It is rude not to have a website and to have a little bit of an introduction into who we are, and what we are doing here.
So this is our version of the About Us part of the site.
Who are we?
Well first, there is me, David. I am a mid thirty, (slightly) receding, with that comfort weight around the hips, guy from the North East. I studied Chemical Engineering at Teesside University, and I have since spent my whole working career in Engineering for the Chemical and Gases Industry. Born, raised, developed and matured in Middlesbrough.
And then there is Tracy.
Also Middlesbrough born, raised, but a lot more matured than myself. We met whilst moshing in Middlesbrough Arena when we were 15, and when 15 year olds could get into nightclubs with a fake ID card and a bit of bum fluff on the chin. 20 years after the moshing, we met back up, for a coffee no less, and then we started back as if no time had passed. Tracy is the better one of us, most people will acknowledge that!!
Like a lot of coffee companies out there I would guess, this coffee company started out as little more than an idea whilst travelling. Every business has got to start somewhere and a thought, an idea, is where it will start for most. It was when I was staying in Sumatra did it occur to me that coffee had so much more depth to it. I learnt how to roast on an old Sample Roaster and I spent time living with a small farmer’s cooperative in the dense jungle south of Lake Toba.
No matter whereabouts you are in the world, human beings have the same fundamental desire, and that is to succeed. The farmers that I met in Sumatra were desperate to succeed, but they needed help, and they weren’t getting any. I tried, but failed, to help them set up direct trade with the UK. I didn’t know enough about coffee, and I could potentially lose everything myself, so I reasoned that the best help that I could give any farmer, was to return to the UK and to roast my own coffee and hopefully develop a business so that I could trade directly with my new friends.
Rounton Coffee, named after the village which gave so much, was born, and 24 months later Tracy and I are proud to be roasting coffee in a fantastic setting. We have set up a fine relationship with our coffee importer, Falcon Speciality, and we hope to be able to increase people’s awareness of the coffee that they are drinking.