Many of our stellar roasters started out not roasting. In fact, they didn’t even run their own cafés as is often the case. Instead, they were espresso machine wholesalers or distributors of other coffee making gear. The same applies to the third and final roaster who is part of our forthcoming January ’19 coffee box.
Founded by James Fisher in 2001, Clifton Coffee initially began life as an espresso machine servicing enterprise that attended to the needs of cafés and coffee shops in the Bristol area in the United Kingdom. Bristol is one of West England’s most important cities and has a healthy student population that has always given the hilly city an edgy vibe. When Ed Buston joined the company a few years after its founding, the company began wholesaling coffee in addition to providing barista training, something that was a relatively unknown concept at the time.
Approximately five years ago, Clifton Coffee entered the British coffee roasting scene as an exciting new brand that had plenty of experience of working with cafés and baristas. Needless to say, it quickly built a solid reputation for itself and now serves around 850 customers all over the UK and further afield. Many friends often tell us that Clifton is the name to watch when it comes to quality of sourcing, consistency and roasting skills. We couldn’t agree more, which is why we are thrilled to welcome Clifton Coffee back for its third feature this month.
The coffee we selected is a truly delicious natural-processed Ethiopian coffee from Guji that was a real standout on our cupping table last month. Guji is located in the Oromia district of Ethiopia and the mill can be found at around 950masl that serves around 850 local smallholder farmers who get incentivised to pick only the ripes reddest cherries. What’s more and something that is still rather unusual for Ethiopia, this coffee offers a degree of traceability that is usually rare for Ethiopian coffees. It consists largely of Catimor, a variety that according to Clifton Coffee’s Head of Coffee Josh Clarke often gets a bad rap for lacking sweetness but in this particular coffee, it shines with thick syrupy strawberry and vanilla notes.
We’re excited to offer this gorgeous coffee as part of our exquisite January ’19 coffee box selection and look forward to hearing your thoughts about this and the other coffees from CleverCoffee and Lippe Kaffe that we picked.
Only The Coffeevine offers you the ultimate coffee discovery!
