Business / Coffee roasted in Orkney now available in local branding
THERE is now another coffee offering in the ever-growing range of products in the local food and drink scene.
Celia Smith said she was delighted how the launch of her Blyde Welcome coffee range went during a first tasting session at Lerwick’s Toll Clock shopping centre on Saturday.
She has teamed up with Euan Smith of the Orkney Roastery to produce coffee freshly roasted in Kirkwall but marketed with a Shetland branding.
Artisan coffee is hugely fashionable, and Smith said she was convinced that despite the cost of living crisis coffee would continue to be an “affordable luxury”.
It all started during the Covid pandemic when demand for her hospitality training as part of modern apprenticeships was plummeting and she felt she needed to do something different.
“During Covid there was a huge rise in domestic premium coffee sales, so that is kind of what started me,” she said.
Euan Smith, meanwhile, has been working in coffee for more than 20 years, and started his own roastery in Kirkwall about five years ago.
“I have been in coffee since well before it was fashionable,” he said. “A lot of what we do is fairly traditional, and that fits well with my market and from what we have seen today, there is also a lot of interest here in Shetland.
“I firmly believe that coffee is about freshness. Over the generations we have forgotten that coffee used to be roasted by grocers and in shops. We just see coffee as an ambient product on the supermarket shelf.
“What we are able to bring to it is something that was roasted last week in what is a real crafted product rather than a mass produced ‘thing’.”
Celia added: “We have six retail blends and two catering blends. St Ninian’s is our lightest roast while Spiggie is a dark espresso. We sell beans, but we can also do whatever grinds people need.”
Euan is also the contact for Italian La Scala coffee machines, used in catering but also domestically.
Scoop Wholefoods is stocking the full range of Blyde Welcome coffees and the first local café offering the coffee will be the Auld Manse in Whalsay once it opens.
Celia is happy to take orders via e-mail celia@blydewelcome.com or her Facebook page.
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