Laurens ten Dam - Professional retired Cyclist
Learning to Live Slow and Ride Fast
YOW gast! are the first words you hear when you meet with Lau, on every occasion. We met Laurens for the first time at a cycling show in Maastricht when he was racing with team Sunweb and had just won the Giro with Tom Dumoulin. He was invited to race against some crit cyclists on a slooping carpark (Carpark Cannonball!) and dropped by our coffee stand to have a coffee with us. Il Magistrale was just getting up to speed and we had a quick chat about cycling and coffee and his future plans towards gravel racing. After the race we had some beers and than the idea arrose to start a coffee roast together that would be the spirit of Live Slow - Ride Fast. Remember, this event happened pre podcast, pre-LSRF gear and he still had to go to the CCC team.
In the aftermatch of the cycling show Lau shared he really like a blend roasted by top roasters of Verve Coffee Roasters in Santa Cruz he drank several times when he lived in the US. So we checked this certain blend and started to source and roast a similar coffee blend in the weeks after our meeting. After some correctional taste sessions with Lau we finally came with an amazing blend of three organic coffees from Peru, Sumatra and Ethiopia. We came up with the name Gravel Grinder as we saw the potential of this new cycling area.
Today this blend is still one of our best selling coffees and not only because of our coop with Lau but also because it is one of our best coffee roasts till today. The Gravel Grinder blend is a medium espresso roast with a subtle flavours of dark chocolate, hazelnuts, blue/black berries and a hint of jasmine. The aroma of the coffee is quite powerful and it has a full body. The coffee has a slight bitterness to it but the finishing flavour lasts perfectly with a sweet note in the after taste.
While enjoying this coffee (try a flatwhite with it!) you will emerge into the tale of Life Slow - Ride Fast; slow down, look around and live in the moment. Enjoy the small things that are done really really well. Care less about stuff or distractions and experience less stress. Save all your energy for the bike so you can leave it all on the road.
