Ballymena: Coffee Capital?

This time last year the Coleraine Times ran a story about their town being the coffee capital of Northern Ireland — you can read that here.

Coffee does not discriminate; it has come to be regarded as the lowest affordable common social denominator in our currency at present.

The above quote, in one sense epitomises the current trend that Ballymena is now experiencing as well. I haven’t conducted a head count of coffee shops in our town but we definitely know of two newly opened shops and three more in development. I think there will be more on top of that. So are we just a little behind a trend that has already been in full flow elsewhere?

Public perception

The majority of people who enjoy a cup of coffee a few times a day don’t care about many of the nuances in the world of coffee and coffee shops.

It’s just coffee. It’s just a coffee shop. What’s the food like? Are the seats comfy?

These are all subjective things but they often matter to people more than the coffee quality does.

So, right now the public perception as I’ve been hearing it, is that Ballymena has went coffee shop mad and that they cannot all survive at once. I believe this is fed by most peoples belief that all coffee shops are effectively the same and that more importantly, all coffee tastes the same more or less.

There are no speciality coffee shops in Ballymena… yet.

Opening a coffee shop is hard! Opening a speciality coffee shop that is right up to the standard of the very best coffee shops around Europe and the rest of the World is even harder.

Opening a shop, having great equipment, serving good coffee from a reputable roaster, offering alternative brew methods, dishing up a variety of tasty foods and having friendly staff is all really commendable. There are a couple of locations in Ballymena that are doing most of, if not all of this and I love them for their hard work and passion.

Recently I spoke to the owner of a local coffee shop who is acutely aware of what they are and what they are not. This refreshing honesty is really important for coffee shops right now.

What I mean is, just don’t tell people you are speciality and/or artisan if you are not. That should go without saying but I should also say that nobody in our town centre is claiming this yet.

What’s Speciality Coffee anyway?

Here’s what the SCAE says;

Speciality coffee is defined as a crafted quality coffee-based beverage, which is judged by the consumer (in a limited marketplace at a given time) to have a unique quality, a distinct taste and personality different from, and superior to, the common coffee beverages offered. The beverage is based on beans that have been grown in an accurately defined area, and which meet the highest standards for green coffee and for its roasting, storage and brewing.

There is some disagreement as to how to best describe and define the term and, it’s worth emphasising that the skill and passion of the barista is really really important in all of the above. A barista can take a quality coffee bean and screw it up in any number of ways through lack of skill, care and/or attention.

But also, the water used in the process, the equipment and it’s maintenance, the consistency of every single tiny step in the brewing process…

It’s complex.

In a way, the speciality coffee and third wave movements have made serving good[ish] coffee an easy repeatable task… but, serving great coffee?

That’s a whole other thing. It’s an ongoing challenge as well so it’s hard to define in a bite-sized paragraph right here right now.

There is [probably] room for you all

Remember what I said above…

It’s just coffee. It’s just a coffee shop. What’s the food like? Are the seats comfy?

Those subjective opinions again…

This alone means there is room for plenty of coffee shops in our town. New things sometimes push out old things but sometimes they don’t.

There are many places in towns around Northern Ireland that serve very very poor coffee day-in-day-out to countless customers. They are doing an incredible disservice to themselves and are treating coffee in a horrible way but, in many cases their business is not threatened.

It is what it is.

Why we can’t talk about every coffee shop in Ballymena

There is a standard of coffee shop that I think is acceptable and therefore worth recommending to others.

There is a difficult tension here for me.

I’ve been asked often about reviewing shops and creating coffee shop/location guides on www.coffeeni.com but, our conscience has dictated that we couldn’t do this... not in a way that we are comfortable with... yet. The Internet is awash with opinions and criticisms and name-calling… it’s just not on our agenda to wade into that world.

And, sometimes coffee shops just have bad days. Cut them some slack.

But, as I said, there is a standard of coffee shop that I think is acceptable. With www.coffeeni.com we want to focus on that standard, effort, passion and integrity when we talk about coffee shops.

So we can’t and won’t talk specifically about every coffee shop that opens in our town or around Northern Ireland.

Why are you opening a coffee shop?

In conclusion I’d briefly like to ponder why this is a current trend and why you or I would want to open a coffee shop.

There are some amazing people out there who genuinely love coffee and hospitality and, when you are great at something and it works and people see it working, you will inevitably be copied.

We believe what is happening with coffee shops right now really is as simple as that.

Sometimes the copying is about passion rubbing off onto others and when that happens it is a beautiful thing. It’s this influence that creates tribes and movements. We love that! Coffee here in Northern Ireland has been marked by lots of this kind of influence.

But, sometimes the copying is about something else entirely because, in business many people have no original ideas of their own and they will always try to replicate what others are doing in order to make money. There’s a coffee bandwagon right now.

It is what it is.

So, why are you opening your new business?

I’d love everyone to be at the acceptable standard… treating coffee as an important delicate fresh product that requires love and attention.

But, not everyone has that agenda.