Ukrainian refugee starts coffee business in Camden
CAMDEN, Maine (WABI) - Saturday marks two years since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. A new coffee roaster in Camden is providing direct aid to support those in Ukraine.
Maksym Isakov, 28, is a Ukrainian entrepreneur and founder of Kavka Coffee, whose business model helps raise funds for his home country.
On Feb. 24, his birthday two years ago, he was awoken by a Russian bombing.
“What surprised me the most is how quickly your mind changes when the war started. You didn’t care about anything except your family and people around,” explains Isakov. “We hosted a lot of refugees from those next-to-Russian regions, and like, there were days we had like 50 people sleeping in my small apartment.”
Isakov first visited Maine as a student worker in 2015 where he formed many bonds that led him, his wife, and his children back to the Midcoast to escape the war.
“I started kind of with zero money, but I was lucky with people around to support me,” says Isakov when he was first returned back to Maine. “God led me to a small coffee shop in Lincolnville, Green Tree Coffee and Tea. Owner John Ostrand, and he’s a third-generation coffee trader. He said, ‘With your story and your background, you definitely should start roasting coffee,’ and he was just so generous, and he told me, ‘I will teach you everything.’”
Isakov utilized Ostrand’s roaster for months until he was able to afford his own. Since September, he has been roasting in a Camden warehouse.
As a former coffee shop owner in Ukraine, Isakov uses his love of coffee to not only support Ukraine, but also spread the European style of roasting to the States.
Isakov explains the difference between European versus American style brewing as: “We roast in a kind of German technology. We use roast quickly on a high temperature, so our coffee is super full of flavor and aroma, and I know most American roasters, they kind of bake it in a roaster. That’s why a lot of special dark roast coffee is so bitter.”
Not only does Kavka donate $1 from each bag back to Ukraine, but Isakov expands his ethics across the board: “Our focus as well is being a fair trade, so we make sure that we buy from small farms, and we support those farmers as well as we do support Ukrainians.”
Currently, Isakov says Kavka is able to send $2,000 - $3,000 a month back home, where he says most of his friends and family still reside.
While his roaster is based in Camden, Kavka Coffee has reached across the country. Through orders on their website to physical stores carrying Kavka beans, the business has reached almost every state in the U.S.
