Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee Morning returns to Colchester

The fundraising favourite, on September 25, means thousands of people across the countrywill be brewing up for a great cause.

But for Essex’s skilled coffee connoisseurs, Mac&Me Roasting, the daily grind is never off the menu.

Working from a farmbased in picturesque Writtle, near Chelmsford, Mac&Me is an artisan coffee business where beans shipped in from South America and Africa are turned into delicious blends and flavours.

The firm is a joint venture between entrepreneurs and long-term friends Damian Barrett, Grant Whitaker and Dave Macdonald – all who have expert knowledge of the drinks trade.

In 2013 they decided to put this knowledge to good use. They saw a gap in the market for artisan coffees in the south east and were galvanised into action. At first the heat was on to prove themselves in a notoriously tough trade.

Their efforts, however, have paid off.

They now supply restaurants, pubs, coffee houses and even individual members of the public across Essex and further afield with their coffee delights, which include signature and bespoke blends.

Their customers include Stop the World cafe in Leigh and the Greyhound pub in Wivenhoe, while they also provide Barista training to hospitality businesses.

You could say their mantra is it’s all about the quality.

“There’s an art to making great quality coffee,” said Damian.

“That quality is what we aim to perfect with every batch we send out.”

Coffee plants are cultivated in more than 70 countries today, primarily in the equatorial regions of the Americas, Southeast Asia, India and Africa.

The two most commonly grown plants are the Arabica and the Robusta.

Once ripe, coffee beans are picked, processed, and dried to be later roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavour.

They are then ground and brewed to create coffee.

Damian says there’s been an explosion of interest in artisan and single estate coffees in the last fewyears and that’s where Mac&Me Roasting comes in.

Their farmland premises includes a tasting area with coffee machines and a roasting room.

The decor and atmosphere is stylish, modern and cool.

So howdid it all get started?

Damian, a father of four from Chelmsford, said: “We incorporated Mac&Me Roasting in March 2013. After a little trial and error, we started bagging and selling our own coffee in November 2013.

“Our desire to become artisan small-batch roasters came from our years of importing and distributing Italian roasted coffee to our established customer base, within our wine merchant company. We have watched and been a part of numerous changes and trends within the wine industry, and can now see there is a big wave of change brewing in the coffee world, and we want to be a part of it.”

As for the roasting journey, Damian, 43, explained: “Our roasting process begins at source.

We work closelywith our coffee agent who trades directlywith the growers – often paying prices higher than fair trade.

“We roast fresh green beans slowly in small batches to capture the very best expression of the coffee we can. Roasting as a process uses all of our senses with a bit of technology thrown in. We roast to a set colour depending on which coffee or coffee blend we are roasting.

“Along the waywe are listening, watching and smelling what is happening in the drum.

You could say that we put our sixth sense to good use when developing our individual blends, in the sense that we start with a taste profile in mind and work towards it, tweaking roast temperature change points and time.

“Once packed, we ship as close to roasting as we can. ‘Fresh’ is a really important word from the field all the way to the cup.”

History has enjoyed its ups and downs when it comes to coffee.

When the drink first made its way to Europe from Arabia, it was considered “evil”, largely due to its popularity amongst Muslims.

Pope Clement VIII, however – not known as one of history’s nicest people – came to the rescue. Legend has it that when he first tasted coffee in 1600 he said: “Why, this Satan’s drink is so delicious it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall fool Satan by baptizing it and making it a truly Christian beverage.”

From there, coffee houses sprang up in cities across Europe.

They became the height of fashion in London during the 17th century as places for writers, poets and political figures to meet and to hold often raucous debates (women were often barred).

However, in 1675, King Charles II banned coffee shops because he thought theywere acting as meeting places for his enemies to conspire against him. Of course his edict didn’t last too long.

So with our 21st-century obsession with lattes and cappucinos are we now switching our allegiance from tea to coffee?

Damian admitted: “Are we now a nation of coffee drinkers rather than tea drinkers? No, I don’t think so. Asmuch as I love coffee and am excited by it and its future, mymoney is still on tea for now.

“We are drinking lots of coffee in coffee shops and from takeouts, but it is the coffee versus tea we drink at home that really counts.

“The growing interest in quality coffee served at home is fantastic and is growing, but it is still in the minority.”

In the two years and counting thatMac&Me Roasting has been up and running Damian says he’s learnt a lot about coffee.

“I have come to realise over the past two years that at least half of the people I meet who say they don’t like coffee, say so because they have never had a good one.

“A common misconception might be that coffee is always bitter or too strong. Seeing people trying a coffee for the first time that is smooth and or delicate with body and complexity and hearing such things as ‘that’s nice and I don’t need sugar!’ or ‘I could drink that black’ is very pleasing and rewarding.”

For more details about Mac & Me Roasting, email damian@macandmeroasting.co.uk or call 07775 558190