Ask the Roaster - Fran from Moonroast

How was the Roastery founded, what was the inspiration?

The roastery was founded in 2012 in our barn in the Candover Valley. The name came about because my day job meant to begin with I had to roast coffee at night. The inspiration came from my family’s 100 year association with coffee which began with my great-grandfather Richard Goodwin Bradshaw when he started working at London tea and coffee brokerage Wilson Smithett in the late 19th century. My father Haydon also worked there before joining Nestle and helping to create the original Gold Blend.

What's your favourite part about working at the Roastery?

Perfecting our roasting methods and the roast profiles of the coffee so that we can create coffees our customers enjoy and to make speciality coffee accessible to everyone. To help get consistent quality across our product range we use a moisture meter, colour meter and refractometer, so yeah, we get to use some great kit as well!

What's your proudest accomplishment?

Winning three Great Taste stars for our Ethiopia Kaffa Forest. Several of our other coffees have won stars. It’s a testament to Moonroast’s success in a very short time and to the fact that the coffee is increasingly recognised for its quality and taste.

What three words best describe your Roastery?

Idyllic - Aroma - Discovery

What’s your favourite place to enjoy a coffee, and what coffee would that be?

In the tasting room, at our new Moonroast premises. It’s a great space which I designed with tasting coffees in mind. We do our wholesale customers’ pro-barista training in there as well as the Home Barista Course and Roastery Tours for our retail customers. I’d drink whichever coffee we are currently perfecting, probably as an espresso.

Finally, what Dog & Hat combination would you choose?

Our family dog is a black lab named Greta, an earflap Peruvian wooly hat as we’re fans of Peru single origins.