AIL talks to: Ozone Coffee Roasters' Lizzie Bain

With UK Coffee Week (23rd - 29th April) just finished I am supping my Long Black after a busy Sunday brunch session and listening to our inspired staff throwing coffee and food thoughts around for summer. Our Head Chef Johnny Marinovich is talking about a dragon fruit salad with gelupo blood orange granita, and our Head Baristas Rory Lloyd and Sean Pittaway are busting to try our refreshing summer coffee, the Ethiopian Harrar brewed through a Hario cold drip.

The four events we hosted were in aid of UK Coffee Week’s charity: Project Waterfall, which aims to raise at least £1 million for safe drinking water and sanitation projects in Africa. As we use several east African coffees in our signature blends we were keen to support this charity and to help get clean water into African communities.

We kicked off with the arrival of two of our colleagues from New Zealand, Karla Gichard (Chief Executive UK/NZ and Co-Owner) and Paul Newbold (Head Roaster/Production Manager NZ and Co-Owner). Karla arrived fresh off the plane from Portland, USA, having attended the annual Specialty Coffee Association of America Symposium & Expo. 6’2” Paul was lucky enough to spend 30 hours on a plane direct from NZ! Needless to say, both arrived a little bleary eyed, and what better way to fight the jet lag than get straight into a cupping. For those unfamiliar with the term, a cupping is not what you might think! Cupping is the process we use to assess and taste coffees - this can be for blend development, checking for defects or simply trying to ascertain certain flavour characteristics we desire to bring out in the coffee. During UK Coffee Week we held several public cupping sessions and Paul and James Gurr (General Manager UK and Co-Owner) cupped up to four times a day with our baristas to develop our blends.

We have been lucky enough to get hold of two award-winning “Cup of Excellence” coffees which James roasted for the café. We have been serving up Rwanda Kayumbu COE 2011 Lot#7 and El Salvador La Nueva COE 2011 Lot#18. The barista team has been preparing the Rwandan through a wood neck which brings out the lemon and caramel notes in the coffee and are finding it to be light with a juicy acidity. The El Salvador coffee has been prepared through an Aero press which brings out a gorgeous soft mouth feel, notes of jasmine and a butterscotch aroma. Both of these limited edition coffees are available to purchase at the café.

The week ended with a bake day. The ‘basement’ of our two floor operation is largely devoted to our wholesale business where we roast coffee, train baristas and provide technical support for coffee equipment in the workshop. All our staff and friends of Ozone baked delicious treats to sell and donate the proceeds to Project Waterfall. The event was a sell-out and we are already looking for an excuse to hold one again soon. I don’t think I can wait till next year’s UK Coffee Week – so keep an eye on our blog for more coffee events coming soon!