC apart from the intuition-forward corner of the specialty market. Clarijs built the project from scratch as his first solo venture after his barista career. Less than two years in, subscription service Bean Bros selected AMOC as its featured roaster for September 2022, an early benchmark of industry attention. The roastery has since grown into a tiered catalog spanning entry-level espresso blends, accessible daily drivers, and high-price-point single-farm rarities — all tracked under a sequential numbering system (/001, /025, /052, etc.) that functions as a running ledger of the roastery's output. Sourcing is geographically broad: current offerings include lots from Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Brazil, Panama, and Costa Rica, with notable depth in Colombian microlots — Julián Calderón, Luis Aguirre, gesha from La Quebraditas, and multiple single-variety offerings from the Nogales region including natural Typica and decaf Caturra. According to a 2024 profile by Sovda Coffee, selection is done through blind cuppings to remove bias from the evaluation process. The shop also stocks brewing equipment and, somewhat unusually, Victorinox Swiss Army knives — a quirk that fits the brand's utilitarian, data-driven image.