The leading information and business resource for the UK's cafè bar market

Caffè Features

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  Caffè Profile - Keeper of the roasting flame

  People arrive in the coffee and roasting trades from strange directions… in the case of Ian Steel, of Atkinsons in Lancaster, coffee followed a life in the media, as a TV producer. Having decided to buy a coffee company which was already on its way to its second century, he embarked on a crash course in roasting, using equipment which itself classed almost as antique, simply because he was so keen to retain the history and heritage of the company.

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  Caffè Profile - The story in the tea leaves

  Marketing in the tea trade can be a funny thing – it really is the case that certain senior sales and marketing people in certain tea brands have never seen a tea plant in their lives. By contrast, there are certain companies whose leaders make a point of travelling to origin very regularly – and one of them is eteaket of Edinburgh, which doubles as both a tea-room and a trade supplier.

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  When is a drink not a drink?

  It's a standard part of a barista championship for each contender to make a ‘signature drink’. A recipe of the contestant’s own devising, and apart from the requirement to make it in a given time-frame, and in some contests the requirement to avoid alcoholic ingredients, the barista is free to make the item as simple or as complex as they like.