Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/66983
S itting and sipping inside Reykjavik's Mokka Kaffi is a bit of a time warp. The shop was the first place in Iceland to sell espresso, and its interior has hardly changed since the day it opened … in 1958. International travelers know that last year's guide books can oftentimes be slid onto the shelf next to Herodotus and other ancient wisdom. But Mokka is one of those rare places that remains proudly unaltered. "A lot of people come in and thank us for never changing," says manager Oddny Gudmundsdottir. "They know that they can come here and expect it to be exactly the same. And that makes them feel good." Through all those years, one family has owned the shop on Skolavordustig, one street over from the capital city's main shopping street, Laugavegur. But there has never been a second thought of expanding or moving away from the original location. This is the family business—past, present and future. One sleepy Saturday morning, Oddny's husband, Gunnar Kristinsson, is sweeping by the front doorway and setting up tables and chairs. As I head inside, I notice a small black-and- white photo on the back wall. The picture shows a happy couple: 60 COFFEE ALMANAC 2012 Oddny's parents, who started Mokka in the midst of a decades- long romance that included world travel, opera singing, an Italian obsession and an eventual homecoming to open the shop. Smiling, soft-spoken and unfailingly polite, Oddny tells me the story of her parents and the business—which are impossible to separate. The made-for-screenplay relationship started when her father, Gudmundur Baldvinsson, followed his dreams and moved to Italy from Iceland. He loved everything about the country: the landscapes, the culture, the music and, yes, the coffee. He lived there for seven years, studying and singing opera. To supplement his income, he arranged sightseeing tours around Europe. On one of these trips, he met an Icelandic tourist who would later become his wife. Gudny Gudjonsdottir, Oddny's mother, convinced him to come back to their homeland to start a life together. "She lured him back to Iceland," Oddny says with a smile. Once the couple settled in Reykjavik, Gudmundur wanted to keep a link to his beloved Italy—thus, Mokka Kaffi was born. He continued to sing opera in his spare time—until age 70— and ran the café with his wife until his death in 2006. Gudny, now 84, still owns the café, and her two daughters run it.