Marcus Wood has been around the block a few times. Walking his greyhound Dionne, of course. No, but seriously. He’s been in the coffee industry for ‘his entire adult life’ as he confessed to me during our one-on-one interview in London a few days ago. In fact, we have worked with Marcus a few times before while he was still roasting coffee for other big roasters in the city. Now, however, he is fully dedicated to a venture that he founded with his partner Rhian Nolan in 2021 and this venture is called Sanctuary Coffee.
Initially, Sanctuary was a travelling coffee cart that tried to raise money for animal sanctuaries around the UK. Being true animal lovers themselves, Marcus and Rhian regularly volunteered for a greyhound sanctuary south of London where they eventually met Dionne, their adorable retired racing greyhoud who kept us company during the interview. One day, the manager of the sanctuary asked Marcus and Rhian if they wanted to take their newest arrival Dionne for an overnight stay and what began with a trial quickly turned into a fully fledged love affair.
During the inital years of Sanctuary Coffee, Marcus and Rhian actively looked for ways to support animal sanctuaries which it turns out, get no funding whatsoever from the national government or local councils. As Marcus explained, sanctuaries don’t just rescue animals from abusive owners or people who can’t look after them, they are also important places for neurodivergent people, the elderly or the disabled. They offer a sense of community and comfort that many people lack and yet, many of them are barely scraping by. Others have had to close.
By combining their passion for specialty coffee with their noble mission to raise money for various sanctuaries around the UK, Marcus and Rhian have found a unique approach to give back. But for them, it all starts with the coffee. All of their coffees are sourced via green coffee traders with a hyper local approach who really know their partners and who can have maximum impact. To highlight this, Sanctuary publishes a full transparency report on its website that shows exactly how much is paid to who.
While Sanctuary Coffee is still a startup in many ways, it has grown a lot over the past years and with plans for a flagship café in the works, it will soon have its own place in London that will serve its local community. I am a huge dog lover myself, having had a dog for most of my childhood until I was at university. Seeing the great work they’re doing to help animals really filled my heart. Marcus proudly shared that they have raided more than £11.000 so far and his goal is to reach £30.000 by the time he turns 30 next year.
To celebrate Sanctuary’s first Coffeevine feature, I picked out a super yummy washed Mexican coffee. Despite the fact that Mexico is a huge coffee producer, it is still a relatively rare origin for us. Whenever we had a Mexican coffee, it was usually a natural processed lot. That makes this washed lot from Tejao, a fully female run cooperative from Oaxaca, even more exciting. In the cup, this coffee offered lots of crisp sweetness and clarity with a fresh apple-like flavour. Mexico is traditionally a very patriarchal society with few female coffee growers but this particular lot is helping to empower female producers in the Mazateca mountains and the coffee’s exporters are also women. A great coffee that supports a great cause.
To receive this excellent coffee along with our other European picks from Redemption Roasters and Conscious Coffee, order our your box from our shop now.
Pre-orders close on 15.08.2024 / Ships globally on 20.08.2024
