by Ronan Casey
Cups are being raised all over Ireland and the UK in the direction of a Mullingar coffee roasting company, who have won the ultimate coffee accolade at the world’s largest food awards.
Bell Lane Coffee, artisan coffee roasters, who have only been in business for less than two years, were awarded a ‘Great Taste’ Three star gold award for their Dragonfly Espresso blend, one of their nine super smooth signature blends created at the Mullingar Enterprise Centre in Clonmore.
Bell Lane’s unique small batch blend beat off over 10,000 products submitted from Ireland and the UK to win the three-star award, and was one of only 125 products to achieve highest accolade at 2014’s highly coveted Great Taste Awards.
As a single award, the food equivalent of an Oscar would be a huge achievement for any company, but the Mullingar-based artisan coffee roasters were also awarded three further awards at the Great Taste Awards: A two star gold for their Dawn Chorus Espresso blend; two star gold for their House Espresso blend; and one star gold for their Misty Mountain filter blend, bringing the total of gold stars won to an unprecedented eight stars.
LEAP OF FAITH
It is no mean feat for the company, which was established by Stephen and Denise Bell as “a leap of faith” in 2012.
With a workforce of just three – themselves and roast master Paul Mooney – the company has gone from strength to strength in recent months, with Denise saying the awards really were an unexpected “cherry on top”.
“We are absolutely over the moon,” Denise told Topic from their stand at the National Ploughing championships. “When we entered, we thought ‘wouldn’t it be amazing to win one star, so to win three blew us away and then the cherry on top came with the other stars.”
BLENDING
Ever modest, the husband-and-wife team put their awards down to the experience of award-winning roast master Paul Mooney. A man with 25 years experience, he is renowned within Irish coffee circles. He and Stephen, who has over a decade of experience in the coffee and food sectors, worked together to create a unique roasting method where they roast in small batches and ‘post blend’. It takes a little longer than traditional methods but eight gold stars are testament that good things do come to those who wait.
Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, are the benchmark for speciality food and drink in the UK and Ireland. Any product that wins one of the coveted stars gets to display the award on their packaging, by way of a distinctive, instantly recognisable black circle logo with the stars and year emblazoned in gold.
Winners are selected by a grand panel of over 405 judges, who spend over 50 days judging over 10,000 entries. Products are blind-tasted and over 90% of the judges have to agree before three stars can be handed out.
CREDIBILITY
It’s an award that can’t be taken away and for Stephen, it was an incredible way of getting the Bell Lane brand out there after just a year and a half in business.
“The biggest problem with any new brand is that no one knows about it. Now, Bell Lane has credibility,” he says.
Stephen and Denise both have different business backgrounds which they feel has helped the business. Denise worked with AIB for a decade and also has a marketing degree ,whilst Stephen worked in food and beverage sales for well over a decade, attending “the university of life” along the way.
When the young couple moved to Mullingar a number of years ago, they decided to change their lives. As Stephen puts it: “We wanted a better work/life balance and setting up our own business was the way to go.”
With help from the Westmeath Enterprise Board and the County Council, they set up, and began to supply locally. As word spread, so too did their reach.
So far this year, they overtook last year’s turnover in the first few months of 2014; signed with La Rousse Foods (a big player in the food supply chain in Ireland with an emphasis on quality food and drink) and signed up over 100 customers to date, dealing with a diverse cross-section of the market, from restaurants like The Fatted Calf, in Glasson, Frangos in Dundrum, Harry’s in Dun Laoighaire, to local emporiums like Miller & Cook and Gallery 29 in Mullingar.
In the next month, they are taking on a new staff member for sales, and expanding into Northern Ireland. Stephen is also excited about a new coffee blend being developed, using a new roasting technique.
Whilst it’s been a merry-go-round over the past few months, the couple know it is still early days.
“We literally came together from nothing and we set up to compete at a competitive price but a quality product,” Stephen outlines. “We set up as an artisan, hand-roasted coffee company, but positioned ourselves in the commercial coffee market. We wanted to take the harshness out of artisan coffee, to create coffee that was worth a second cup.”
He says they are still “small players” in the coffee market, but determination and local support has given them the confidence to think big.
