The Daily Grind

With a nod towards International Coffee Day on 1 October, we asked one of the newest coffee roasters in Dorset about what makes a great cup of coffee

- Helen Stiles

Launched in Weymouth last summer, Fountain Rock Coffee Roasters is a speciality coffee roasting company set up by Andrew Hall. He was inspired to swap a career in science and technology to train in coffee roasting after experiencing a very special cup of coffee in Cornwall.

Tell me about that life-changing coffee

We were visiting family and popped into a speciality coffee shop. The café owner was fastidiously weighing every single espresso shot, he told me that he adjusted the amount between customers to optimise for the changeable St Ives microclimate. I could see that coffee was a science in itself, but it left me mystified how coffee could taste this good. So I studied to get accreditation with the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) in sensory, brewing and roasting, applying my science and technology skills to the coffee roasting process. This led us to launching our family coffee roasting business in Weymouth last June.