Women in Business

Coffee connoisseur Lisa’s cup of cheer

We’re surrounded by coffee shops and can’t walk down the street without passing someone holding a takeaway cup of coffee. But would legendary Pulp Fiction character and coffee lover Winston Wolf always be happy with what is served up?

Lisa Rowles of The Garden Roastery in Bromsgrove is on a mission to create and provide speciality coffee and gifts to discerning consumers who want the flavour, without the hype.

Hailing from a corporate background and currently working in HR for a large engineering company, Lisa trained as a coffee roaster on a oneweek course at the London School of Coffee in 2017 before setting up her business a year later.

“I loved the course as I’ve always been fascinated by coffee,” she said. “I went on a longer course to gain certification from the Specialty Coffee Association and have a purpose-built building in my garden where I develop my roasting processes.

“Local customers come and collect – I currently have a collection box outside due to Covid – and deliver across the UK.

“I’ve got a website and I enjoy posting photos on Facebook and Instagram. People like to see what you’re doing and they can log on every day to find out what the roasting process involves. The word is spreading among other local businesses too.”

Lisa imports coffee from all over the world and produces speciality roast coffee in both whole bean and ground format for a wide range of brewing methods including espresso and French press.

From seed to cup, there are many factors that affect the taste of a cup of coffee, for example, if the cherry flesh is taken off or washed and let to dry.

“I also roast decaffeinated coffee, my customer reviews say it’s the closest they have found to regular coffee, I have also developed a half-caf blend, it is 50% caffeinated and 50% decaffeinated.”

Lisa also uses whole spices, to make naturally flavoured coffees, including pumpkin spice & vanilla, cinnamon and gingerbread and offers a Speciality Coffee Variety Box with four different bags of roast coffee, information sheet and tasting guide. Lisa Rowles

“There are different roasts from different countries and people can decide which ones they prefer. I want to give people what they want, which is all the choice and all the flavour without the hype.”

For more information about Lisa’s approach to roasting coffee and to place an order from The Garden Roastery, visit www. thegardenroastery.com and give her a follow on Facebook and Instagram @thegardenroastery