Our Story

Our charter is to research, develop, and prepare caffe espresso as a new culinary art. “Espresso Vivace” translates loosely as great enthusiasm and excitement for espresso, the new world coffee.

Vivace is a partnership founded by David Schomer and Geneva Sullivan in 1988. Since 1992 we have been roasting in the Northern Italian style: searching the world for the mildest arabicas and bringing each bean in our blends to the fragrant peak of caramelized sugar content. Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse has described Vivace espresso as the best coffee in the US, if not the world. (See reviews)

In 1995 David authored a book “ESPRESSO COFFEE: Professional Techniques” that was updated in 2004.  This year he has published “ESPRESSO COFFEE 2013” the third revision of the original. The book is in its eighth printing in English, but is also available in Japanese, Russian, and Korean. David has also produced two DVD courses for barista training “Caffe Latte Art” and “Techniques of the Barista”. These are also updated to reflect twenty five years of hands-on research.

Naturally, this research gives us very precise brewing results. This precision allows us to identify, with great accuracy, the peak development of each coffee we use in our blends. Vivace is, literally, the caramel coffee.