According to the UK Coffee Leader Summit in January 2017, "The UK has become a nation of coffee drinkers, with coffee shop visitors purchasing an estimated 2.3 billion cups of coffee per year in stores. Consumers are more knowledgeable and empowered with choice than ever before, and the rise of artisan coffee has driven the desire for premium quality coffee". With three new coffee shops opening every day in the UK, it is estimated that the number of coffee shops will over-take pubs by 2030 as Brits continue to swap lager for lattes. Independent coffee shops and cafes come in all styles and guises but the one thing that makes one stand out from the others is good quality coffee and many customers now want to be able to have the same experience at home.
My husband John and I have always loved good coffee but find that many of the new coffee shops/cafes opening are not giving the quality of their coffee the attention it deserves (but not all, High Street Social and Hot Gossip in our home town of Treorchy serve good coffee in our humble opinions). Despite years of experience in catering and hospitality (me) and engineering (John), we are not in a position to open our own establishment so decided to start an online coffee roasting business instead. Our intention is to start small, concentrating on quality and build slowly until hopefully we can concentrate on it full time.
The story so far entails us both attending the Caffe Culture Show in London and both being enspired; John attending a coffee roasting course to get the basics; us purchasing a sample roaster, a grinder, bags and green coffee beans; John experimenting with roasting, blending and grinding; friends and family sampling and giving opinions, and me concentrating on the other side of the business set up, creating the website, designing packaging and organising the ordering and record keeping. As soon as we get a bank account finalised and payment methods set up we will be able to 'go live' on the ordering page.
So that's it for today...watch this space for further updates 😀