Ask the Roaster - Kris from Lindfield Coffee Works
How was the Roastery founded, what was the inspiration?
The roastery was founded in 2015 when I took over an existing roastery named ‘world coffees’. We only had a year in the current premises so we spent the year crafting and learning about roasting whilst rebranding & searching for a new site which we fortunately found and was a large enough space for a coffee bar too. The inspiration came from visiting Raw Coffee Roasters . From the outside an unassuming unit on an industrial estate in Dubai . Once inside you are surrounded by state of the art espresso machines, manual brew and cold coffee on tap with a coffee roaster behind glass full of people roasting and packing coffee and lots of educational coffee paraphernalia adorning the walls.
What's your favourite part about working at the Roastery?
Continually learning and (hopefully) improving our roast profiles / adapting them to new & interesting coffees to which we can share with our retail and wholesale customers . As the roastery is open to the public we love meeting customers face to face and being on hand to educate and share knowledge of coffee! The most common question believe it or not is what is the machine in the back? Most people will ask if it’s a giant grinder !?!
What's your proudest accomplishment?
Working with 3 farms directly in Colombia, Antioquia . We pay around three times more than they would usually sell to the local co-operative and in addition we also pay an extra 0.50p per kilo extra to be reinvested back into the farms equipment. Last year one of them used the money to build a new raised drying beds. We visit the farms yearly and will be returning as soon as travel reopens to the region to help support them.
What three words best describe your Roastery?
Open - Educational - RespectfulWhat’s your favourite place to enjoy a coffee, and what coffee would that be?
On the farms in Colombia, looking out on the slopes where the coffee grows . It still amazes and inspires me the amount of hard work, dedication and love it takes for coffee to be grown and farmed before it even arrives to us , so I like to sit and take time to appreciate this and there is no better place to do this than at the source. There is limited equipment to make coffee on at 1800masl so it would have to be made on an AeroPress.
What is your favourite snack or treat to have to accompany your coffee?
Cinnamon Buns.
What would you drink if there was no coffee?
Coffee flavoured hot water.
What is your favourite tasting notes to find in coffee?
I personally enjoy a sweeter cup but I love finding the more floral, lighter notes – I think this is more of a skill to protect and enhance these throughout the roasting process so am delighted when we manage to.
Where would you recommend for food and drink in your local area?
The area is brimming with excellent rural pubs like The Jolly Sportsman near Plumpton . I am also a huge fan of visiting Bolney Wine Estate , it reminds me a bit of visiting the farms in Colombia looking out at all the grapes growing on the vines whilst enjoying some food . Their wine is spectacular, and we serve it in our café. Missing Link brewery is well worth a visit if you like your craft beer you can watch them brew and they do amazing cinnamon buns and good coffee.
Finally, what Dog & Hat combination would you choose?
Any rescue dog in a snapback, turned backwards.
