Ethiopia | Kebede Wako

Frank Kavanagh, a graphic designer, and Peter Sztal, from corporate banking, established Cloud Picker in 2013 as Dublin's first micro coffee roastery, naming it after a trip to Northern Thailand where they climbed through clouds to reach coffee pickers on a farm in the Doi Chang area near the Thai Burma border. The roastery now operates from a facility in Crumlin where they roast on a Loring machine, while their original cafe on Pearse Street and three locations at Dublin Airport extend their reach from city center to departure gate. Cloud Picker holds B Corp certification, runs a 100 percent electric delivery fleet, and uses zero waste buckets and compostable packaging, making sustainability operational rather than aspirational. Their wholesale program, which reaches as far as the United States, includes three blends alongside rotating single origin coffees and decaf options, all hand roasted to order on a weekly cycle. Cloud Picker has grown from a name inspired by misty Thai hillsides into one of Dublin's most principled and far reaching specialty coffee operations.