European Coffee Trip releases mobile app for coffee lovers

European Coffee Trip, a portal for coffee lovers and a guide to European roasters and cafés with specialty coffee, is set to launch its mobile app on September 30, 2021. Prague-based Cookielab is behind the development of the app.

The European Coffee Trip (ECT) interactive guide has expanded from a few boutique coffee shops to more than 2,100 locations in 92 cities. Much like the coffee segment more broadly, the growth continues. As ECT has grown, its purpose has changed — this change is the driving force behind the app launch. Today, it's commonplace to have a choice of great coffee in city centres all over the world, and the market has expanded to suburbs and smaller cities and towns. Rather than specific locations, users are looking for coffee shops that suit their needs. That's where ECT comes in.

"Our fans have been asking for a mobile app since the beginning, and we have always wanted to develop one," explains ECT co-founder Aleš Pospíšil. "First, we wanted to focus on building a strong community of coffee shops, roasters, and drinkers because we wanted to build an app that was sustainable. Now we're there, and we're excited."

The ECT app lets users find the nearest cafes based on current location, or they can select a business based on specific criteria (e.g. offering filtered coffee, or serving breakfast). In addition to roasters and cafes, users will also find educational content about coffee, coffee culture, and interviews with baristas and other prominent personalities from the coffee scene, on the app. The coffee map of Europe currently features over 560 roasters and more than 2,100 cafés.

With the growing number of locations, the ECT founders want to maintain the quality of the selected establishments through curated selection, active communication with coffee drinkers and regular data updates.

"We expect the release of the mobile app, and the feedback from it, to uncover more possibilities than we can imagine right now," says Pospíšil. "At the same time, we already have a lot of ideas for new features — like premium profiles for cafes — that we want to launch by the end of 2021."

The mobile app was planned from the beginning, but its development was delayed by the Covid pandemic

Founded in 2014 by Pospíšil and Radek Nožička, the ECT website has more than 1 million users annually, and the team sees great potential in a proprietary app. When they decided to start developing it in 2019, Covid came along and derailed those plans. In short, it didn't make sense to complete the development and launch of the mobile app at a time when it was impossible to visit a cafe.

Radek Míka, co-founder of Cookielab, the firm that developed the app, takes pride in the fact that his team is developing an app that they actually want to use.

"I used to use European Coffee Trip when travelling, and I missed having a mobile app. That's why I was delighted when Aleš and I were able to come to an agreement to develop it. At Cookielab, we have a passion for good coffee, and we enjoyed the project from the start. There's nothing better than developing an app that you're actually writing a little bit for yourself. Unfortunately, the Covid pandemic delayed the launch, but it also gave us more time to fine tune it. I believe that the launch of the ECT app will make a lot of people who like fine coffee very happy."

The mobile app is available on the iOS App Store from September 30, 2021 for a fee. ECT relies on its strong community of coffee lovers and cafes, which it has been building for 7 years, and this is an opportunity for that community to contribute to a project that has helped them many times over. After some time, the app will be free for users with the option to make a voluntary contribution. An Android version is planned for the first half of 2022.

About European Coffee Trip

The European Coffee Trip coffee guide and magazine was founded by Aleš Pospíšil and Radek Nožička in 2014. The aim was to map the European coffee scene, and, over the last 7 years, the company has established itself as one of the main coffee media outlets in the world. Every day, European Coffee Trip helps thousands of coffee lovers discover interesting coffee shops all over Europe. The release of the mobile app in 2021 is a new milestone in the development of the company and the coffee community.

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