Taylors Of Harrogate - The Coffee Of Choice

Mike and Hannah in our tasting rooms at Harrogate

Making the grade

Mike and Hannah from our coffee buying team are now among the very first internationally recognised professional coffee tasters in the country. They’ve passed the UK's first 'Q Grader' Certification Course, a rigorous three-day exam. This involved different tests covering all aspects of the job, from green grading (analysing a sample of green beans) to roast identification, coffee cupping and 'sensory triangulation' – picking the odd one out from three cups of coffee!

There are currently fewer than 30 'Licensed Q Graders' in the whole of Europe, so this really demonstrates the expertise behind our coffee.

A fresh approach

Our precious coffee roaster, and the talented team who man it

A cup of stale coffee is a sad thing indeed. That’s why we do everything we can to ensure our coffees reach you at the peak of freshness. We blend and roast the beans ourselves, then grind them straight into the bag, flushing the air out to keep it fresh. We do all this for one simple reason: oxygen is the enemy of good coffee.

Once you open a bag of ground coffee, the natural oils that contain its precious flavour start reacting with the air. Eventually, those bright flavours and that lovely vibrant character will give way to something dull and lifeless. But don’t despair – you can guard against this by following our golden rules for coffee care:

After opening the pack, store your coffee in an airtight container.
Keep this container in the fridge to make it even more effective – but keep it sealed or it can quickly absorb any other smells!
To preserve coffee for longer, pop it in the freezer in a tightly sealed container, where it will hold onto its flavour for up to three months.
Ultimately, the joy of coffee is that it’s a natural product. To enjoy it at its best, use it up within two weeks.

If a thing’s worth brewing...

How you brew your coffee can make a huge difference to the taste too. Our blends are ground to suit all coffee-makers, but here’s how to make the perfect cafetière:

Ensure the cafetière is perfectly clean and warm the pot with some hot water.
Use a rounded dessert spoon of ground coffee per person.
Pour on freshly boiled water and stir.
Rest the plunger on the top of the grounds and allow the coffee to brew for 3-5 minutes.
Plunge and serve straight away.

And if you really love coffee, you might like to know you can put it to good use even after you’ve drunk it. The claim that used coffee grounds can cure cellulite might be as yet unproven, but they definitely make great fertiliser. You can add them to your compost or, even better, mix them straight into your soil to repel slugs and snails too.