Atkinsons’ coffeepreneur, beanmeister-in-chief and self-confessed hopeless romantic has been at the leading edge of UK speciality coffee for over a decade. He reveals the key coffee moments in his caffeinated journey to Selena Young

Do you remember your first cup of coffee?

In the 1960s my parents had a 1924 table model syphon. It was kept in a kitchen cupboard of our house in Bolton and only came out after certain meals. They’d use proper coffee from Booths (the greengrocer) and we’d have the coffee with my mum’s homemade drop scones – like little pancakes – with butter. I remember heaping two sugars into the coffee, but that was normal then – like having sugar butties.

What was your pre-coffee career?

Television producer and film director. I made tens of thousands of television commercials, so many I lost count in the end. My wife Sue was a textile designer. After graduating we were lucky enough to get into our chosen careers and enjoyed 20 years specialising in the jobs we’d trained for.

What took you into the world of coffee?

After heading my own production company for twenty years I moved to a production company in Scotland, but it didn’t work out. I tried to go back to my previous clients but the landscape had changed dramatically. At the same time Sue had received a 12-month redundancy notice, so we spent time together at home together cooking up what to do next – usually over a syphon of coffee.

I suggested we could learn about the world of coffee and how to roast, but we didn’t really know anything about speciality coffee, even though we bought it regularly. After a trip to Lancaster (which we had left twenty years previously) we found that Atkinsons (the wonderful old shop that’s now the bean and leaf store) was still there and we asked the owner if he would consider selling it.

We cashed in all our chips – including selling our dream home and taking the kids out of school – to put in to the company: it was a social experiment for the whole family.

For ten years the business didn’t really need to borrow anything which was great. It grew by 1000 per cent in the first decade, going from an annual turnover of £170,000 to £1.7m, so we’d got the timing right. We didn’t even feel any downturn from the 2008 financial crisis, maybe because the coffee shop was a place of solace, an affordable luxury. After that experience I’m confident that (in the post-Covid world) the same thing will happen – we’ll have to wait and see.

Have your TV producer skills helped you in your coffee career?

I surprise myself at how well versed I am in digital technology. In 1994 I opened the first digital animation studio outside London, so I’ve been in the digital world for a very long time and that side of things doesn’t scare me. Also, creativity is so important in the business of coffee; so many people have switched career into coffee for the love of it – we’re a bunch of hopeless romantics really.

Share a standout coffee moment?

The first time I experienced an Ethiopian coffee ceremony on a cottage farm in Yirgacheffe was pretty amazing. I was worried that it was going to taste really ashy but some of the coffees were great, despite being so fresh.

It’s like nothing else you’ve tasted in coffee: the beans are just-picked and ground using a pestle and mortar, without being rested or brought down to 11 per cent moisture. All of the limitations we roasters work by are out the window and it’s back to the primal way of making coffee. It was very spiritual to be ingesting the fruits of their labours, grown on their land.

Filter or espresso?

Espresso. I usually have two or three as I check in at each of our cafes. I don’t jump on the machine and do it myself as it’s an opportunity for the barista to show me they’re dialled in correctly.

What’s your morning coffee ritual?

V60 – usually something we’ve roasted that week. I always end up with lots of packets of coffee to be tried and got through 600 V60 papers in lockdown. I make enough for two cups (I think you get a better brew that way) and I usually make it in a little glass carafe.

The worst coffee you’ve drunk?

I’ve had some fairly dodgy coffees. If I’m abroad and it’s a really high-robusta coffee I do what they do in Italy and have it with grappa to make a caffè corretto.

Who’d you like to sip a brew with?

It would be amazing to have a coffee with Thomas Atkinson, the guy who opened the Grasshopper Tea Warehouse (still the site of Atkinsons) in 1877. I’d love to know how they were making coffee then. I’d tell him that his coffee shop is still going strong and that the cannisters he used are still in use every day, along with the scoop with which we weigh up two and a half pounds of beans. It would be so intriguing.

Your fave coffee pairing?

The apple liqueur, calvados. I spent a gap year in Europe and in Paris my flatmate’s girlfriend came from a farm in Normandy where they made smooth calvados. He used to hide a bottle in his coat and we’d go to the corner cafe and order two espressos and pour a little in. You get a lovely red skin apple note from good calvados and it can be great with a coffee which has the acidity to match it. It shortens to cafe calva – if you ask for that in a French cafe they’ll think you really know what you’re doing.

What’s the future for speciality coffee?

What we’ve found from this whole crisis is how interconnected we all are. The farmers need the customers to buy the drinks, so the roasters can roast the coffee and buy from the traders.

It’s going to go uber speciality and more high end with the indies having to separate from the mainstream. I also think transparency could be the next big thing. That could include more about how much I paid for the greens from the farmer and how much I’m asking you, the customer, to give me for it. It’s about running a business with integrity.

Ian is a member of the Indy Coffee Guide committee and, for the past five years, has helped the coffee guide crew hunt out the very best places between Birmingham and the Scottish Borders for an outstanding brew.

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