Our story

    sustainable, sun-roasted coffee beans

    100 million tonnes of CO2

    The technology for batch-roasting was invented in 1880 and it has only incrementally evolved since. It is an ancient, energy-intensive process: every year, major food roasters emit 100 million tonnes of CO2.

    Ray & Jules is bringing the power of climate tech to the food sector with the world's first solar-powered coffee roaster. Our mission? A fair, carbon-free coffee sector.

    Roasting coffee or cocoa with current batch technology is like driving a Karl Benz three-wheeler automobile on the highway today.
    — Koen Bosmans, CEO Ray & Jules

    out-of-the-box alternative

    When Koen and a team of engineers had been looking for ways to optimise batch roasters for a largescale roastery, they came up with an out-of-the-box alternative: switching to a hyper-efficient continuous roaster powered by renewable energy.

    The idea was dismissed as "too innovative", but Koen stubbornly persisted. He built his own prototype, took the plunge and launched Ray & Jules to show there is a better way to do business.

    sustainable, sun-roasted coffee beans
    Brander Sarah kapt koffiebonen in de roaster op zonne-energie van Ray & Jules

    The machine: check! The coffee?

    In 2017, sisters Lieze and Sarah - our roasters - brought in decades of knowledge and authentic recipes with the acquisition of a craft roastery. Then the learning and testing began.

    We discovered that we could roast to the level of specialty coffee. The 'machine around the bean' slowly roasts the delicate coffee beans at low temperature. The beans slide on a belt through small 'chambers' with hot air circulating several times. 3 times less energy, 100% flavour.

    fairtrade & direct trade

    Unfortunately, we soon learnt that coffee farmers are victims of big companies. These have a monopoly over the sector. This also became a priority for us.

    The first step: the switch to Fairtrade. That way we know for sure that the farmers receive support through their cooperative to make a living, and to invest in their coffee cultivation. But it doesn't end there. We are constantly looking for more direct relationships with those cooperatives and/or farmers' organisations.

    sustainable, sun-roasted coffee beans
    Our zero-emission roastery

    thanks coffee fans!

    Since our start, we have known many challenges: the Covid pandemic outbreak, the start of the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis... Especially the first one made us -in lockdown with our children- completely rethink our strategy.

    It took  ingenuity, an ability to quickly pivot and adapt, and an against-the-odds passion to keep going. But thanks to a great team and, by now, 25,000 coffee fans (!) and ambassadors who want to change the world with us, we are now here.

    That’s why we’re called Ray & Jules: Ray as in ‘sun ray’ and Jules as in ‘Joule’, the unit of energy. Ray & Jules have a dream and we strive for it. Together with you, coffee lovers, we strive to remodel the coffee business. So let’s change our world, cup per cup.

    Are we at a tipping point?

    In the meantime, we see the increasing impacts of global warming and this makes us impatient. Fortunately, our cleantech sister company CEE expanded roasting capabilities and partnerships to include cocoa and malt. And we start seeing traction for the technology from strong global food players where our technology will have the largest direct impact in CO2 removal at source.

    And this, of course, is why we started Ray & Jules.

    Installateur is bezig de cacaoroaster in een loods in Virunga te installeren

    Will you help change the world, cup by cup?