What makes a great coffee shop?

York's "coffee Tsar"
Sadie Walton

Independent coffee shops in York are going from strength to strength. Here I speak to the city's coffee guru Sadie Walton to find out what’s brewing…

SADIE Walton is a 30 year-old-coffee lover who has turned her daily habit into her nine to five.

As the city’s unofficial coffee Tsar, what Sadie doesn’t know about coffee isn’t worth knowing.

Aged 25, she opened her first café – La Cremeria in High Petergate. Two years later, she sold it and opened the York Coffee Emporium. Today, she runs the business online, offering a “boutique coffee-roasting service” for clients, including many cafés and restaurants in the city. She also trains baristas and is to be one of the judges in the upcoming UK Barista Championships.

We arrange to meet in a café of her choice: Coffee Culture on Goodramgate. It sells some of Sadie’s Java blend as its specialist coffee. Needless to say, this is what she orders. “It’s an Indonesian coffee, characterised by a smoky earthiness,” she explains. “It tends not to be very sweet, but full bodied, rich and smooth.”

I order a cappuccino; it features the house blend, and is one of the best coffees I have ever had. The milk is thick and creamy and seems to ooze into the smooth-tasting coffee rather than just sit on the top like a stiff meringue.

Sadie says the skill of the barista – or coffee maker – is often the secret to a great coffee. And it is here, she says, that the independents can really make their mark.

“In the UK, our baristas are not getting the respect they deserve. In Italy, being a barista is a highly regarded profession. In Australia, a barista can make or break the reputation of a café and a great one is highly sought after.”

Even the best beans in the world can taste bad in the hands of a poorly-trained barista, she adds.

So what’s the key to a great coffee? “They have to grind the beans just right so that the water doesn’t come through too fast – that makes the coffee taste weak,” begins Sadie.

How they steam the milk – or “milk texturising” – is crucial too. “You want a creamy foam with lots of tiny bubbles holding it together.”

Getting the coffee dosage right is vital too. “Independents tend to use smaller cups because they are trying to make coffee in the right manner; people don’t want soup bowls of warm milk.”

Although we are in straitened economic times, the coffee industry is yet to feel the pinch.

“The industry has been called ‘recession proof’ although I don’t like to say that,” says Sadie. “It is seen as an ‘affordable luxury’. If you are cutting back on holidays, you can still have your nice cup of coffee in the morning.”

Sadie has noticed the expansion of independent coffee shops in the city, and believes it is probably now at saturation point.

In taking on the big guns such as Starbucks and Costa, the independents can stand out through quality products and service, says Sadie. They can do things the giants can’t do too, she adds, such as offering a range of speciality blends and roasts – in the way popular pubs sell a range of independent beers and guest ales.

“The coffee industry is easily comparable to the micro-brewing industry. And it’s great for cafés to offer something that little bit different.”