The Island Tea & Coffee Co.

Had a brilliant, hands on experience at The Island Tea & Coffee roasting experience today. We were given a coffee each to enjoy while Mike, the master roaster, talked us through the history of the company and how it has helped take the Island's commercial coffee scene from 80% filter, 20% espresso based to 20% filter and 80% espresso based, as it is today. We then went into the roasting room and were introduced to the Turkish Toper machine and the roast we would be assisting with today. Mike talked us through how the science of the roasting process works to produce a Maillard process in the bean that makes the most of the flavours in the coffee, and what can happen if too much or too little heat is used and how the timing impacts on the taste. We got to pull handles on the machine during the process, which was great fun. It blew my mind that their entire coffee output is being produced from this one room, and how it is one person at a time taking sacks of dried coffee beans (cherry seeds) and producing perfectly roasted coffee beans (or ground coffee) ready for retail and hospitality use across the Island (and beyond). We were given a 200g bag of coffee each to take away, of the coffee we had just roasted, and Mike even made personalised labels with our photo on, to finish the bags. This was a brilliant experience and one I'd seen a few times on The Price is Wight and intended to do for ages, I only wish I'd done so sooner.
Mar 15th, 2023

They do not sell coffee to drink only as beans to takeaway.
Feb 12th, 2023

Excellent morning at coffee roasting experience. Thoroughly recommended.
Apr 22nd, 2022

Apr 25th, 2020

That Blue Mountain Blend turning up at business conferences is worth going for alone. Smooth, rich and the perfect blend.
Jul 5th, 2019