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Our story
Our love for coffee began with its aroma, but our story began at home.
Growing up, bun or qahwa was never simply something you drank. In Somali homes, coffee was an experience: the sound of beans being prepared, the warmth of spices filling the room, and the familiar aroma that signaled people were about to gather.
Some of our favorite memories are tied to that aroma. Coffee would be prepared, something sweet would find its way to the table, and before long, everyone was sitting a little longer than they planned. The coffee mattered, but so did everything around it: the conversation, the laughter, and simply being together.
Coffee brought people together.
Family gathered around it. Friends stayed a little longer because of it. Conversations stretched across the table while we prepared coffee with cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, warm, familiar flavors of Somali coffee traditions.
That connection between coffee, spice, and gathering reaches far beyond our own memories.
For generations, Somalia's place along the Horn of Africa connected its communities to historic trade routes carrying coffee, spices, and aromatics across Africa, Arabia, and beyond. Over time, coffee became woven into that same sense of hospitality and community, something shared with family, guests, sweets, conversation, and time together.
Those memories and that history became the foundation for QISO. But QISO was never created to recreate what already existed. We wanted to begin with the flavors and traditions we knew and loved, then build something of our own from them.
At QISO, familiar spices from Somali coffee traditions can sit alongside ingredients like nutmeg or star anise, among others. Not every spice we use is traditional, and that is part of what makes QISO our story.
The spices
The spices in QISO have travelled for centuries. Somalia's coast sat on the Indian Ocean routes that carried them, and in Somali homes they became part of everyday hospitality: in a glass of shaah, a cup of coffee, and the sweets served alongside.
Sinjibiil · Ginger
A root first grown in tropical Asia and now used almost everywhere, from Indian chai to Yemeni qishr, a drink brewed from coffee husks and ginger.
One of the spices that flavors shaah, Somali spiced tea, and the warmth that leads in our blends.
In our blends: Friday House, First Fire, Winter Cabin
Heyl · Cardamom
Green pods from southern India, prized across the Arabian Peninsula, where coffee is often brewed with cardamom.
Heyl goes into shaah, into a glass of warm milk before bed, and into xalwo, a traditional Somali sweet.
In our blends: Friday House
Qorfe · Cinnamon
The inner bark of a tree native to Sri Lanka, carried across the Indian Ocean for thousands of years. In Mexico it flavors café de olla.
Used to spice shaah and part of xawaash, the everyday Somali spice blend.
In our blends: Friday House, First Fire, Winter Cabin
Dhagayare · Clove
Dried flower buds from the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. By the late 1800s, Zanzibar on the East African coast grew most of the world's cloves.
Part of xawaash and spiced rice and pasta dishes, and sometimes roasted with coffee beans for bun.
In our blends: Friday House
Star anise
Star-shaped seed pods from southern China and Vietnam, essential in Chinese five-spice and Vietnamese pho.
Not a traditional Somali coffee spice. We added it to First Fire as part of our own chapter.
In our blends: First Fire
Nutmeg
The seed of a tree native to the Banda Islands of Indonesia, grown today in places as far apart as Indonesia and Grenada.
Used in xalwo, alongside cardamom.
In our blends: Winter Cabin
We carry forward what generations have loved while adding our own chapter.
You can taste that idea in every blend
The Flagship
Ginger, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Clove
Feels closest to the flavors that inspired us, bringing together ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, and clove for a warm, aromatic cup.
The Cozy One
Ginger, Cinnamon, Nutmeg
Takes that warmth in a softer direction, pairing ginger and cinnamon with nutmeg for something cozy and comforting.
The Bold One
Star Anise, Ginger, Cinnamon
Goes somewhere bolder, layering cardamom and cinnamon with star anise for a cup with more depth and character.
We choose every spice with intention, not simply to make the coffee different, but to complement the bean and create a blend that feels complete.
We want every bag to hold something recognizable, but also something waiting to be discovered.
A familiar aroma might remind you of coffee being prepared at home. A new spice might make you stop and take another sip. Somewhere between the familiar and the unexpected, a new memory begins.
That is what coffee has always represented to us. That's why we chose the name QISO.
Every cup has a story: the coffee, the spices, the traditions that inspired it, the ideas added along the way, and eventually, the people who make it part of their own lives.
Our story began with the coffee we grew up knowing. QISO is what happens when we take that foundation and continue building on it, respecting what came before us while creating new blends, new flavors, and new traditions of our own.
Because tradition does not have to stand still. It can be remembered. It can be shared. It can evolve. And it can become part of a new story.
Whether you brew QISO slowly on the stovetop, make a pour-over before work, prepare a pot for family, or discover spiced coffee for the first time, we hope it becomes part of a story worth sharing.
