We are Oleksii and Svitlana — typical milli-, micro-, nano-entrepreneurs, but very atypical fanatics of our craft: coffee roasters and baristas from Cherkasy. Coffee lovers to the core. But how did we get here?

In 2014, we moved to Canada.
With a background in journalism, I started looking for work in the field and even wrote a little for a diaspora publication. But the feeling that I was on the right path never came — my soul felt restless.

And then the World Barista Championship happened to us.

We even intentionally applied for a U.S. visa just for this event. After all, our good friend, Dima Hrekhov — two-time Barista Champion of Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates (2014) — made it to the world finals, and we wanted to sit in the audience and cheer for him.

I still smile remembering how the border officer interrogated us:
What kind of competition is this, coffee making? Is this a joke?

Well, if it was a joke, it was the kind that changed everything — the performances impressed me so deeply that I decided, without hesitation, to go into coffee.

Our first coffee shop, with dark-as-night Italian roast.
My first milk steaming.
Espresso calibration.
Six months polishing my English, gaining a bit more confidence.
Then — JJ BEAN Coffee Roasters.

Let me tell you, that place was a dream: a family-owned, socially oriented business (supporting both the local community and coffee farms), with its own roastery, direct trade, and a barista school. Through hard work, I grew from a barista to a manager. And all this time, Lyosha had my back and inspired me at every step.

He was the first in our family to enter the hospitality industry internationally: bartender and sommelier at JW Marriott (UAE), administrator at Yoshi (Ukraine).

With our collective (and far from modest) experience, a thought arose:
Why don’t we start our own business? And not overseas, but at home?

Our intentions were serious.
From Vancouver Airport, we began a six-month journey across Latin America (yes, six months!). We visited coffee farms, saw with our own eyes where and how coffee grows, what shapes its flavor, picked cherries, learned about the lives of farmers and their families — and most importantly, how much effort it takes for coffee to end up in your cup.

I’ll be honest: all of this had to settle in our minds. Because after living abroad for more than five years, returning home is a big, brave step.

Then Abu Dhabi entered our story — thanks to the same friend you remember. He was opening an incredible coffee shop, DRVN Coffee, with collectible cars and championship-level coffee standards.

This is where Lyosha switched into full gear.
From brand book to roasting — he had never been so multifunctional in his life. We recruited staff, trained teams, built SOPs, found suppliers — our minds were constantly orbiting around coffee.

Today, Lyosha is responsible for all roasting at About Coffee. He tames all those graphs, temperatures, drum speeds, and cracks.

Bear with me — we’re almost done.

In the summer of 2019, we returned home to build coffee culture in our country and our city.
We launched our own production, roasting high-quality arabica.

This is not a story about “success”, big money, or investors.
This is a story about how all these experiences carved us into who we are.

We chose our hobby — coffee — as our life’s work.

Here, we introduce people to what may be some of the best coffees in the world.
Here, we share knowledge generously and without hesitation.

Believe us: when it comes to coffee, we are true professionals — with Zen-like patience to match.
We promote buying local.
And we declare without empty words:
“The time for good coffee has come.”