Coffee with a conscience in Shrewsbury

But while a lot of drinkers are happy with a spoonful of instant in a mug, a rising number are now becoming home baristas, grinding their own beans and steaming their milk.

Our love of specialist coffees is growing rapidly as we strive to create and savour the perfect cup.

The UK is following in the footsteps of countries such as Australia which has whole-heartedly embraced coffee culture.

More attention is now being paid to where and how our favourite drink is produced and our expectations have never been higher.

And earlier this week coffee lovers from all corners of the world came together for International Coffee Day – a global celebration to share their love of coffee and support the millions of farmers whose livelihoods depend on it.

For head roaster Kev Burrows, who founded artisan roastery Iron & Fire, based in Shrewsbury, great tasting coffee is a way of life.

He was introduced to the ‘amazing coffee’ being served up Down Under while living in Melbourne for 10 years and began learning the art of roasting.

After returning to Shropshire he began roasting his own beans in 2012 and two years later set up Iron & Fire, which he now runs with his partner Joanna De Rycke.

“Coffee has always been an obsession for me because of the taste and smell. We’re always striving to get the best out of each coffee, we’re always searching for that holy grail,” says 56-year-old Kev.

His love of coffee goes back to when he was actually too young to drink the beverage. He used to visit the former Snapes teashop in Wolverhampton.

“I used to love to seeing all of the coffees wrapped up in the little brown paper parcels. It smelt amazing in there,” says the former design engineer.

Living in Australia which he describes as the “land of artisan coffee”, he got a real taste for what makes a good cup and began learning everything he could.

“The UK is about 10 years behind Australia when it comes to speciality coffees, it’s just catching on here and people are starting to buy their coffee based on its quality, as they would with wine.

“They take their coffee very seriously in Australia and being a barista is a career. It’s a really respected job and they can earn a lot of money,” Kev tells Weekend.

Taking the skills he had honed, he set up Iron & Fire, which was originally based in Ironbridge before moving to Shifnal and later to its current premises on Shrewsbury’s Castle Business Park around a year and a half ago.

At the heart of the action is the cutting edge, bespoke roasting machinery, which enables the team to optimise the flavours in the beans.

During the roasting process, they are able to control different factors such as the heat, air flow and length of roasting time. “Just changing the temperature by one or two degrees can change the way it tastes,” says Kev.

Iron & Fire specialises in single origin beans and also offers a range of hand-roasted coffees including its popular Colombian Jazz.

“The Colombian Jazz is the crowd-pleaser – it’s a nice, sweet, full-bodied coffee that is full of flavour and leaves a nice after-taste,” says Kev.

They also offer decaf varieties which have been naturally decaffeinated using the sugarcane and water method and a low-caf blend.

“The low-caf is my indulgence, it lets me drink more coffee,” Kev tells us.

The business, which has been recognised by the Great Taste Awards, prides itself on producing coffee with a conscience and is careful about how it sources the beans.

Choices are based not just on their quality and taste profile but also their origins and accreditations.

Many of the coffees are Rainforest Alliance and Organically certified and those that aren’t have been selected from independent farms so they can support the growers directly.

“We source our coffees from all over the world and we make sure they are ethical and we can trace the beans back to the farms. We buy from a variety of places including a women’s cooperative in Colombia.

“Coffee is a good way of giving back – if you pay a good price for your beans, that filters back down to the growers,” says Kev.

Coffee enthusiasts can sign up for their subscription club and receive a fortnightly or monthly delivery of beans or ground coffee to their door.

Iron & Fire, which supplies beans to cafes around Shropshire, Wolverhampton and Birmingham, also runs a barista training school where it offers courses for trade customers and home enthusiasts.

“We know our coffee is good and we want to help people get the best from it,” says Kev.

The pro-barista course teaches participants how to set their grinder to suit their coffee and method of brewing, what goes into making the perfect espresso, how to perfect their milk steaming and also latte art.

Home enthusiasts can learn about the origins of coffee and the grower to cup process. They can also put their sensory skills to the test tasting great coffees from around the world and learn how to make delicious coffee at home by making pour over, cafetiere, aeropress and espresso. They can also try their hand at latte art on the company’s state-of-the art lever machine.

Kev enjoys sharing the knowledge he’s acquired over the years with other like-minded people.

“We are always here to help and talk about coffee. We are all very passionate about what we do, I don’t think we could do it if we weren’t. We just love great tasting coffee,” he says.

*Iron & Fire is making a special exclusive offer to readers on its coffee club subscription service. Readers can get their first two deliveries completely free when they sign up by using the voucher code STAR20! Also exclusive to readers who sign up to the subscription service is a free v60 coffee maker.