About us
A and a Hungarian in Vác, with a roaster
There are two of us. José grew up in Costa Rica among s, and came to Hungary in 2009, at eighteen, for ten months — he has lived here ever since. Ricsi is the Hungarian half: he brings the precision and the questions. Today we roast, together in Vác, the coffee José knows from home.
- RoasteryVác, Csatamező út 1.
- MachineAillio Bullet R1
- Roast batch888 g
What we believe
Four things
The cup decides
If a beautiful curve makes bad coffee, the curve is wrong. We always taste it, and keep adjusting until the cup is good. Only then does it go into the online shop.
One sack, one story
We don't blend green coffees. Every coffee comes from one producer and one harvest, so that what we introduce you to is the place it grew.
You don't need to be an expert
Specialty coffee isn't an exam. Ask us anything and we'll answer — that's how we help you go deeper into the world of coffee.
Traceable to the sack it came from
Every bag carries its roast date and its LOT number. We know exactly which producer, which sack and which roast the coffee in your cup came from.
"I picked coffee before I ever roasted it."
There are two of us
- José
- The coffee half, the : he roasts and he cups.
- Ricsi
- The Hungarian half. He is the one who rang a few days after his leaving party to say let's do it.
Meet José
Back home, coffee was never a choice.
In Costa Rica coffee isn't a hobby or a niche. It's in the kitchen, in the afternoon, in how you receive people. As a child I picked coffee for two weeks each season on a family friend's farm — long sleeves in tropical heat so the branches and the insects wouldn't tear up our arms. It was hard work, but the mood was good, and at the break they brought out coffee and home-made bread. Afterwards we went hiking, or to a lake.
I was not a coffee picker. I was a child who was taken along to pick.
I know how the rows smell.
I know what a harvest sounds like.
That is more than most European roasters can say — and less than gives anyone the right to speak on behalf of pickers.
Here, coffee became a deliberate choice.
I arrived as an exchange student. I liked the country, the people, the language — I learned Hungarian well enough that people are still surprised I wasn't born here. I started working, spent ten years in IT, and all the while missed the coffee I knew from home.
Ricsi and I worked at the same company, and every time I went home I brought him back a bag of coffee. When he left, at his leaving party I told him half as a joke that if he didn't know what was next, we could start a coffee company. He took it seriously. That is how Café Tiko happened.
I've been roasting for four years
The company is a year older than the roasting. I started because I didn't want someone else deciding how the coffee I sell should taste. Today I work on an Aillio Bullet R1, in 888 g batches — that makes three 250 g bags and one sample for me to taste.
I log every roast. Not to turn it into science, but because after ten years in IT that's simply how I work, and because my memory is less reliable than my notes. Sometimes I go back through the old curves and find that something I was sure of isn't true. That's the good part.
A beautiful curve is not the product. The cup is.
There is one thing I don't measure
The . That's how coffee is made in Costa Rica: a wooden stand, a cloth sock, hot water. No recipe, no scales, no thermometer. That isn't what it's about. My grandmother made it this way, and so did my aunts, all of them.
The man who writes everything down measures exactly one brew not at all — and that's the one that tastes like home.
Where to find us
We have no shop. We roast in Vác, we are at the market most — not every — Saturday, and we ship from the online shop. With a few cafés we run tastings and coffee courses, which is the best part of all of it, because that is where the real conversations happen.
If you come to the stand, ask for a blind comparison. The same coffee, two roasts, and I won't tell you which is which. Often the one I expected doesn't win.
— Jose Francisco Brenes Vargas
“I don't like coffee – I love good coffee.”
Meet Ricsi
A bag of coffee out of a suitcase
José and I worked at the same company. Every time he went home to Costa Rica he brought me back a bag of coffee. That is how I met specialty coffee — not in a café but in an office kitchen, with something you could not buy anywhere.
I don't like coffee. I love good coffee: the kind with a story behind it, with care behind it, with passion behind it. Mine began with those bags, and after that there was no going back.
A joke that became real
Then I left the company. At my leaving party José said, half as a joke: if you don't know what's next, we could start a coffee company. I took it a little too seriously.
We have been doing it together for years now, and the more I do it the deeper I go. I have learned more about coffee than I thought there was to learn — and every cup opened the world a little wider. Over the years I have become close friends with the science of roasting, too.
What I bring to it
Behind a really good coffee there is not just an unusual flavour but a whole story: the place it grew, the plant, the work of the people, and all the attention that finally reaches the cup. My job is to turn that into a company that works here at home.
I bring the Hungarian heart and the precision. José brings the and the Costa Rican roots.
Two worlds, one shared dream: that every cup of coffee is also a journey.
— Ricsi, the Hungarian half
What is Café Tiko?
Two people, one roaster, one very specific aim
Café Tiko is a and a Hungarian, running a roastery together in Vác. We have no shop: you'll find us at the Saturday market, in the webshop, and through personal pickup.
What we do
We roast in small batches of 888 grams. Every one of our specialty coffees comes from one producer and one harvest — we do not blend. From the same green coffee we make three roasts, and we taste all of them before any of it goes out.
Why this way
Because a “good roast” does not exist on its own — only a roast that is good for your brewing and your taste. Most roasters make that decision for you. We'd rather make all three and leave it to you.
What we love explaining
Talking about coffee is the best part of this. Why you like what you like; everything that happens between the cherry and the cup; and what makes a coffee specialty in the first place. Ask us anything — at the market, at a cupping, or by email. There are no bad questions, and it isn't an exam.
What we don't keep quiet about
In coffee, climate change is not a theory. José has seen with his own eyes how the harvest shrinks year on year, and how much harder it has become for the producers. Coffee has a less pretty side too, and we don't pretend otherwise — we'd rather talk about it.
Where we're going That Budapest and Vác have a roastery you know by name, where you can ask why the coffee tastes the way it does — and where what it costs the person who grew it also gets talked about. Two worlds, one shared dream: that every cup of coffee is also a journey.
Taste it and decide for yourself
The fastest way: one green coffee, three roasts, side by side.
Three-roast pack — from 5 990 Ft