“Coffee is love and passion to me,” says Clayton Xuereb, Director at Lot Sixty One Coffee Roasters, in a post by photography project The People of Malta, shared earlier today.

In comments to Stephen Buhagiar and Roderick Vella, the brains behind the social media project that documents people from different walks of life, Clayton describes his job as “a dream come true”, describing how he established Lot Sixty One Coffee Roasters Malta three years ago. 

“My love for coffee started when I was 15 years old, while working at a part-time summer job. That is where I started studying and exploring the world of coffee. I went to Italy, Greece and Holland to acquire more knowledge,” he says in the post, going on to explain how he learnt which farm and country to buy coffee from. “My job is to maintain the flavor and make sure not to burn it to keep the taste genuine,” he affirms.

“The Dutch director of Lot 61 came to Malta when he got to know about me and expressed his wish to meet me because he realized how much I really love coffee and that I would be ready to open this chain here. Instead of importing I chose to operate the whole process here in Malta; the production, roasting, with the final product resulting in what I wanted,” Clayton tells The People of Malta, adding that “it is a great satisfaction that last year Lot 61 was classified with the 50 best cafeterias in Europe.” 

Sharing his belief that the love and passion for coffee is still developing in Malta, Clayton emphasises the importance of making coffee properly, stating that Lot Sixty One employees spend two months learning how to make the coffee before they can serve it to customers.

Looking to the future, he says “I wish to open a combined roastery and coffeeshop open to the public so that the process can be seen and people can appreciate it more.”