News

COVID -19.. National Lock Down.. What are we doing?  

With England going into a one month lock down from November 5th we have decided to make some changes to how we have been operating at the Roastery since restrictions were eased. 

This post with outline how we are operating primarily to keep our team safe and healthy while delivering the quality and service we pride ourselves on.  We value every coffee shop, farmer, importer, exporter, restaurant, bakery, hotel and roasteries working during these times and your support in keeping independent businesses going is key to survival. 

If you have any further questions or concerns please do not hesitate to get in contact with us. 

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How we met?  

Our relationship with Juan Saldarriaga goes back to London Coffee Festival 2018, when we launched a project called Artist Series. We were looking for a fresh coffee to showcase for our first ever stand at the festival. We wanted to find a coffee that was extremely fresh and in season, two qualities that are very much at the heart of our approach to coffee. LCF is (usually) in April, which is a challenging time of year to find fresh in season coffees, so Colombian coffee was an obvious choice for us. On top of that we wanted something that was wildly different, something that really jumped out. That was when we heard about Juan Saldariagga and the interesting ways he was producing natural process coffees.  Instead of using raised beds he was using a cold drier, the same machines typically used to dry fruit; raisins, apricots or prunes. Juan’s cold dried natural was very elegant and clean and we were instantly impressed, we knew we’d found a fantastic coffee. So we purchased the coffee, launched it at LCF and it was a huge success for us. A week later I went to do a cupping in Oslo hosted by Nordic Approach,

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The Forever Friends Appeal... what are we doing?  

During these uncertain times we decided that thinking and acting positive is needed more than ever.  We spoke with our engineer Kit who asked if he could have some coffee for our local hospital the Royal United Hospital.  We of course said yes!  Then after sending a few kilos we though what more can we do?  Browsing through instagram we saw a link from Ed Jackson a rugby player and customer of ours.  He has done lots of work raising money for the hospital who helped him through his recovery.  A quick DM to him and we were speaking to Katie.  A plan and a result all in the space of a few hours :)  

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COVID -19 Policy... what are we doing? 

As we are all well aware these are trying times for everyone and so we have to make some tough decisions for our business, staff and safety for our customers. 

The specialty coffee industry globally has been hit hard by this pandemic and are thoughts are with those who are sick, closed, in lockdown or facing staffing problems. 

We value every coffee shop, farmer, importer, exporter, restaurant, bakery, hotel and roasteries working during these times and your support in keeping independent businesses going is key to survival. 

Our team are here working hard ensuring we can keep you going with the beautiful coffees we work with.

Outlined below is some early information following the breaking news that is currently being delivered in the UK. 

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Tarqui ....Where is it? And what is the competition 

Tarqui is a small town in the Central Cordillera of the Anders Mountains in the South West of Colombia.  This is the second year that we travelled to Tarqui to purchase coffee, meet with the producers we work with and to Judge the growers competition arranged by Nordic Approach and Fairfield Trading. 

We first travelled there in November 2018 and fell in love with the coffee and the producers who work the land.  The farmers are small and very remote a good 1-2 hour hike into the mountains.  A typical farm is family owned and 1-3 hectares in size.  This family aspect means many of them work together to create larger lots of coffee, however during competition time family rivalry comes out in full.  This post is to give you a flavour of what coffees we have bought this year.  We will focus in more detail on each producer as and when we release their coffees. 

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Denbi Uddo School Project....What is it? 

For each bag we sell we will donate £1 in to a fund to buy the children of the Denbi Uddo school some text books, pens and paper.  These basic essentials are really important and much needed.

Denbi Uddo is a small town near the Jigesa Coffee Mill in the Guji Zone of Ethiopia.  The school is a short drive from the Mill and the export company Testi have carried out a lot of work in building the school.  When I visited in 2017 Adam from Testi was really excited to show us the school myself and other roasters on the trip wanted to donate or help in any way we could which lead us on to this idea for the 2018 harvest from Denbi Uddo.

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