Proudly Announcing – Workshop Coffee at G!RO

August 31, 2018

We are so stoked to formally announce that our coffee will now be supplied by the amazing guys down at Workshop Coffee, based in Bethnal Green, London. We are super excited to be working with Workshop, not only because of the quality of coffee that they produce but the shared idea and the support they will give us to bring you the best coffee possible! If that wasn’t enough, we will be the only place you can come and enjoy Workshop Coffee in Surrey, that’s right, we’re EXCLUSIVE BABY!! In all seriousness, we are really excited to see this new relationship blossom to take us to the next level and have no doubt you will love the end results.

A lot of you will have already of noticed that we’ve already made the coffee switch to Workshop in the shop over the last couple of weeks so we can really dial it in. On offer there will be 2 types of seasonal espresso, with 3 filter coffees and a decaf; all single origin. We wanted to give you guys a real opportunity to be properly introduced to Workshop, to really understand what they’re about and to understand their coffee mindset which was just part of the reason that persuaded us to make this exciting change. What better way to show you what they're about by showing you their ethos when it comes to ethically sourcing their coffee and their meticulous methods of roasting to get to the end product. 

Introducing Workshop Coffee…

Sourcing

Central to everything we do is our dedication to an ongoing cycle of quality. At origin, that means better pay for producers committed to the highest quality coffee and encouraging reinvestment and training at farm-level.

For us, showcasing the best coffee possible means working closely with the right coffee farmers, producers, exporters and co-operatives; those that are willing to develop, evolve and adapt as together we target ever-improving quality in the cup. Working with the same people each year helps both parties develop quality, however we will always look to foster new relationships with those who are producing great coffee. The search for better coffees is never ending and is a journey we relish.

We focus our travel and purchasing on Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda in Africa, the Central American countries of El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala with Colombia and Brazil being our focus in South America. We are spending more and more time in these countries, travelling and learning from the people who grow our coffee. We do also make smaller, occasional purchases from other producing countries such as Burundi and Ecuador if the right coffees come along.

To understand the challenges and opportunities in each of these places, and to locate the specific lots we want to purchase, we make around five trips to producing countries, travelling for around 50 or 60 days of the year.

We make no bold claims about having all the answers, nor about being unique or pioneering in this approach. What we do claim, however, is a genuine and sincere commitment to developing on-going relationships with producers, that facilitate their objectives of better financial reward for their handiwork, and our desire to serve for the best coffee possible.

Roasting

‘Clean, sweet and fresh’ is the guiding principle behind every batch of every coffee we produce. Initially, this means sourcing coffee from growers who pay close attention to all stages of harvest and processing, but at our end we feel the responsibility lies with us to ensure that our roasting is always...

Careful. We want to showcase the intrinsic quality of each of the coffees we serve, meaning that we don’t want to taste the influence of the roasting process itself. We’re looking for our roasting to be transparent; merely a process by which we unlock the coffee’s potential.

Consistent. We don't think that getting it right every now and then is good enough. We employ a combination of roasting intelligence software, strict quality control and a healthy dose of honesty to ensure every bag of coffee you receive is up to standard.

Considered. In order to ensure that our guides are in the right places, and that the coffee is still as fresh as the day we started serving it, a rigorous self-critical quality control programme is essential. Even when our coffee passes all in-roasting quality checks, we still evaluate every single batch by taste, on three separate occasions. Just to make sure.

We are so excited for this next chapter working with Workshop and can't wait for you to all try our new coffee! Be sure to come down and tell us what you think! 

Follow Workshop Coffee on Instagram: @workshopcoffee

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