At The Coffee Can, our teams work hard to produce fantastic cups of coffee to our wonderful regulars, both at our coffee shops and in our mobile coffee vans. But for baristas, working behind the coffee machine only teaches you so much – they may be able to produce some brilliant latte art, but the best coffees are produced by baristas that truly understand the beans they’re working with, their flavours, and their origin. That’s why this summer, we took a team trip over to River Coffee to break down the processes which happen before the coffee beans get dialled into our grinders.
About River Coffee
River Coffee is based over in Alresford, about half an hour away from us. The roastery was established in 2018 by Will after a year’s travel through Colombia and Latin America. With years’ worth of industry knowledge built prior to his travels (training as both a barista and roaster), it makes sense that this trip tied the links needed for Will to set off building his own coffee roastery; working directly with the coffee farmers he worked for in Costa Rica.
In both of our coffee shops and across all our mobile coffee pop-ups, we serve up Flow – a Brazilian and Peruvian Arabica and Robusta blend roasted with tasting notes of Chocolate, Butterscotch and Cherry. For decaf, we use a single-origin Mexican coffee – Finca La Laja – offering similar notes to our house blend, including chocolate and lemon.
We sell retail bags (250g) and 1 kilo bags of our house blend at both of our sites. Next time you drop by, don’t forget to check them out at The Coffee Can at Secrett’s Farm Shop and The Coffee Can on the Green (Bourne Pavilion). Our baristas on shift will be able to tell you how to get the coffees you make at home tasting just like ours!
Our roastery visit
Unsurprisingly, our team love a catch up. Even if we’ve been glued at the hip all shift, we’ve always got something to talk about. The evening therefore started with a catch up and reunion in the River car park… despite the fact we had all car-shared to get there. Once everyone had arrived and the latecomers were suitably ridiculed, we moved inside.
We were greeted by Will and taken through to River’s training room – quite frankly, it’s a coffee lovers dream. A room full of different coffee machines (included our trusted Conti) and grinders; all plumbed in so that River can offer a bespoke training experience to all who come through their doors on the espresso machine they’ll be using. This night wasn’t about training on how to use an espresso machine though, it was all about the processes that happen before the coffee reaches us.
Conversation around the training table ensued and we learnt about the different varietals of coffee, common processing methods and the flavours they bring to the cup, how different regions grow coffee with different characteristics and all about the SCA cup scoring process. Some green coffee (that is, coffee that hasn’t been roasted yet) was shared around and compared with roasted coffee in terms of its appearance and flavour.
Then, the hope that we all arrived at the roastery with came into fruition… the opportunity to try some coffee!
Coffee cupping
You may or may not know that the process of tasting coffee beans in their purest form occurs through a process known as cupping. This process basically involves making a concentrated cup of coffee by leaving coarse grounds in boiling water for four minutes, breaking the ‘crust’ of coffee and taking it out of the cup, then using a spoon to slurp coffee. Unlike typical coffee shop brews, the grounds remain in the cup during tasting. Don’t worry, we weren’t drinking them though, they all sink to the bottom of the cup whilst the spoon only takes from the drinks surface!
By slurping coffee with a spoon, the coffee hits all taste points in our mouth at once – this means you get a really round and full taste of the coffee’s flavour. Whilst it’s practical and used by experts to grade coffee, it did make for some pretty hilarious attempts made by some of our team members (not to name any names, but if you take a look back on our socials you will see the culprits for yourself).
Mess made and coffee spilled across the training table, we were then taken across to the larger unit next door to see where the coffee roasting happens.
Roasting the coffee
A whole team works together to take the green coffee which has been imported into the country, roast it, weigh it and package it, and deliver it to coffee shops like our own. It was a truly fantastic sight to see so much coffee! At this point in the evening though, we were a little bit over-caffeinated, and with a full day’s work under our belts before we arrived, we figured it was time to venture home.
Huge thank you to River Coffee for having us! It is always such a pleasure to witness roasters make a conscious effort to work ethically and sustainably with coffee producers to ensure that we are bringing fair coffee to our cups.
Be sure to visit one of our shops to try River Coffee for yourself, and don’t forget to take home a bag to enjoy the same great taste at home.