Basic Barista Course

Our coffee – Mike Steele - Head Roaster

• Our ultimate goal is to ensure that our coffee tastes great in all environments; from the finest professional espresso machine in the hands of a professional to the simplest homebrew device in the hands of, well, anyone.
• For us, great coffee beans are the start of a fabulous cup of coffee and without great beans, all that remains is the prospect of a bad cup of coffee, this is unthinkable and undrinkable. All of our green coffee beans are ethically sourced, with our signature Brazilian love affair espresso blend coming 100% from Rainforest alliance certified farms.
• We roast by hand and it’s by using traditional methods with a little bit of help from modern technology that we ensure we always deliver outstanding coffee that is true to our principles; hand made to the highest quality, and exceptionally fresh.

The Green Beans

• We are very lucky to work with several specialist coffee importers giving us access to amazing beans from all over the world. We regularly get to taste new coffees from both well-established and innovative farms, hoping to find those coffees that get our taste buds going. It's also very important to us to find out exactly where the beans are grown, who farmed them, and what the community is like close to the farm. We aim to offer as much information as possible about our beans and to credit those working hard to supply such a beautiful product.
• Many of our beans are rainforest alliance certified, but we also support farms that are ethical towards their workers and help their local community, as many smallholders who grow stunning coffee are not big enough to fund the certification process.
• All our decaf beans are decaffeinated without chemicals by using the natural mountain water process, which cleverly removes 99.9% of the caffeine with just water but retains the coffee's flavor.

Roasting

• Our optimum temperature for coffee roasting is around 200 degrees centigrade and we balance environmental conditions throughout the process. We monitor the beans by temperature and color and use the naked eye to stop the process at precisely the right moment to ensure the correct flavor. Lighter roasts yield more subtle flavors and a higher acidity but a darker roast boasts an intense and bolder flavours.
• Finding the ideal roast profile for each bean is where the fun begins. Lots of experimenting, cuppings, and discussions take place amongst the roasting team until we are happy, and from there. This is when our palates are truly tested to identify subtle flavors and differentiate between origins, flavors, and roast levels; it’s safe to say that the team doesn’t always come to the same conclusion, but we chat about it for 20 minutes, and then decide I’m right.

Blending

• The key to a great blend is selecting flavors and qualities of each bean that complement each other so that the sum of the parts creates a greater product
• An example of this is how worked to create our signature espresso blend "Brazilian love affair". We needed a balanced espresso with a broad appeal and it took a long time to get the blend right. We now roast medium-dark for a full-bodied flavor with notes of dark chocolate that is bold enough to stand up in milky drinks.

Finished product

• Each batch is inspected by a senior member of our team before the roasted beans are packed by hand for delivery. Our beans are delivered weekly or even daily to maintain freshness and taste, using fresh beans is one of the key elements in drinking better coffee. All our coffee is despatched with a 'roasted on' date and although it will last longer, we recommend drinking it within 3-4 weeks of its roast date.

Enjoy your cup