Rounton Coffee: How North Yorkshire firm is making a difference around the world

THE village of East Rounton is at first glance a sleepy type of place, typical of the flatlands between Northallerton and Stokesley. It is perhaps best known for its links with the Bell family, with its most famous daughter being Gertrude Bell, the extraordinary writer, photographer, mountaineer, archaeologist and linguist who helped found modern-day Iraq.

However the village's days of playing host to keen travellers are not just in the past, as for nearly ten years it has been home to Rounton Coffee Roasters, whose experts travel to all corners of Central and South America, Africa and the Far East to source their beans.

Founder David Beattie set up the roastery in 2013 – in buildings belonging to the Bell estate – after quitting his engineering job on Teesside and going travelling, befriending a group of coffee farmers in the Sumatran jungle.

On his return, Rounton Coffee started producing speciality coffee in small batches, roasted on demand for retail and commercial suppliers. It also sold its products at farmers’ markets, and as customers and cafés were so interested in what it was doing, the firm began to invite them to its granary HQ to taste the different coffees and watch it being roasted.

Fast forward nine years, and the business now supplies its coffees to 200 outlets, sells direct to customers, and has coffee shops in Middlesbrough and Norton, Stockton. It also has a shelf full of regional and national awards for the quality of its products.

David Burton, right, and David Beattie, of Rounton Coffee

The company is committed to working directly with farmers in order to ensure they benefit from their trade and has developed close links with a series of projects focused on sustainability and quality of life for producers.

One of its suppliers is Agri Evolve Ltd, which trades as Rwenzori Coffee Co, based in the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains in the far west of Uganda. Agri Evolve is a social enterprise working with Ugandan farmers to achieve higher yields and better quality crops, so that farmers improve their productivity and increase income and profitability.

Coffee is the main cash crop in the area, and most people use the income to pay school fees, but the region has poor infrastructure, limited water supply and a low level of tree cover.

Rounton Coffee pays a premium for every kilo of coffee purchased in support of Agri Evolve's project to plant five million trees with its farmers by 2030, providing shade to improve the quality of coffee produced, preventing soil erosion and capturing carbon – crucial in the fight against climate change.

Inside the roastery at Rounton Coffee

The scheme is already seeing results – over the past five years the quality of coffee from the Rwenzoris has improved considerably, and farmers are receiving more than double what they used to for their coffee.

Back in Middlesbrough, a chance conversation with a Teesside University student whose parents run Rwamatamu Coffee Washing Station in Kibuye, in the western province of Rwanda, has led to another link-up. The business sells green coffee direct to roasters, including Rounton, and is working to educate Rwandan farmers, and launch a women’s cooperative

This direct relationship with people on the ground is key for Rounton Coffee, as its head of coffee David Burton explains. "We enjoy what we do, we want to have a positive impact, and we want to have a little bit of fun along the way," he says. "Relationships are the most important thing for us in what we are trying to achieve."

According to the British Coffee Association, in the UK, approximately 98 million cups of coffee are drunk per day, with 210,00 jobs depending on the industry. In such a crowded market, and as people tighten their household budgets, will it be the mass-produced high street brands that benefit?

"We don't hate the big chains," says David. "They have led the way for the mass adoption of coffee. Now it's about changing consumers' mindsets to demand more."

In terms of coffee experts, David is up there with the best, having gained Q Arabica Grader accreditation from the Coffee Quality Institute in 2018, a process which involved 19 different assessments.

He says ethics are crucial, and the company dedicates a lot of time to visiting the farms and washing stations it deals with to make sure they are doing business the right way. "We're one little piece in the puzzle trying to reduce the supply chain down," he adds.

The tasting table set up and ready to go at Rounton Coffee

ROUNTON also invites baristas in to make sure they have the right skills to get the best possible taste out the products, as well as offering coffee tasting sessions, and and I was lucky enough to get the full experience. I set my stall out early, having always been a tea drinker, warning David not to expect big things from my unrefined palette. I've always found coffee intimidating – just how do people know to ask for a pumpkin spice frappuccino, for example – but it was time for me to get over my insecurities.

We started with a couple of straightforward brews, one filtered, and I surprised myself by being able to differentiate between the smooth and slightly grittier textures of the two. Perhaps my taste buds are not quite as basic as I had always assumed.

After a tour of the roastery and its wonderful old farm buildings, we were back at the tasting table, with the first stage smelling the different aromas of the beans, chosen specifically to give a wide range of options from the likes of Burundi and Uganda. After they were ground, and boiled water added (ideally the coffee needs to be served at around 60C), it was time for another smelling round, with scents ranging from citrus, to earthy, to a couple that had the distinct air of silage. Having turned up brandishing my tea drinking credentials, I felt very rude describing speciality coffee as smelling like the stuff my dad feeds his cattle, but as David explained there is an element of fermentation to the processing of that particular type, the embarrassment soon wore off. Next up was tasting time, with a method that requires all tables manners to be left at the door, as slurping the drinks off spoons gives maximum opportunity for the full flavour experience.

The silage one did indeed taste like I imagine silage would, so that wouldn't be my cup of choice, but the other, lighter coffees ranged from some smooth, chocolatey flavours, to lighter, lemony tastes, to others which had a distinctly tea-like feel. My favourite was Cuzcachapa, a El Salvadorian coffee which had a subtle, hazel nutty taste. Now there is a sentence I never thought I would write.

For a complete beginner, there was a lot of information to take in, but I did come away with the confidence to actually order a coffee in a café. Of the seven I've had so far, I've enjoyed five of them, a good hit rate. My coffee journey will continue, but the major lesson of the day, for someone who usually eats and drinks either at my desk, while watching the TV, or looking at my phone, is how much better things can taste when you just stop and concentrate on that alone. Whether it's a speciality coffee from the finest beans money can buy, a good old cup of tea, or just your morning porridge, maybe giving your taste buds your full attention really is the way forward.