Why We Built Siip

People often ask us why we started Siip. And the truth is, there are two reasons, one rooted in a broader challenge we’ve seen in coffee for years, and one personal.

1. Making Great Coffee Easier to Understand and Enjoy

Over the years, we’ve had so many conversations with friends and coffee drinkers around the world, people who love specialty coffee, drink it every day, and still feel unsure when choosing what to buy. We hear things like:

“I know when I like a coffee when I taste it, but I couldn’t tell you what it is that I like about it.”

or

“I don’t even know what half of this means, natural? anaerobic? thermal shock? 😵‍💫 ”

The way we talk about coffee is often confusing, even for engaged drinkers. There’s a lot of jargon, and not a lot of clarity.

We built Siip to help bridge that gap, to give people a simple, structured way to explore the coffees they’re drinking, understand what’s behind them, and discover more of what they love.

We want Siip to be a tool for discovery, something that helps people develop their palate, understand their preferences, and feel more connected to the coffees they’re drinking. The kind of tool that makes you say:

“Now I get it. I want more.”

2. Giving Farmers and Regions the Recognition They Deserve

The second reason is something we’ve seen again and again in our work with farmers.

Before Siip, our team spent years working in the coffee supply chain, hearing from thousands of farmers, and helping some of them reach specialty buyers. And while some of those coffees made it into the hands of amazing roasters and coffee drinkers, the farmers themselves rarely became household names to the people drinking their coffee.

Most roasters genuinely want to share where their coffee comes from. But they’re often passing on stories they didn’t see firsthand. They rely on importers for the details, and importers collect what they can from farms, rarely in the same format and rarely in a way that’s meant for the person drinking the coffee.

So even when a farm name appears on a bag, it’s usually just that: a name. The people and the place behind it get lost along the way.

Siip is our attempt to change that. We record the details of every coffee the same way, so you can search them, compare them and see them in the app. That turns a farm name on a label into real people and a real place, with a track record you can follow from one harvest to the next.

A farm’s page in the Siip app: Café Rivense del Chirripó, a family-run farm and micromill in Costa Rica.

And it’s not just about individual farms. One of the most exciting things about structured data is that it can elevate entire regions. When more people start to associate great coffees with places like Huila, or Guji, or Minas Gerais, that awareness builds collective value, just like “Napa Valley” or “Bordeaux” means something in wine. Regional recognition is a rising tide, and we want Siip to help lift all boats.

The Product Today, and the Possibility Ahead

Today, Siip is intentionally simple. It gives you a clear view of the most important information on a coffee: who roasted it, where it was grown, and what it might taste like. You can scan a bag, explore a bit, see if it’s a good fit for your style, and save coffees you’ve enjoyed.

But beneath the surface, every scan is helping us build something much more ambitious.

Tens of thousands of coffees have already been indexed in Siip, and with each one, we’re collecting structured data that can unlock entirely new ways to discover and appreciate coffee. Imagine being able to:

• Explore trends in your personal taste and map out what you actually like

• Receive a notification when a seasonal single origin you enjoyed last year becomes available again with the fresh harvest

• Walk up to a wall of coffee and say, “Oh yeah, this one is for me.”

• Find a new favorite from a roaster or country you’ve never heard of, matched perfectly based on what you already love

That’s where we’re headed, and the groundwork is already in place.

We’ll share what we learn along the way. The first look at what you’ve been scanning is in What We’re Learning From Your Scans.

Thanks for being part of it.

Nick

Cofounder & CEO