Formed 16 years ago, Coopers Coffee has, until recently, been relatively unknown outside of the north of England where their unique blends have been quietly making quite a ‘stir’ in coffee circles for some time.

Founder and Managing Director, David Cooper left school with only a limited amount of education and fewer qualifications, but his drive, determination and enthusiasm have witnessed him creating and expanding a business empire with a current turnover exceeding £1.8M. His story makes interesting reading and is an inspiration to all budding entrepreneurs as well as coffee lovers.

Commenting on his success David reports, ‘I left school at the first opportunity and tried a variety of jobs, none of which held my interest for more than a few weeks. I did complete a two year course as a chef and learned a great deal about restaurant work and the hospitality scene. All that the future held, however, were long, unsocial hours and limited financial reward. Even then I wanted to create something for myself so I resigned and looked around for something different to become involved in.’

‘I suppose my break came when I took a job as a van driver. The company I was working for imported Italian food and I became interested in what was going where, and why. Despite some temptation, I stayed with them and became Transport Manager within a year. My interest increased in line with my knowledge and understanding of the business and I was certainly very keen to learn more. I was promoted to Sales Rep two years later and got my first company car at the age of 22. Bliss!’

Most people would have been happy to have settled for a career at this point and grown within the company. Not so David. The seed sown years before about owning his own company began to germinate and he set up a building renovation company in partnership with a friend. Comments David, ‘to be truthful, it was a bit of a disaster, but I learned first hand a lot about what running a business is all about and even though the enterprise was a failure I came out of it richer in experience and knowledge. This left me well positioned to start another company once the time and opportunity presented themselves.’

Despite some misgivings, David left his Sales job and began working for a company involved in the sales of coffee making equipment to café’s, restaurants and bars. To his very great surprise, the company had no interest in selling coffee and all the other consumables that were used in association with their coffee making machines. David thought that here was a great business opportunity and began buying and blending beans in his kitchen. Quotes David, ‘I got a real buzz out of selling products that were to my own recipes and with my name on them. They were a resounding success and no doubt the reason for my dismissal from the company selling coffee making equipment!’

David now jokingly comments that he decided to create Coopers Coffee as an alternative to unemployment. The real reason, however, was that by now he was genuinely interested in blending and creating new coffee tastes and felt that he could make a success out of an enterprise geared to supplying the market place with high quality drinks at affordable prices. He was right, and despite the pressures of running his own business, Coopers Coffee now enjoys considerable success.

At a personal level, David’s love of all things associated with coffee continues to develop and he still retains great enthusiasm for his work. ‘Blending coffees is an art and a science,’ explains David, ‘and creating a new blend that possesses that certain special taste takes much time and effort.’ David should know because at the recent World Barista Coffee Championships he was placed first out of an international group of 68 coffee judges. His taste buds are, therefore, officially the best in the world when it comes to identifying the mix of flavours in a cup of coffee.

So what is it that makes a good cup of coffee and differentiates it from others? The first thing to remember is that coffee is not a simple homogeneous product. There are many factors which can and do contribute to the huge array of flavours available including the plant variety, its origin, production methods, and the types of blending and roasting techniques deployed. There are too many varieties of coffee to give details of them all but as examples of two widely divergent beans we can look at Arabica and Robusta. The latter is frequently viewed as the inferior of the two due to its thick body and earthy flavour. Its high caffeine content allows the beans to be grown on lower mountain slopes in equatorial regions. By contrast, Arabica beans possess much lower caffeine content and hence need the protection of cooler nights at higher altitudes. Coffees made from Arabica beans are generally accepted as superior and provide a more delicate and complex flavour.

Beans from different parts of the world also exhibit characteristic flavours, which can be recognised by experts. As examples, beans from Kenya have a lemony acidity, Brazilian beans are generally nutty and those from Java have a unique Smokey flavour. As if all this wasn’t complicated enough there are two main methods of extraction of the coffee bean. ‘Wet’ processing produces a cleaner flavour coupled with greater acidity and the ‘dry’ method leads to coffees having a heavier body.

Against such a complex background, the obvious question must be how do you make a coffee blend that makes it stand out from the average? Not surprisingly, David isn’t saying, but he does give some tantalising clues. ‘You have to work at it,’ he comments. ‘First you need to know your raw materials, and the world is still a pretty big place when it comes to coffee. Knowing the growers is also important and, of course, you have to be assured of quality. It’s no good getting fabulous beans for one consignment followed by something inferior or just different. I make a point of building personal relationships with all my suppliers and ensuring that they know, appreciate and respect the needs of Coopers Coffee.’

David continues, ‘I suppose our range of Fairtrade coffee reflects these principles. The concept of Fairtrade used to be one of paying a higher price for average or even inferior products to be seen to be offering some form of support to disadvantaged producers in third world countries. I wanted to break out of this mould and at Coopers I’m sure we have. We have a philosophy of supporting smaller growers, but our quality is never compromised and we don’t charge inflated prices.’

‘I’m very pleased to report that the contestant who gained the silver medal in the 2005 UK Barista Championships used one of our Fairtrade blends. I was even more delighted by the favourable comments made by one of the judges from Norway who indicated that it was the best (Fairtrade) coffees he had ever experienced.’ Modesty prevents David from saying that the gold medal winner also used one of his coffee blends and that both men attended the World Barista Championships in Seattle earlier in the year where they acquitted themselves well but remained outside of the medals. Eighth in the world out of 38 contestants is still quite an achievement.

Anyone visiting one of the bars serving Coopers Coffee won’t just be limited to a standard cup of coffee. In addition to 10 tempting espresso blends, drinkers also have a choice of 12 teas and 2 specialist chocolate drinks to refresh their taste buds. Frappes and smoothies are also available to those wanting a long, refreshing and different drink. What’s the difference? Well, Frappes are vanilla flavoured iced drinks enhanced with espresso in Iced Cappuccino, or espresso and chocolate in Iced Mocha. Smoothies consist of blended fruit and ice and come in a variety of mixes. How about a Tea Breeze Berry, which contains big, juicy berry, flavours with a hint of green tea? Sounds delicious.

Anyone wanting to learn a little more about Coopers, their personnel and products is invited to go on-line at www.cooperscoffee.co.uk to see what’s happening now and what’s planned for the future.

A final word from David about his plans for the future, ‘We have worked hard to create a fantastic team selling fantastic products and we are delighted with the positive feedback we continue to receive from the marketplace. We send our coffee to several places in the world and our reputation seems to be growing. We also continue to be that little bit different. For instance, we run a coffee training school where businesses that use our coffee can have their staff trained and made aware of all the latest blends and techniques to get the very best out of what they do. This school is totally free of charge and is open for our customers all year around. We believe that we can expand much further in the UK whilst maintaining our record of success. Our plans call for a doubling of turnover within the next three years and the opening of numerous additional accounts across the UK and perhaps beyond.’

If you haven’t tried one or more of David’s exciting blends yet, then perhaps you ought to. Experience indicates that you will not be disappointed. When you do, take the time to reflect on the years of experience that have been deployed to select the beans and blend and roast them in just the right way. You will be drinking the end result of beans harvested from many points of the compass and combined to best effect in the blend you have bought.



Editor’s Notes:
For more information about Cooper’s Coffee, please visit www.cooperscoffee.co.uk or telephone 01484 431 450.