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Hi blog followers. I’m posting this here as I know there are quite a few Pumphreys customers who follow my blog. I’m very proud of everyone. Well Done!
Pumphreys Grainger Market Shop Scoops Local Award
Stuart Lee, Lauren, Nita and Anna
The staff of Pumphrey’s Coffee Centre in the Grainger market have won a local award for outstanding customer service. The Newcastle Grainger Market Customer Service Challenge is an annual poll of the grainger market’s customers, with the winner taking home the prestigious award.
The 170 year old Grainger Market prides itself on its reputation of friendliness between staff, stallholders and customers, with the Customer Service Challenge honouring this.
This year, the award was won by Lauren, Nita, Anna and Stuart Lee at the Pumphrey’s Coffee stall, and they have all been invited to attend the prize giving ceremony at the Civic Centre on Wednesday the 15th October.
Stuart Lee Archer had this to say:
“We are extremely proud of everyone at our Grainger Market outlet. It is fantastic that their ongoing efforts have been recognised with such a prestigious award.”
Our Grainger Market stall has been in place for over 50 years, and continues to sell our entire range of coffees and teas. The opening hours are 9am til 5pm, Monday to Saturday.
Hello everyone. Sorry I’ve been a bit quiet of late my attentions have been somewhat skewed due to my entry into the UK Barista Championships Finals last week.
First of all Congratulations to Hugo Hercod of Relish who was a deserved winner of the title ‘UK Barista Champion’
Good Luck in Copenhagen
I’m delighted to tell you that I finished 14th with my first attempt and indeed first finals of a coffee competition.
I have learnt so much in entering the UKBC that I can hardly recognise the person who started the journey 8 months ago. If you are thinking about entering next year, DO IT. I’ve made some great new friends, pulled some great shots and made some horrible signature drink combinations which turned the stomachs of many of my friends. I can’t recommend it enough.
The Championships were set in amongst the hustle and bustle of Hotelympia at Exel near Canary Warf in London. The SCAE had a fantastic little corner set up with staging and workshops surrounded by a multitude of café related stands, espresso machine suppliers and scantily clad cake stalls!
24 competitors were whittled down to 6 over 2 days. Unfortunately, this included myself which I was initially a bit peeved at. I think the emotion of the event got to me a bit and with hindsight my placing was correct if not a little high. The competition this year was apparently of a lot higher standard than last year and competitors were just not making the technical mistakes that they have done in previous competitions. Great news for the industry! We are defiantly making some inroads. This competition, thanks to ‘The Hoff’, SCAE and sponsors is defiantly getting some weight now.
A great big thank you to everyone who was involved!
One thing I would recommend which would (in my opinion) create more interest and give the general viewing public a little bit more insight into the passion and dedication of the barista is to mic up the competitors. Speaking from a spectator’s point of view the only interesting part of each performance was the pretty table set up and the fantastically knowledgeable compares who took us through what they managed to hear of each performance. A set of radio mics can’t be that hard to get a hold of, can they? Maybe a little bit of a better back stage area for competitors to store and prepare all their kit before, during and after their performances. I know there was a little bit of grumbling about that.
They are the only little niggles from the three days and I only mention them in the pursuit of pushing the Championships forward over the coming years. Just because people are volunteering to organise UKBC doesn’t mean that they should be immune to any criticism or not take any advice. Having said that, everyone who was involved did a fantastic job and it all went very well.
After the Semis we all had an opportunity to let ‘what hair we had left’ down at Square Mile Coffee Roasters in Bethnal Green. The home of Anette, Steven and James’s new venture played host to the UKBC Barista Party. A charity Latte art Smackdown inevitably raised it’s ugly head and I duly choked under the pressure of the ‘whooping’ crowd. See here (Thank you very much Tristan, you swine).
Thank you to everyone I finally met down there. It’s always a bit funny meeting people who you’ve only had ‘cyber’ relations with, the mutual recognition of Hugo and I on the first day was testament to this. Special thanks to Tristan, Will, Lance, Jonathan, Barry, Helen and Matt who have all become good mates over the last few months. Thanks for making this such a fantastic event for me. I have every intention of competing again next year and indeed for several years into the future as I really want to represent the country on the ‘World Stage’.
Before I finish I must thank my family and Pumphreys Coffee for their support over the past few months. Paula, Stuart, Malcolm, Georgie and Jill, thanks for the support and for putting up with my moods. Above all thanks to my beautiful girlfriend Lorna, without whom I’d have been lost at the competition.
To finish, a little bit of a tease:
I have heard rumblings of a barista ‘boot camp’ weekend which I cant see myself missing, more information will follow here soon I’m sure.
Thanks for reading
This video is of our appearance on the ITV regional ‘Taste of the North’ show earlier in the year! I’m quite disappointed actually, I was interviewed for about 45 minutes on Barista skills, latte art, distribution, tamping and allsorts which they chose not to show. Still, I suppose you don’t get to see my ugly mug which will be a bonus!
I hope you enjoy it!
You might spot some of my latte art!
I’ve posted this provisionally while I try and figure out how to put it up without all the text spoiling it!
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Stuart Lee
Making a good coffee is tricky
Making the perfect coffee
The rise of coffee culture in the UK shows no sign of stopping – and now you can learn to be a barista yourself at a training centre in Blaydon.
“I’ve had some bad coffees with burnt milk and I’m fed up of it. I’m going to teach people to make good coffee.”
That’s the promise of Stuart Lee Archer, head trainer and website manager for Pumphreys of Newcastle – a man who is seriously passionate about coffee.
Stuart plans to enter the UK barista championship
Barista training
The tea and coffee company has a long heritage on Tyneside, dating back to 1750, but it’s successfully moved with times.
Their latest venture has been to create a barista training centre at their premises in Blaydon.
Such a move would have been unthinkable ten years ago, but with the rise of coffee culture and multi-national cafe chains there’s now a huge demand for good coffee.
“The more espresso machines we were putting out the more we were recognising the need for training,” explains Stuart Lee who leads the training sessions.
“You could do an hour of training when you did an installation but the person you trained might not be there next week.”
“We’ve done everything along the chain to produce this great coffee but it still comes down to the person actually making it and it can easily be ruined,” continues Paula Jean Archer, sales and marketing manager. “So we just wanted to get people more enthused about it really.”
Malcolm’s been roasting beans for years
High standards
The centre opened at the end of 2006 and already a broad mix of students, catering staff and coffee enthusiasts has been through its doors to learn the secrets of making a proper espresso.
“We start off teaching them a tiny bit about coffee history and what coffee is and then we move on to the espresso extraction and what makes it special,” Stuart Lee says of the course.
“We take people through why something tastes good and why something tastes bad. We also teach people how to foam milk properly, which is something a lot of people can’t do.” (Here’s a good tip – if you go for a coffee and they have to spoon the foam out of the milk jug onto your drink then they’ve overdone it.)
“If people take what I say on the course and understand it they will produce a coffee that’s better than 99% of the coffee out there.”
There is coffee from 19 countries in the warehouse
That’s quite a damning comment on the quality of the majority of coffees being served but Stuart Lee has high standards.
“My girlfriend hates me as we can’t go in anywhere for coffee,” he says. “When we go in somewhere I can hear if they’re not making it properly and walk straight back out!”
He really is evangelical about coffee – and it doesn’t stop with the training centre. Pumphreys are now working with other companies around the country to try to set up a City and Guilds course on coffee.
It’s seems as though coffee is starting to be taken as seriously as wine – with tastings and talk of pairing different blends with different meals. That’s quite a change for what is traditionally a nation of tea drinkers!
Find out more about the history of Pumphreys:
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites
Me in the Warehouse
Malcolm with a fresh roast
Me with the display bins in the new showroom
Just thought I’d share with you some footage I’m using in a presentation I’m making to some local school kids next week. I think it looks quite nice for the video from a camera.
Don’t get too exited about the beans. The blend is 50% robusta.
If you would Like to see some other footage, leave a comment bellow and I’ll see what I can do.
Hello everyone, sorry its been such a long time between posts. I’ve been building and organising with my family our new shop/showroom/mini cafe (see bellow)
Think I’m about to colapse. I have lost a load more of my hair, dropped about a stone and have thouroghly battered my feet. Its all in the cause of coffee and espresso so i’m not going to feel that sorry for myself.
The shop is aimed at startup and existing cafes as well as the home user. Hopefully we should have just about everything a cafe could need and want to serve quality coffee, tea and add ons.
Although we’ve only been open a few days now it seems to be hitting the right note, which is a hell of a relief.
Enough about that, its not the Pumphreys Coffee Blog, its my blog.
I’ve recently had the opportunity to have a lot more time playing with machinary and boy have I had some fun. I’ve just about mastered a simple rosetta for my lattes and I’ve cupped a good few coffees through the espresso machine, all of which has fired my enthusiasm even more.
I’m hopefully meeting up with the James Hoffman in the new year which will really get the juices flowing. Maybe I can steal some latte art tips and pick his brain on some issuses going round in my head on how the brew temperature of espresso machines effects extraction and how to blend with that information.
See you soon
Now i’m back into it I might post again tonight!
Cheesy Photo Finish
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