İbrahim Burak Göğüş had worked in television and online media, and his wife Mirhan Köroğlu Göğüş at the European Parliament and later on climate policy, which she now leads in Turkey for CDP. Travel showed them third-wave cafés spreading worldwide, and in July 2014 they opened the smallest shop on its street in Karaköy, naming it after Homo sapiens because they saw coffee as a culture that links people across continents.
Burak took a barista course and taught himself to roast on a 1kg Toper in the mezzanine above the bar. Roasting has since moved to a workshop behind the Koç Museum in Hasköy, with a 6kg Giesen W6A and a 30kg machine. Recent lots include a 94-point Perla Negra from Costa Rica's Las Lajas and anaerobic coffees from Mas Iyan in East Java.
