Our Story
Bukë, Kripë e Zemër
How an Albanian home welcomes a guest. Our name means “with heart.”
Po na vijnë miqtë!
In Albanian families, these words ring like a festival bell.
The house opens with excitement, and everyone takes on a role. The finest glasses, the chosen raki, and the special dishes come out from where they had been saved for the guest. As children, we waited for these moments with impatience. Today, looking back, we understand that hospitality is the virtue that guides us as Albanians.
In Albania, a glass of water or a piece of bread is never given out of pity, but out of sincerity and compassion. Hospitality is not measured by the wealth of a home, but by the generosity of the heart of the one who keeps it, who becomes a fellow traveler to everyone who shares the table. Me Zemër, which means “with heart,” was born from this feeling of love, respect, and belonging, and it is with heart that we want to carry this pride into every family.
How We Work
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We Find Them in Person
We visit every producer ourselves, in their vineyard, kitchen, or workshop. Nothing goes on the site until our whole team has tried it.
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A Selection That Keeps Changing
Some of our producers make only small batches. When something sells out, we bring in something new, so there is always more to discover.
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We Buy Directly From the Producer
No brokers or middlemen between us and the people who make what we sell. We work with each producer directly, from the first visit to every order.
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You See Where Your Money Goes
Every order adds to your Me Zemër Passport, showing the regions your products come from and how much of your money went to each one.
Shtëpia e mikut dhe e Zotit
The saying in Albania is that the house belongs to God and to the guest. When someone arrives, the best of what the family has comes out first, and the hosts are happy to eat last.
Albanians carried that with them everywhere they went. A home in Milan or in New York keeps the same table, the same welcome, and the same insistence that you have a little more.
Now we would like to set it for you. Or for someone you love.
The Families Behind the Table
Every one of them found in person and tried by the whole team.
Read Their Stories
From the Four of Us
Two of us grew up abroad, Ilda in Italy and Alfred in the United States. At home we spoke Albanian and cooked Albanian dishes, but some things we could not find where we lived. Every trip back ended with a suitcase of olive oil, honey, and raki, rationed until the next one.
Both of us eventually moved back. Indrit and Adela never left. Today the four of us run Me Zemër from Albania, and most of our time is spent with the people who make what we sell.
The people we work with make things the way they were taught, often by hand and often in small batches. Some hire only from their own village. Few people abroad have heard of them, and fewer can reach a buyer there on their own.
We want the Albanian story told by the people who make its wine, its oil, its linen, and its books, and to give them a way to reach the rest of the world. That only works with you. Every order shows you where it came from and how much of your money went to the people who made it. It is a small start, and it grows with every order.
We only sell what we would put on our own table.
Mirë se vini. Welcome.
Ilda, Alfred, Indrit & Adela
Start Here
Bring the Albanian Table Home
Start with a box, a new mix from Albanian producers every cycle, or shop their products one at a time.
