The story so far...
Hello, I’m Ian. I started my coffee roasting journey in 2016 and almost four years later the much talked of dream of quitting the day job and opening my own roastery has become a reality.
Prior to Brookmill Roastery, I spent eight years teaching in a secondary school in south east London and as anyone who has spent any time in a school will understand, my one little oasis of calm was my 7am coffee. Office door shut. No noise. No emails. V60. 10 minutes. Bliss.
I have a brilliant and very understanding wife and a little gem of a baby boy who have played a huge part in enabling my career leap. Originally from Pembrokeshire, we live in south east London and love nothing more than escaping to the countryside whenever we can.
My first attempts at roasting were entirely untainted by skill or understanding. I bought a little bag of some lovely washed Costa Rican coffee and burnt it to merry hell in a frying pan, filling the kitchen with smoke and chaff as I went. Undeterred, I continued experimenting with various kitchen appliances, graduating from a tray in the oven to an Argos pop corn maker and found that the pursuit of great tasting coffee was remarkably moreish.
And so I began amassing knowledge from anywhere and everywhere; reading watching and trying all sorts of different ideas and approaches. The scratched surface of speciality coffee roasting revealed a hitherto unknown world and I quickly got sucked in. I completed a couple of courses, met some amazing people – far too many to mention – and spent so much time and money that it was increasingly difficult to justify not trying to forge a new career in coffee.
So now the real adventure begins. I’m not a businessman and certainly not a salesman. The bluster and mind games of business don’t interest me. Brookmill Roastery is here because I love great coffee and want to see more of it where I live. If I can make some fellow coffee lovers happy and support some small businesses along the way then I’ll consider it a success.
I’m always up for a chat and a coffee so get in touch any time.