Features / ‘Coffee is a great way to connect’: big things brewing in Bigton as new cafe beckons
WHAT makes a perfect cup of coffee?
For Alex Green, it all comes down to personal preference.
“If you know you like Nescafé, then it’s not necessarily what I will be able to give you, but I will try to find you something that’s close to the flavour of that,” the coffee expert says. “Or I’ll try and prepare a coffee that tastes how you would like it to.
“We’ve all got different tastebuds and preferences.”
Green appears to know his stuff; through his Stakkadale enterprise in Bigton he sells speciality coffee at the village’s Hymhus every Saturday, alongside a menagerie of baked goods, as well as at events too.
But the biggie is on the horizon – a cafe in Bigton, serving coffee and food, adjoined by a roastery in which beans will be roasted.
Work has already started on the building – itself a former cafe, many years ago – near to the village’s play park. And importantly for passing trade, it is not too far from the tourist hotspot at the sandy St Ninian’s.
The key pieces of information seem to be that the roastery could open by end of January – in time for wildlife TV presenter Kate Humble’s tour in Shetland, in which the group will seemingly come for a visit – before the 20-seat cafe could open in the spring.
A number of new jobs would be created, and there stands to be food like focaccia sandwiches (Shetland salt beef and smoked salmon among the potential fillings) and croissants and pain au chocolat to gorge on when supping a speciality coffee.
And what is speciality coffee? Well, not quite Nescafé or other powdery, instant varieties. The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) says it is a “coffee or coffee experience that is recognised for its distinctive attributes, resulting in a higher value within the marketplace”.
It’s probably also what Green has given Shetland News as we sit down for a chat elsewhere in Bigton. It’s small, fruity, but above all, pretty darn tasty.
The backstory is that Green and his partner Sarah, who has local family connections, always knew they wanted to move up to Shetland with their children, and they made the move in the last few years.
Green was coming out of 16 years of service with the army, where he was involved in geospatial intelligence – or, as he puts it, helping to create a version of Google Maps for the military.
With running his own business a key aim, he eventually decided on coffee – something which he felt there was a gap in the market in Shetland.
Green started educating himself in cafes, barista skills and roasting as he sought a fresh beginning outside of the military.
His Stakkadale enterprise is fairly busy – not least on the increasingly famous Saturday mornings at the Hymhus community centre up the road in Bigton, where people flock for homemade breads and pastries, with coffee provided by the Greens.
It is “fast and furious”, Green says. “While we were at peak the other week we did a coffee every 40 seconds, which is fairly good going.”
In the summer, Stakkadale also hosted a summer pop-up cafe in Hymhus with food and drink, which provided a taste of things to come.
Green also made a portable ‘bar’ and took it to this year’s Cunningsburgh Show to keep punters refreshed. On top of that he is currently paired with Argyll Roasters, with Stakkadale selling the company’s beans to local customers – or “Stakkas”, as they are often called.
But next year Green will be doing it all for himself – roasting beans for the first time, and running a purpose-built cafe.
The building warrant is being held up by wind loading calculations, but once that is resolved, and things are watertight, the hope is that “everything else will fly in”.
“At the moment we’re doing everything we can get ready for the building warrant to come in,” Green explains. “It’s things like getting the car park scraped again, and we’re upgrading where we can as we go.”
The existing toilets are being consolidated into an accessible one which will also have changing facilities too.
As the coffee comes to an end, we head along the road to check out the building – with a couple of leftover cakes from a recent Hymhus event in hand too.
External groundwork is taking place, while there’s a flooring van parked outside too.
There isn’t a great deal to see at the moment – but gazing out of the windows to the sea, you can get a sense of something potentially special brewing.
It also right next to, and in view of, the Bigton playpark – which surely contains some of the tallest swings in Shetland – meaning parents could potentially keep an eye on their bairns from inside while they play.
So what might be on offer on the menu? “Coffee for me is a bit like whisky or wine,” Green says, “and I think it is for a lot of people that really like coffee. But I’m trying to make it accessible and open to the people to come and understand that there’s lots of different flavours to coffee.
“It’s not just that Nescafé taste or the classic dark Italian – it can be really quite fruity through how it is processed. And therefore, there is more to coffee than just the caffeine.”
The food in mind, meanwhile, could be along “artisan” lines. “Very similar to what we’ve got at the [Saturday] bakery at the moment – the sandwiches being focaccia sandwiches,” Green adds.
“Looking at things like croissants, pain au chocolat, pain aux raisin – those very Instagrammable, very hearty, big pastries that very much complement the speciality coffee that we’re running.
“But there’s going to be nice big hearty meals using Shetland salt beef, Shetland smoked salmon, those types of things.”
Tourist trade is “absolutely part of the plan” – including cruise tour buses, where visitors could perhaps get a takeaway to bring to the St Ninian sands.
In the roastery side of the building, Green also plans to have a focus on education and training – perhaps linking up with hospitality students at UHI Shetland.
He also wants his future employees to go through a Speciality Coffee Association training scheme that can go up to diploma level.
You get the feeling Green is keen to do things right – and he says he is looking to get a “really good quality product where everyone throughout the supply chain is traceable, and also getting a fair price out of the end cost”.
If anything, a cafe will be another boost for Bigton – a small community with a go-ahead attitude.
“I think coffee and cafes are a great way to connect,” Green reflects.
“That might just be connecting with coffee and the taste and maybe the location of where that’s come from. Or it might just be connecting with a friend, going out and having that connection. I think a good cafe can enable all those things.
“With the training space in the next door, for those people who like coffee I can connect in that space. For those people who want to sit down and connect with friends, or set their daily ritual of having a coffee and a bit of engagement on the way to work, then absolutely.
“I’m quite a people person so I’m looking forward to that aspect just as much as being locked away in the roastery.”
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