Who’s behind von&vonnie?
Morgan von Mantripp and Yvonne Spresny are the founders of von&vonnie. The name is an adaptation of our own names, the “von” from Morgan, and the nickname “vonnie” from Yvonne, which was a name given to her by Morgan’s family. We both have very different backgrounds, Yvonne has a degree in Business Law and Marketing and Morgan has a Master’s degree in Archaeology.
Independently, before we even met, our interests led to coffee. We both wanted do something we really love, our university degrees were good on paper but we couldn’t feel the passion we were craving. So we started to take our first jobs as baristas, gaining experience with different Cafés and Roasteries and really dived into the world of coffee. Morgan most recently with SO Coffee Roasters in Porto, while Yvonne primarily worked in the area of Marketing.
How a holiday dream turned into von&vonnie
After finishing our degrees, we both saved some money and headed to South-East Asia to take some time away, travel and simply enjoy life. There we first met in the South of Thailand and a few weeks later for a second time in Chiang Mai – after this second time, we were inseparable and continued our travels together.
Our journey went through Laos, Vietnam and Sri Lanka where we visited several coffee farms and discovered the same love for coffee. We spent our days finding the best, most interesting or just most traditional cup of coffee we could find. During our travels we already started to dream about a future together and a café which we would name “von&vonnie”.
Last year, this holiday dream suddenly began to turn into a reality. We honestly never chose Porto consciously as the location of our café/roastery – it just happened. We kind of waited for the right time in life to start taking action, until we realised that right now, here, is the perfect time and place. We don’t just love Portugal as a place to live, we also believe that there is so much more potential for the growth of specialty coffee in this beautiful country.
Very quickly, we took a step away from our “little café romance” and decided to also roast and source the coffees by ourselves. Even though this meant a higher investment, logistically and financially, it allows us to control our whole chain from bean-to-cup-journey. So far we can say, this was one of the best decisions we’ve made. It’s just so much fun to choose the coffees we really believe in, and we have the opportunity to build relationships with the farmers and/or producers themselves. Something we are striving to achieve.
Sustainability, Fairness and Seasonality in focus
In this current time, climate change and sustainability play such an important role. Thus, it was clear to us from the beginning that we want to build a sustainable and fair business. So many people are drinking coffee, without any knowledge of its background. Where does it come from? How many people were involved in the chain? How many countries did the beans travel through before they reached me? Is specialty coffee really “overpriced“?
Our aim is to create more awareness in this area, especially to those who are not yet much involved in the specialty coffee “bubble”. We both have such different approaches and interest in coffee, that we make a great team to speak to a bigger audience. Creating von&vonnie, our vision was always to connect both worlds – coffee enthusiasts and coffee lovers. In the end, coffee can be what you want it to be. It can be incredibly full of science or just a beautiful hobby you enjoy. It can be comfort, passion, happiness – we believe it’s okay to approach the world of coffee from different angles.
Serving high quality coffee in a warm, welcoming and unpretentious environment with transparent bean-to-cup economics is what both of us, together, believe in.