a coffee roaster
“the coffee first comes in sacks and is called ‘green coffee’. Although sometimes it can actually be more of a yellow colour”
As a nation, we’re totally obsessed by our love of Coffee. Just look at our high streets and you’ll see how the major coffee brands dominate, offering overwhelming coffee choices such as flat whites, rich cortado and creamy lattes. What these brands have done in fact, annoyingly so, is over engineer a natural product. Why don’t we drink real coffee anymore? It’s got so much flavour but in order to produce a real coffee it’s all about roasting your beans correctly. Ryan’s story is all about roasting and producing real coffee.
Those of us who know Cornwall well, will know that the Scilly Isles forms part of this lovely land. That’s where Ryan was born and bred. After he’d finished school and his A levels, the main land came calling and he left the Scilly’s for London, enrolling on a production arts and stage management degree. The degree didn’t work out for Ryan so his thoughts led to the idea of setting up his own business of some sort. Whilst enjoying a good cup of coffee one day, Ryan became interested in how it was roasted and produced then researched a little further. During this time, Ryans family made the decision to leave the Scilly’s and move to the main land and set up a new business there. Ryan followed them. Searching for a name for his new coffee business came easy after that, seeing as his family moved to Lands End. The perfect choice was - The Lands End Coffee Company.
I knew a little of the process of coffee roasting but Ryan was good enough to enlighten me. Ryan told me “the coffee first comes in sacks and is called ‘green coffee’. Although sometimes it can actually be more of a yellow colour”. Watching the roasting of the beans came next. It looked and smelt ace. Ryan said there was a lot of technical stuff on the temperature and timing front to ensure you end up with a nicely roasted coffee. The longer you roast the coffee beans, the darker the coffee is, which gives you that rick dark almost burnt bitter taste. The lighter the roasting is the more sweet/citrus/fruit flavours you get minus that bitterness. My type of coffee.
What Ryan has done here is quite clever. He’s developed a low volume niche coffee brand. A coffee unlike those high street brands that adopt those stupid little names that carry no value. Ryans branding is cleverly pitched. Each of his coffees carry the name of a lighthouse - Sevenstones, Longships and Round Island. My day with Ryan was all about coffee and drinking it. A perfect day you might say.
