Who popped your coffee cherry?

Few of us will have stumbled upon speciality coffee by accident. Usually a friend, colleague or family member has opened the door to a new world of flavour and been instrumental in popping our coffee cherry. We asked a few industry pros about their first time …

Lisa Lawson, founder of Dear Green Coffee Roasters and the Glasgow Coffee Festival

‘My specialty coffee cherry was well and truly popped when I was the first employee of Tobys Estate Coffee in Sydney.

‘It was the millennium and the year of the Sydney Olympics; there was positive energy all around and I’d spend every day at this wonderful start-up roastery with the founder Toby Smith, roasting on his 5kg Probat in a walled garden. There was no turning back from that beginning.’

Dave Stanton, founder of Crankhouse Coffee

‘I had my “Yirgacheffe moment” while working as a barista in 2012. We were generously given some samples by Andy Tucker of Clifton Coffee and I stuck one of the bags in the guest hopper. As soon as I turned on the grinder I knew this was something different. My first natural Ethiopian (it was actually a Guji Shakisso) and its sweet and boozy aromas of blueberries was a game-changer. Hooked.’

Will Little, founder of Roastworks Coffee Co

‘It all started at Monmouth Coffee in Borough Market, London.

‘Shit got real when I discovered Penny University on Redchurch Street which was, and still is, the only Square Mile cafe. I remember Tim Williams (at least I think it was him) made me a filter-coffee flight – my mind was totally blown.’

Tash Murphy, Sucafina Specialty

‘I’m fortunate to have learnt my trade 15 years ago at the first second-wave coffee roasters in Brighton: the original Redroaster.

‘Everyone who worked there was Aussie or Kiwi and standards were high, but not in ways we recognise today. I didn’t like coffee and Redroaster used to roast dark enough to not change my opinion. Baristas drank single espressos with half a brown sugar – something you can’t imagine now.

Then I went to the roastery and blind-cupped for the first time. It was like magic – six coffees from all over the world, unimaginable stories that coffee could tell.

‘And the Kenyan cup. Always the Kenyan cup. For lots of people a natural Ethiopia is that thunderclap moment, but the savoury complexity of a washed Kenya is inspiring, phantasmagorical and a true insight into the terroir and history of arabica cultivars.’