A North East coffee roastery is set to represent the region on the global stage at the World Coffee Championships in Greece later this month.
Gold Box Roastery, based in Blaydon, has already tasted success this year with a victory at the UK Brewers' Cup. And now mother and son team Barbara and Luca Croce are cautiously optimistic that their coffee will wow the judges as they taste the best coffees from all over the world in Athens from June 22-24.
The artisan roastery brews specialty coffee and supplies to several cafes, including The Canny Goat in Newcastle city centre and Heaton; and Batch in Jesmond. And founder and managing director Barbara hopes that taking part in the world championships will help "put it on the map".
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She said: "When people think of a Blaydon coffee roastery, they automatically think of Pumphreys. So, we're kind of like a hidden gem that nobody knows about but slowly, slowly, we're getting there and things like this will really help put our name on the map."
Representing Gold Box at the World Championships is Barbara's 22-year-old son Luca. After spending time in the Navy and training for the RAF, only for that to be curtailed by the pandemic, he returned to the North East and had a brief stints at Amazon and Costa, where he "learned the basics" before joining the family business.
And after just a few months in the business, he came third in his first brewing competition, held at Pure Knead. With "nothing to lose" when the UK Brewers' Cup was announced, he entered and came back with the trophy against much more experienced roasteries.
Barbara continued: "He went above and beyond all expectations and that's across the whole of the UK, against the best roasteries and cafes in the whole of the country. It's an incredible achievement and I'm obviously so proud of him, and for the region to have somebody new to represent us and somebody so young, it's great I think."
Whatever the outcome of the World Championships, Barbara hopes that Gold Box Roastery can play a role in developing more of a coffee culture in Newcastle. She said: "We want to be more engaging, we want people to brew better coffee at home.
"We want to make more of a community because there's the Glasgow Coffee Festival and the London Coffee Festival. Communities of people who love coffee come together but in Newcastle, it's very small group of people and it'd be good to try and get people to come together more.
"We'd love to be involved in that kind of thing and Luca is open to helping people."
The World Coffee Championships take place in Athens from June 22 - 24. For more information on Gold Box Roastery, visit its website.
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