More than two centuries ago, Leo Michielsen opened up a grocery store in Belgium, where he sold exotic spices, tea, pepper… but most importantly coffee.

Fast forward 100 years and the grocery store was no longer, but don’t worry, the Michielsen family’s infatuation with coffee had led them to open the Miko Roastery. The family were now busy buying, blending and selling beautifully roasted Miko coffees from all over the globe. This was made just that little bit easier by the Port of Antwerp, conveniently located down the road and bringing in much of the world’s coffee.

Jump, hop and skip another 100 years to 2005 and the family felt it was time for another change. They were concerned. Not about the business their children and grandchildren would be inheriting, but about the world they would be inheriting. Puro was born, and with it, a commitment to stop the exploitation of the third world, ensuring fair prices to coffee growers and saving rainforest and its species within coffee producing countries. And, since change starts at home, the roof of the roastery was covered with solar panels to generate green energy and now heat generated from coffee roasting is recuperated and used to heat Miko’s offices.