About Us
How it all began
It all began in 1917 when Derviş Tahmis (our great grandfather) started roasting coffee in his house on Ermou Street for his own use. The smell of his coffee overwhelmed the surrounding neighbors which then turned into his and his family’s passion. This earned him the name ‘Tahmis’, meaning ‘coffee roaster’ in old Turkish.
Upon our great grandfather ‘s death, his son Hasan Ozerlat took over the coffee business in 1932 and introduced the first electrical coffee grinding machine into the production. After him; his son Derviş Özerlat (3 rd generation) expanded the business further in their shop in Arasta with his wife İmren’s contribution to the company and modernized the brand name to ‘Özerlat Turkish Coffee’. In those years roasting and selling was done in the same small roastery we had back that time in Arasta.
With the addition of the new generation of family to the business, work was underway to expand beyond Cyprus. Iley and Ilke Ozerlat (4 th generation) took up the challenge to work together to provide the unique taste of Ozerlat coffee to the world which was once born in a small street, Ermou.
Today at Ozerlat, quality and sustainability are two vital aspects to our roastery. Ozerlat was traditionally built on the belief that there is a strong synergy between quality and sustainability and we maintain the traditions of our forefathers in this sense.
