J'AIME October 2017

into single origin coffees, and going forward we’re
going to be going much more down the single origin
route. I see coffee going down the line of guest
roasters in cafes, much like guest ales in pubs, and
definitely focusing on single origins.
“And it’s a very seasonal product; your Brazilian and
Colombian stock will be coming in at a different
time to your African beans. A lot of the coffees I’ve
got at the moment are central and South American,
but we’re looking to progress to more lively, fruity
African coffees as we go into autumn.”
The house blend, now in its fourth incarnation,
currently comprises beans from Brazil, Colombia
and Sumatra and each origin has something to bring
to the party. The result is a smooth and full bodied
blend with chocolate, hazelnut and sweet caramel
flavours, and a hint of fruit acidity.
“We create our blends after the roasting process,”
says Scott. “A lot of roasters just whack all the
different beans in together, but they all roast
differently. Your Brazilian stuff is grown lower while
your Colombian stuff is high-grown and to roast
them all together means you’re not going to get the
best out of the flavours.
“We’re aiming to create a better quality product
by roasting each bean type individually to get the
optimal flavour out of it and then blending postroast.
Time-wise it means you’re roasting three times
instead of just the once, but the end product is a
much better quality.”
The roasting process is surprisingly quick, taking
under 15 minutes, but it takes time for the coffee
beans to develop their full flavours.
“The biggest struggle
is organisation,
both for me and
for customers,”
says Scott. “We
sometimes get
customers ringing
up saying they’re out
of coffee and need
some tomorrow!
The roasting process
may be quick, but
we need time to get
the best from the
coffee; you can use it
after four days, but
it really starts to take
on the best flavour
after around ten
days.”
With provenance of products becoming an
increasingly important issue to many of us, the name
Shining Stone brings a nicely local feel to Scott and
Emma’s coffee.
“We spent ages trying to come up with a name and
had loads of ideas but nothing quite right,” explains
Scott.
“The village of Shenstone, in the Domesday Book,
was called Shining Stone, or beautiful stone, and it
was a place where people used to come together to
EMMA AND SCOTT’S COFFEE ROASTER
HAS A HOME IN THEIR GARAGE
8