OUR STORY
VIVA SARA – Our story in one line:
family, taste & craftsmanship since 1987.
Viva Sara is a West Flemish family business that has lived by one belief since 1987: real taste arises when craftsmanship, humanity and stubbornness come together.
What started as the Kortrijks Koffiehuis by Fernand Deprez and Catherine Pattyn, grew under the encouragement of Peter and Bart Deprez into a house with its own roastery, tea factory, academy and a reputation that extends from living rooms to catering kitchens.
The First Wave:
Father Fernand becomes a coffee roaster
1987: Fernand Deprez makes a drastic decision: his future is no longer in the construction industry. On June 19 he will open the Kortrijks Koffiehuis in the Leiestraat in Kortrijk. A few months later, a global coffee crisis rears its head...
1991: Fernand and Catherine sign for the first coffee take away in the region. Pioneering is simply in their blood. A new milestone follows a little later: the Deprez family takes over Sara Koffie.
The second wave: Little children grow up
1998: Sara Koffie's roastery is bursting at the seams; a new building is appearing in Vichte.
2004: Ready for a new chapter: Sara Koffie becomes Viva Sara. Viva Sara is also expanding its activities to tea, which it wants to pioneer in Belgium.
The third wave: The new generation comes in
2000s: Bart and Peter are increasingly visible within the company.
2006: Peter becomes Belgian barista champion for the first time. Weekend Knack writes: “Our national barista elevates serving coffee to an art…”
In the following years, Peter and Bart also coached other baristas, becoming Belgian champions four times and reaching the World Cup podium several times.
2012: The Kortrijks Koffiehuis moves to the Grote Markt. There is not only room for an Italian-inspired coffee bar, but also for a Coffee Academy. The first Viva Sara Kaffée was born.
2014: Bart becomes a board member of the World Specialty Coffee Association and, among other things, becomes a jury member at international barista championships.
2017: Peter has a new passion: he becomes a tea sommelier.
The Fourth Wave: Ready for a new future
2015: Viva Sara opens its first corner at Meubelen Gaverzicht.
2016: Bart and Peter develop the
filter coffee and tea of the future
2017: Viva Sara opens its own corner in AZ Groeninge in Kortrijk.
2020: Move from the store to a spacious permanent shop in the Korte Steenstraat in Kortrijk. Viva Sara becomes a pioneer member of ESTA, the European Specialty Tea Association
2022: A transition year in the history of Viva Sara: we say goodbye to our Kaffee on the Kortrijk Grote Markt, install a state of the art roastery in Vichte, open an additional shop in the Pand in Waregem and start with a brand new B2B platform and webshop.
