Here at Beans Coffee Club we are all about championing the roasters which is why we started the ‘Meet the roaster’ series. The idea is we visit our roasters, have a chat and share their stories and views etc.
A few weeks ago we popped over to have a socially distanced meeting with Dickon at New Ground coffee, why not watch the video to hear what they had to tell us.
Who are the founders of New Ground?
So I am Dickon, I am one of the co-founders of New Ground with Joel. Between us both we came up with an idea of roasting coffee and using it as a social enterprise.
What sparked your interest in coffee?
At one point in my life about 10-15 years ago I got really into coffee. I think it started when one of my mates bought me an AeroPress for Christmas one day and that was it, then it’s a big black hole of different coffee roasters and different processing, and so it was 10 or 12 years of building up.
What sparked your interest in creating a social enterprise?
67% of prisoners reoffend within the first year if they don’t have a full time job. And it’s about 70% stay out of prison if they are given employment, which is an amazing is stat and so we were like right there you go that’s the stat that we really want to attack, so let’s get these guys straight out of prison, let’s re-employ them, let’s train them and try and get them out into the industry.
Why coffee?
So for retraining people in a new industry they can go down roasting, or baristaring, or engineers, machine techs, or, you know, salesman, there are so many different avenues that they can go down, so it’s a perfect platform for what we want to do as a social enterprise.
How do you work with farmers?
What I kind of feel is, that we are so small that that direct trade with that farmer, could be way bigger if that massive company called Olam does it for us and then we buy of Olam. Olam have the capacity to be a much more beneficial impact on that farm there and so that’s why we have done that rather than go directly to the farms, ‘cos they can help much more than we can.
What tip would you give to somebody who is new to coffee?
Buy an AeroPress. The amazing thing about those are they are super easy to clean, you literally just pop the puck out, give it a wipe and it’s pretty much done. They are so versatile you can stick almost any grind size of coffee into an AeroPress and adapt the way you make it to work with that grind size, so I just love the versatility of an AeroPress. And you can just stick it in your bag and take it anywhere with you as well. So, that’s my number one tip for making good coffee, get an AeroPress.
The next one would be; get a grinder. There’s nothing like freshly ground coffee.
Why do you like being part of Beans Coffee Club?
With you guys championing independents and quite a few independents as well, is just going to help to change people’s mindset and the way they drink coffee. Maybe I won’t go out for that Café Nero or Starbucks (sorry to name drop) round the corner, I’ll get great coffee straight to my door and I now know how to brew it properly and that is 100 times better than the coffee I get around the corner, and cheaper and more ethical and it’s helping out independents; so that’s what I love about Beans Coffee Club is the increased awareness that they are bringing to multi roasters as well, not just us.
Find out more about New Ground here: https://beanscoffeeclub.com/roasters/new-ground-coffee/
View the video and more content from Beans Coffee Club here: BeansCoffeeClubyoutube
