How it all began
I’m Andrew and a few years ago, my family and I were visiting relatives when we popped into a speciality coffee shop. The café owner, while fastidiously weighing every single espresso shot, told me that he adjusts the amount of coffee between each customer, to optimise for the changeable St. Ives micro-climate. It left me both mystified and amazed at how a cup of coffee could taste so damn good.
The science of our coffee
To make sure you end up drinking a perfectly sumptuous cup of coffee, we take a truly scientific and analytical approach.
With a background in science and technology, my curiosity inspired me to learn the technical skills required to make that perfect cup of artisan coffee. So I studied to get accreditation with the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe, taking courses in sensory, brewing and roasting. And so Fountain Rock Coffee Roasters began!
We support our farmers to take the time they need to pick the ripest of coffee cherries, to process them at optimised facilities - that means either regularly turning them while drying on the patios or sorting and uniformly drying them on raised beds.
This means that the flavours are really primed for roasting in our sustainability focused electric roaster, with its accompanying suite of cutting edge tech to optimise all the components of our roast. We roast our coffees between a light to medium degree to allow the natural flavours of the bean to be brought to life.
We’re not interested in speed and volume. We’re committed to producing high quality speciality coffee, that’s utterly delicious for all coffee lovers, not just the experts.
The conscience behind our coffee
Working fairly with farmers who share our ambitions for quality and playing our role in protecting the environment are just as important to us as our uniquely scientific approach.
So with all the methodologies learnt, we had certain requirements when identifying local partners to launch with. Their coffee must be recognised as high quality by the Speciality Coffee Association (SCA) and they must be totally transparent in what they pay the farmers. Over on our Sustainability page, we detail how we pay our farmers a multiple above Fair Trade prices.
Once we decided what origins we wanted to launch with, we sampled the coffee by roasting it and evaluating the taste and aroma and then decided which to order and showcase to our customers. We’ve repeated this process for every coffee we sell. To ensure the freshest coffees, we look to roast our coffees within 12 months of harvest and post within a week of roasting.
Looking closer to home, our state of the art electric coffee roaster significantly reduces our emissions. What’s more, our coffee bags and labels are fully compostable and the boxes which house your caffeine treats are not only fully recyclable but are also made of over 70% recycled material.
Pop over to our Sustainability section, if you’d like to learn even more.
Why “Fountain Rock”?
Speaking of the environment, we are proud and constantly impressed by the environment around us, here in Dorset. Fountain Rock itself is a secret coastal location: a tremendous column of chalk, hidden on the Eastern side of White Nothe on the iconic Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.
We aim to replicate our experience of exploring the coast and discovering this thing of beauty by inviting you to explore coffees from around the world with us and uncover hidden gems from the comfort of your own home.
We’re proud to be a sustainable business with a truly local feel yet with a nationwide appeal.
Subscribed as a gift for my brother for his birthday. To say it has been well received is an understatement.
Thank you Fountain Rock.
This was a message received today
'Even opening a new packet before drinking ..... is a joy'
Looked a4ound for months to find the best blend for me and Burning Cliff wad the one, as soon as I tasted its richness, flavour and chocolate/fruit notes.
Taking out a subscription made perfect sense - when you know, you know.
