Brothers roast coffee in a shed

Tom and Andrew Mundy ground coffee in their Holy Island shed. Picture by Jane Coltman

Andrew Mundy, 29, has been running Pilgrims Coffee House for ten years and recently asked his younger brother Tom, 24, if he wanted to get involved and start roasting coffee.

The pair bought their machine from online auction site eBay, only for the motor to break down and have to be replaced.

“We started in January and it’s been a bit of an adventure, but it’s been good,” said Tom. “Now it’s fully installed in the shed and going well.”

The first roast, whose name plays on similar themes as Pilgrims, is called Holy Grail and as well as being for sale to drink in the coffee house, it can also be bought in 200g bags in-store or online.

And so far, it seems to be going down well with the customers.

Tom said: “We have always had good reviews of our coffee, but since we have started roasting our own, people are really complimenting us as well as asking about it.

“We have been using a good coffee, but there was no reason why, it’s just our supplier was good.

“Now we are looking at selling it to other places. We will start on the island, but there’s no reason why people elsewhere in the county can’t be using it.

“We always try to buy local so we hope other people  will do the same with the coffee.”

In keeping with the sustainable and ethical stance of Pilgrims Coffee House, the coffee that they roast is organic, Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance-accredited.

All the cups used in the cafe are compostible and Tom and Andrew have managed to source compostible packaging to bag up the coffee for sale.

A 200g bag of Holy Grail costs £4.20 and can be bought either as beans or ground for cafetière or espresso machines.