#acupofcoffee İley ÖZERLAT

07-09-2023 16:43
#acupofcoffee İley ÖZERLAT

An enthusiastic, challenging, energetic and collaborative entrepreneur; İley Özerlat-Gündüz. She is a member of a family that has been working on Turkish coffee for a century. With the habits and knowledge she inherited from her family, she has taken Turkish coffee to Europe, based in London. Working devotedly to contribute to the promotion of Turkish coffee in the world and to its gaining the value it deserves, we listened to Özerlat's own words about what she did to expand her family business. Of course, we also had a cup of coffee.

How did your journey from Cyprus to London take shape?

I was in Cyprus until the end of my high school education. At the same time, I applied for scholarships to study in America. I won and when I turned 16, I set off. I went to Minnesota, America, from +20 degrees to -20 degrees. It was both a climate and culture shock. I lived there for 4 years. Apart from Cyprus, I had only been to Turkey before. I made good friends from all over the world.

I went to study international relations, but then I took a biology class to do something I loved. When I realized my interest in the subject, I switched to biology. In my senior year, I went to Virginia, where my wife was studying. Then I got curious about Europe and chose England for my doctorate. When my wife applied for jobs in London... We headed to Europe. I did my doctorate at Imperial College on breast cancer.

My PhD ended in 2008. I decided I didn’t want to be an academic, but I loved science. My motivation to write started when I was writing my thesis. I started looking for an alternative job. I started working as an editor at Nature Publishing Group. My editing process lasted four years. It was a different experience. I managed to intersect a creative discipline with a subject I was educated in. I worked with experts on treatment methods. I felt that I was contributing to an area I worked hard on with each article. After a while, new searches began.

How did you transition from corporate work to entrepreneurship?

While working as an editor, I was thinking about what I could do in my spare time. The first line of work that came to my mind was our family business. We have a history of coffee making from our great grandfather. My great grandfather was one of the first people to work in coffee in Cyprus. You know the story of coffee, coffee started to come from Yemen in the 1500s and entered the country's border during the Ottoman period. At that time, people in Cyprus bought coffee as raw beans, roasted it in pans over fire at home, ground it in a hand mill and cooked it. It was definitely challenging. My grandfather was an entrepreneur. In response to the question of why shouldn't I grind it and make it ready, he opened a shop under his house. He ground the coffee beans he roasted over a wood fire in a mortar. He placed them in cones he made from paper, tied them with string and sold them.

While being passed down from generation to generation…

In 1932, the next generation took over the business. My father's father was the first to bring an electric roaster to Cyprus. Since electric roasting sped up the business, he bought new grinders and expanded the business. He then registered the brand Hasan Derviş Özerlat Kurukahve. My grandfather passed away when he was 54 years old and his son (my father) was only 14. My father helped my grandmother who temporarily took over the business until he finished high school. After high school, my father came to Istanbul for university education and as soon as he finished his education, he returned to Cyprus and took full ownership of the business. He married my mother in the same year and she started supporting the business.

As children born into coffee, it wouldn't have been possible for you to have an independent business, right?

As siblings, we have supported my mother and father since our childhood. For me, it was not surprising that I directed my career. Our family business was a field of work that I always wanted to enter. I had to wait for the right time. With the support of my wife, the process accelerated and we took the step.

You started selling Turkish Coffee in London…

We made the first import at the end of 2013. Without making any changes, we delivered our original coffee to ethnic markets since it was an easy target market as it came from Cyprus. At first, Turkish markets and Turkish restaurants were our target. There are many people coming from Cyprus in England in particular. Since they also know the brand, communication was easier. Later, after seeing the expansion of the coffee sector in London and the increasing interest of people in different types of coffee, we wanted to expand the target market. For this, we designed coffee tasting points. In our market research, we realized that not only Turks and those who know Turkish coffee, but also those who like nice and special coffee like the taste of our coffees. On the other hand, there are many people who have visited Istanbul and tasted Turkish Coffee in this city. Their experiences are both good and bad, because a positive or negative taste remains on their palate. For example, they drink it with the grounds before, or if the coffee is coarsely ground, they feel the coffee pieces, which does not give a pleasant taste... Naturally, a bitter taste remains on their palate and they do not even want to try a new one. We realized that if you offer quality coffee, brew it correctly, introduce and explain its features, the user listens and wants to try it. Those we can convince try it and like it.

Recommending Turkish Coffee to Espresso lovers…

We have been roasting and grinding Turkish coffee for a century, there are habits and methods that come from our great grandfathers. Since I am in the sector, I can compare. The reasons why we are preferred are different… They say that our coffees have a softer taste or we are brave in trying different blends, which creates innovative flavors. This sets us apart. In order to focus on Turkish coffee and make our value visible, we have eliminated other types of coffee for the UK market for now. Of course, we continue to produce other types of coffee in Cyprus.

Changing the habits of the target market may not be easy...

In 2015, we did some work to strengthen the effect of communication towards the European market. We are working as a different company; our logo, website, coffee blends and packaging have changed. We prepared coffee blends with the taste that the UK market is used to; we prepared a milder taste like Heritage or Mozaik, which is a taste between espresso and Turkish coffee. We are at the beginning of the road. We are working hard.

Electrical appliances make cooking easier. What do you think?

Arzum's electric coffee pots are helpful in reaching the restaurant sector. Since they speed up cooking, these coffee pots encourage them to serve Turkish coffee. We use copper coffee pots as much as we can in our own promotions, we want to teach the basic cooking method. However, this will take time, because people see it as a time-consuming method. We offer a suggestion that offers interaction in our promotion areas. We work with Soy Turkey on this issue. We use 100% hand-forged copper coffee pots. Sometimes, if someone is interested, we invite them to the kitchen of the business and cook with them. We cook in coffee pots on tabletop stands on small stoves, they like both the taste and the method. However, they see this type of use as more suitable for cooking on special occasions, they have not yet adopted the idea that they can consume this coffee in their daily lives. What is pleasing is that the number of people interested in new cooking methods is increasing thanks to the coffee shops that have opened recently. Turkish Coffee is even faster compared to cooking methods such as Aeropress and Chemex. 

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