WELCOME to our first 2022 issue of the Durham Coffee Bulletin. We would like to wish all our wonderful customers a Happy New Year! May your 2022 be filled with happiness, success, exciting adventures and of course copious amounts of excellent speciality coffee!
Before we jump into what is sure to be another amazing new year - we would like to briefly reflect on 2021. It was certainly quite an eventful year with numerous big changes and exciting opportunities - a year to remember. Here is a quick look back on some of the big events:
- Due to Covid, last year began with renewed uncertainty of how things would continue for both our café, Kaffeehaus Amadeus, as well as our roastery. However, we had a lot of exciting ideas and hoped for the best as we took on 2021 one day at a time.
- In January we launched our Limited Edition Charity Coffee scheme to give back to our local community by donating 20% of the sales from this coffee to a local charity. As a brand we proudly celebrate the beauty of the North East and its rich heritage and thus being able to give back to our local community is very important to us. Our first Limited Edition Charity Coffee was a delicious juicy bean from Papua New Guinea and our first chosen charity was the Durham Food Bank, for whom we managed to raise £200.
- One of the things we love best is connecting with people through coffee and in April we had the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with Willowburn Hospice in Lanchester to roast them their very own Willowburn Coffee Blend. We highly recommend you stop by their delightful hospice café with stunning views to have a peaceful brew and support a wonderful charity.
- In June, after months of looking, we got extremely lucky and finally found the perfect premises for our roastery; a wonderful little unit located in the Sacriston Industrial Estate.
- In July we slowly started moving into our roastery and got our brand new La Spaziale espresso machine installed as well as our lovely new roastery signage.
- July also gave us some beautiful weather and we enjoyed a lot of delicious Eiskaffees (ice cream coffees – yummm).
- At the beginning of August we had our first ever food festival and we had a very busy week roasting, packing and getting ourselves organised for the Seaham Food Festival. It was a great weekend, albeit tiring, but we thoroughly enjoyed chatting to many of you.
- September - what a month! It was definitely the highlight of last year for us as our brand new roaster FINALLY arrived at our roastery in Sacriston after crazy covid delays. We were extremely excited to be the first roasters in the UK to be pioneering the 12kg Air-motion roaster from South Africa; a sensational new piece of technology with a very hands-on approach to create a beautifully smooth and clean roast!
- Following the arrival of our Roaster (which we have since named Aeolus), we took a much needed break as Dad went off to Dumfries with my mum for a relaxed week in the beautiful Scottish countryside and I ventured south to enjoy a week in the Peak District with my best friend.
- Feeling much refreshed we prepped for our second Food Fair in Bishop Auckland and had another excellent weekend meeting new coffee lovers and sharing our passion for speciality coffee.
- November was another monumental moment for us as we said goodbye to our café, Kaffeehaus Amadeus. After 8 years building up a wonderful community of customers, selling wasn’t an easy decision to make, but sadly running both the café and the roastery wasn't viable any more. We could no longer put our heart and soul into both businesses and so it was time for us to let go of the café and start a new chapter going full time with our roasting business.
- At the end of November we eventually got around to hosting our official corporate roastery grand opening and had a fun day showcasing our space and passion for coffee with suppliers and local businesses.
- In celebration we also launched our second Limited Edition Charity Coffee - an organic coffee from Peru and in support of St. Cuthbert's Hospice in Durham.
- Not long after we had the exciting opportunity to collaborate with another business and this time for the creation of a coffee hot sauce! The wonderful guys at Balefire Sauce took our Ethiopian Prince Bishops coffee and produced a deliciously spicy limited edition coffee hot sauce - it was spot on and I hope you managed to bag yourself some!
- The beginning of December saw the launch of our Coffee Lover Workshops - which we can’t wait to start next month!
- And to finish off a busy year we stood in the sunny cold for 3 days at the Bowes Museum Christmas Market for an excellent festive weekend of coffee selling.
Until next time,
Cherish The Moments - Savour The Taste!
And all the best for 2022!
With best wishes
Carina and Bernhard.
Public Opening Times: Wednesday - Friday - 10am - 2pm
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