Name and Occupation
Steve Ashman – Sales Director... and all round coffee chap!
How did you get into coffee?
My coffee journey started with my Dad making filter coffee in a pot for Sunday breakfast way back in the day. I had the usual chain coffee places in my shops when I was a corporate boy in another life. And then…. epiphany moment at the Department of Coffee and Social Affairs at the back of Carnaby Street around 2012 …. I would like to now apologise for my profound language to the barista that served me my first specialty coffee! Made the next couple of years I was in London the start of my speciality coffee journey. Once back home, I met Dave Beattie at Yarm Farmers’ Market, back when Rounton Coffee was in its early days.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned about coffee since you started working here?
That after a day working with coffee, there is not a part of your body that escapes a grain or two!
What is your favourite part of working at Rounton Coffee?
The trust among the team to be left do what is right knowing that the outcome will be positive for work chum, customer or random coffee drinker.
What’s your favourite spot in North Yorkshire to relax or have a coffee?
Hobo Coffee House every morning it is open, and the coffee is spot on! Or my kitchen - I had a wall taken down to accommodate my growing coffee kit.
What is your proudest achievement in coffee?
A friend of mine's daughter’s 18th birthday at Mint Hobo when I had it. If you know you know …. Amen.
If you were not working in coffee, what would you be doing?
Dropzone bum!
If you could change one thing in the coffee industry, what would that be?
That specialty independent coffee houses are expected to be cheaper than the national coffee chains, which are driven by margin using inferior and cheaper coffee to make a bland or bitter drink that customers pay to get sweetened. Ahhh rant over!
If you were a coffee blend, what would your flavour profile be?
Rarely the same twice.
What do you do away from coffee?
Gym, family, cook, cricket, skydive and motorbikes... No time for golf yet...