The beginnings

Left to right- Andy Mil, Joe Wood, James Hopkins, Raymond Blanc
JJ Goodman, Dave Cook and Me 

Workcycles cargo bike.

Before starting Blackwater Coffee Company, in 2012, I worked at The London Cocktail Club for JJ Goodman and James Hopkins. In 2009 James and JJ won the BBC series 'The Restaurant'. Their prize was to open a cocktail bar with Raymond Blanc, David Moore and Sarah Willingham. I was lucky enough to be part of the opening team. The bar was fantastically successful and one year later I was the General Manager of their second London Cocktail Club. I took a lot of inspiration from JJ and James; they have the compelling mix of enthusiasm and astute business acumen, qualities that I think underpin successful entrepreneurship. James and I had both worked with coffee in Melbourne, a city with an amazing cafe culture. One day we were chatting about a coffee van we'd both seen around London. I'd tried the coffee from them and it was poor but the concept, we both agreed, could be really good. I was looking to try my own project and this notion stayed with me.

At that time I had just been introduced to pour-over coffee and was very excited about the delicate flavour that could be achieved with this method. Unlike espresso, which pushes hot water through coffee grinds at high pressure, pour-over coffee gently extracts by steeping. To my mind it produces a lighter more aromatic style of coffee which, if made with care, can be sublimely good.

Our layout design for the mobile coffee trike 

Shane was working as the bar manage for the first bar JJ Goodman started, before 'The Restaurant' TV series. He was very knowledgeable about all categorise of food and drink but with a real passion for coffee. I asked him if he would like to be my business partner on a new project and he happily agreed.

I came across a company called Workcycles They made old Dutch style cargo trikes known as 'Bakfiets'. The old style trikes they made were of a sort commonly used by trades people in the early 20th century.

Workcycle HQ, Amsterdam

Shane and I both wanted our coffee venture to be as environmental friendly as possible, I think it's fairly reckless for any 21st century business not to be, and these cargo bikes looked like they could be the ideal method of transporting our mobile operation, doubling as a beautiful work station and fitting in to our environmental ideals. Together we drew up a layout plan of how potentially the trike would work and then caught a flight to Amsterdam (obviously not great for the environment but it gets you places quickly) to check out the trikes and meet the Workcycles crew. The idea seemed viable. 

Setting off from London to Harwich

Although we were working as cocktail mixologist at that time Shane and I had both worked as baristas at various stages off our drinks careers. However this had not been for a few years and we wanted our pour-over coffee to be the best pour-over coffee! Shane knew of an incredible coffee shop, called Prufrock Coffee, which offered intensive training to help others achieve their high levels of coffee excellence. Our tutor, Jeremy, was incredibly knowledgeable and helped us understand the science behind pour-over. Confident with our coffee and optimistic about our concept my Dad agreed to lend us some money and we put a down payment on the trike.

Cycling the trike on to the ferry back to England

After Ten weeks the trike was ready to be picked up. Shane and I cycle from London to Harwich where we met my Dad and then got a ferry to the Hook of Holland. From there my Dad drove and we cycled to Amsterdam. We pick up the trike and brought it back on the ferry to England. Upon our return we towed the trike to Lincolnshire, on a borrowed trailer, to my brothers father in-law's house and started mounting and fitting our coffee making equipment on to the trike. After a week of sanding, staining and fitting the trike was ready.

The finished Trike

Trading

By the end of June we had started trading..