REVIVINGROASTS

TO START THE DAY, TO KEEP YOUGOING, IN THOSE QUIET MOMENTS OR CATCHING UP WITH FRIENDS, ENJOYING AGOOD CUP OF COFFEE IS ONE OF LIFE’S SIMPLE PLEASURES. THIS MONTH ED THOMAS FINDSOUT MORE ABOUTASUSTAINABLE COFFEE ROASTERY RIGHT IN THE HEART OF THE BEAUTIFUL SHROPSHIRE HILLS

Apostle Coffee was created by Jon Stanford, his wife Charlotte and his father Colin, aretired local doctor.They wanted to share their interest in true sustainability and love of adecent cup of coffee. They wanted to create organic coffee with the environment at heart.

Jon and Charlotte, originally from Shropshire, were living in and shaping their careers in London. Enjoying a coffee in one of their favourite haunts the Roasting Shed in Hackney Wick they found out the team there were looking to expand and an opportunity arose to buy their coffee roaster.The deal was done, and after some intensive training and plenty of experimentation, the dream was beginning to become areality

Opting to returntotheir rootstheir new,tothem, 1980s vintage Probat coffee roaster was loaded in to ahorse trailer and moved along with them back to

Shropshire in 2019. Returning to South Shropshire would give Jon and Charlotte the chance to give their own family ataste of their childhoods in thearea, and the opportunity to switch pace after years in London where Jon worked in creative industries and film production.

Apostle Coffee now nestles in the Shropshire Hills between Church Stretton and Craven Arms. They are truly off grid, with all power on site produced from awind turbine and solar photovoltaic panels. The converted stable provides abase for roasting, grinding, packing and dispatching fully organic coffee.

Sustainability is akey feature of the vibrant business. In addition to being off grid, Apostle Coffee is fully carbon neutral accredited. This stringent accreditation includes afull audit of the whole lifecycle of your cup of coffee, from growing thebeans through to consumption and ultimately composting the packaging and coffee grinds. The carbon neutral certification is provided by Climate Partners. Organic certification comes from the Soil Association which ensures stringent farming practices are met and principles upheld. Afurther sustainability certification is provided by Ethy,this means all of Apostle’s environmental claims have been checked and endorsed.

Jon sources coffee through wholesalers from personally selected farms and cooperatives. The wholesalers ensure organically certified coffee beans have been grown in asustainable way and where farmers have been paid afair price. Alot of Apostle’s coffees come from Colombia and Sumatra, but Jon is always on the hunt for new flavour profiles from other parts of the world, new coffees that might just become part of the Apostle family

So how does the coffee end up in your cup. Having been sourced from all over the world green coffee beans arrive in Shropshire from the wholesaler ready to be roasted. Roasting takes place in small five kilo batches which take between 15 and 20 minutes. Jonand his father Colin, who also helps roast the coffee, work to roasting profiles. Each batch of beans is subtly different so, much like a winemaker dealing with different varieties of grapes in different vintages, aroaster’s own touch very much comes in to it so this is where you will taste Apostle’s unique way of doing things, along with the influence of small variations between batches as well as between different origins that form the full range.

Having been roasted, the coffee may then be packaged as whole beans, or it is ground to order.Customers can select from arange of six grades, the finest grinds for an espresso machine, or acourser grind for acafetière. The beans, or ground coffee are packaged in fully compostable packaging, that is printed using vegetable inks,and dispatched to customers. Customers are then encouraged, or even expected, to compost their packaging and the grinds themselves.

The Apostle range includes three foundation coffees. The Devil’s Chair –the signature blend which is well balanced and full bodied with caramel and citrus notes. Ippikin’s Rock –a rich andsmooth bodied House blend, and finally The Needle’s Eye –adecafblend with butterscotchand nutmeg tones. Discovery and Exceptional range coffees are only available as part of Apostle’s innovative subscription services. These special organic coffees showcasing different coffee-growing regions and styles of coffee

The Apostle story would not be complete without rounding off the sustainability loop with some tree planting. Focusing totally on native

British species, Jon and theApostle team have plantedover100 blackpoplars close to theroastery.Black Poplars are considered endangered across the British Isles so this dedicated cluster makes areal difference. Afurther 500 more native trees and shrubs have been planted at Pam’s Pools, apermaculture and rewilding site close to Bridgnorth.This project is in partnership with the Wildlife Trust and another tree is planted for each new member of their subscription service, where customers receive adifferent coffee each time. So far more than 1,000 trees and shrubs have been planted.

The subscription service was apre curser for anew invitation-only coffee community.This community is being built for themost conscientious and sustainably-minded coffee drinkers

So next time you’re enjoying acoffee, just take amoment to consider whether it should be more sustainable and more delicious.