Rounton Coffee | Blog

05/07/2020
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How has COVID-19 Impacted the Coffee Industry?

by David Burton, Head of Coffee The last few months have seen our lives dramatically change in an incomprehensible way and in such a short space of time. Staying at home under lockdown and social distancing measures dominate our new daily way of life, with the threat of infection from the novel coronavirus still casting a shadow over most of the globe. As we start to come to terms with our “new normal” and with the lifting of some social restrictions, we can start to reflect and look at the... Read More

19/06/2020

How Clean Is Your Machine?

A machine that hasn’t been properly cleaned and maintained will need repairing sooner than one that has. Not only that, but a dirty machine will never give you the quality of coffee that your customers deserve... We’re here to give you a few pointers on how to keep on top of your cleaning and show you what to avoid

30/04/2020
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Nightingale Coffee – Our Pledge To The NHS

Over the last few weeks, we have been doing our best to keep local NHS services well-caffeinated. Given the circumstances they find themselves in, a good cup of coffee is the very least we can do for them. Back in March, before we entered lockdown, we pledged to give free coffee to NHS staff, from our two shops in Middlesbrough. With the support of Drew Rowley of React Nutrition, we had the equivalent of 500 coffees behind the bars.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to give all of these... Read More

01/08/2019
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Why Do We Cup Coffees?

What is Coffee Cupping? Cup tasting (a.k.a cupping) is the process of objectively assessing the quality of coffee samples. If you’ve seen anyone with what looks like a soup spoon, slurping loudly at a table full of coffees, they’ll have been cupping! Coffees are scored according to Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) protocol using this sheet, and the resulting total gives us an indication of the quality of the coffee – anything scoring 80+ being classed as specialty grade. This protocol gives us a shared language to use when talking to... Read More

21/06/2019
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Our New Roaster

Why Do We Need A New Roaster? Every journey has its first steps, and for us, that took the form of some pretty humble beginnings. After spending time in Sumatra and deciding to take the plunge into the world of coffee upon returning home, Rounton Coffee Roasters was born – but we had nothing to roast coffee with! We started out by buying a 10kg drum roaster from Toper, imported from Turkey. In our infancy, the roaster would be turned on once a week, and we would roast a handful... Read More

13/06/2019
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World Of Coffee ’19 – Our Thoughts

We’ve just returned home after a great trip out to Berlin, for the annual World of Coffee (WoC) – one of the biggest events in the international coffee calendar. We’ve visited WoC before, and having learned so much in Amsterdam in 2018, we decided that this year we’d learn a lot if the whole team took the trip to Berlin, to see what’s new in the coffee industry. Our goals were simple: meet as many people as we could (roasters, importers, farmers, famous coffee folk), and learn as much as... Read More

05/04/2019
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Arabica vs Robusta – The Clash of the Coffees

You’ll have seen it everywhere – from supermarket shelves to fast food outlets; from high street coffee chains to the most niche speciality coffee houses – ‘100% Arabica’ seems to be something that everyone boasts about. But what does it actually mean? We want to go one step further than just saying we use 100% Arabica coffees, and explain the background behind the claim: what that guarantees to you as a consumer, and what the alternatives are. First things first, a little science lesson… A quick delve into our biology... Read More

07/03/2019
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Introducing… Tomas Keavney

Name and Occupation Tom Keavney – Training & Marketing If I’m not roasting, I’m out and about catching up with the people we supply with coffee, running our Barista Skills Course. I like to share as much as I can about how we source our coffee, how we roast it, and how to make it taste delicious. You can also find me writing all sorts of stuff – whether that’s keeping the Rounton Coffee social media accounts up to date with what we’re getting up to, writing blogs for our... Read More