Durham Coffee, Sacriston, Co. Durham
Fusing great coffee flavours with Northeastern traditions
Think coffee, and County Durham isn’t always the first place that springs to mind. However, Durham Coffee, an artisan roaster based in Sacriston, is determined to change all that.
The brand, which started trading in 2020, draws heavily on its local connections. Different roasts are named after different local landmarks, speaking directly to coffee lovers with happy memories of our heritage.
“Sometimes the Northeast is a bit of an underrated region, but it’s beautiful and we absolutely love it here,” said Carina Nausner, who runs Durham Coffee with her father Bernhard. “Our branding was very much designed to celebrate the northeast and we want people to connect to the region through our coffee.
“People come in and see our coffee and they start thinking ‘hey, Finchale Priory! Remember when we used to go there as kids and play in the river?’ People make those connections. It’s the same with the Dun Cow, people often think of the pub and remember having a pint there.
“These names inspire memories and that’s very much what we want – people sitting down, having a nice cup of coffee and kind of connecting to the region.”
Changing cultures
Bernhard and Carina first got to know local coffee lovers when they opened Lanchester’s Kaffeehaus Amadeus. A popular spot with walkers and cyclists on the nearby Lanchester Valley walk, it also became a hang-out for the local German-speaking community – evidence that it accurately recreated the coffee shop culture of their native Austria.
“We’ve been here 20 years ago now, and when we came there wasn’t much of a coffee culture,” Bernhard said. “There weren’t many decent coffee shops, it was mostly the big chains, and it felt like everybody was just queuing up with their tray.”
Carina added: “It was very different from the European background we were used to. For us, coffee time was when you sit down with friends and family and enjoy a nice cup of coffee, especially drip-filtered coffee. That’s what we wanted to create in Amadeus.”
Durham Coffee grew naturally out the success of Amadeus and the business was all set to launch in 2020 when the pandemic struck. With the café closed by lockdown, the roastery was the way forward and the first editions soon appeared in local shops such as Discovering Durham.
“In a way it was a bit of a blessing in disguise,” Bernhard added. “Because of the lockdown we could really pull everything together, get the branding finalised and so on.
“We had a kind of soft opening, so to speak, launched the online platform and started fulfilling orders then we could take it from there. Next, we could move into looking for business clients and still having our café a little bit on the side.”
However, it soon became clear that running two businesses at once wasn’t viable.
“We couldn’t open the café full time and have the roasting business with the two of us,” said Bernhard. “One had to go, and it was clear that the roastery was the future for us. So we sold the café and found these premises in Sacriston.”
Although the roastery is not set up as a full-on café, it is open to the public Wed-Fri, 10am – 2pm and customers are welcome to drop by for a coffee and a chat. And, of course, it offers the full range of coffees plus other merchandise and the results of occasional collaborations with other local businesses such as Durham Soap or the Durham Brewery.
‘It’s very much hand-roasted, which we love’
Amadeus was bought up by Serendipity café, which is one of a growing number of local venues to get its coffee from Bernhard and Carina. Part of the attraction is the Durham Coffee’s status as a speciality supplier, part of the crème de la crème.
“In order to qualify as speciality quality, coffee must, amongst other things, reach a cupping score of 80+” Carina explained. “Not only does this guarantee a premium quality product, but the speciality coffee world also supports an ethical and sustainable supply chain which is extremely important to us. We only work with green bean suppliers who have direct contact with the famers, making our coffee traceable.”
“They work with the farmers to encourage sustainable business practices that will reach this quality grade for which they get paid a premium and thus receive higher wages.
“Of course, it’s more expensive at our end, but this isn’t just a fair-trade product. You’re also getting a really good quality product.”
Another thing that makes Durham Coffee stand out is the roasting machine. The company is one of the first in Britain to invest in an air-motion roaster.
“We love it,” said Carina. “It’s a very interactive way to roast. Unlike a more conventional drum roaster, this works purely on convection. The beans are suspended on a bed of hot air which creates a lovely, even roast profile.
“And you don’t just chuck them in and walk away. A lot of modern roasters are so advanced that you can almost leave it to do its own thing, but here you can be really interactive in the whole process. It’s very much hand-roasted, which we love.”
That interaction partly explains why, as Carina points out, if you give the same beans to five different roasters, you’ll get five different coffees.
“Ultimately, every roaster does it differently,” Bernhard continued. “We buy in different beans through our connections or suppliers. That makes a difference in itself. Beans from different regions have different flavour profiles. Then certain roasters like different roast profiles. Some go more for the lighter roast, some are medium, some are darker. It all differentiates the flavour intensity, but really you have to try the coffee and tell us what makes ours stand out!”
Spreading the word
Today’s coffee drinkers are increasingly interested in experimenting and there is something of a boom in artisan roasters across the region. Coupled with the rise of local food fairs, there’s a growing demand for high-quality produce from small, artisan suppliers.
Durham Coffee has a busy schedule of visiting events – this summer included Bishop Auckland, Seaham and Barnard Castle, with more to come at Raby and Wolsingham.
“I’d like to think we’re seeing people paying more attention to what they eat and drink,” Carina said. “That’s very much where the food fairs and the face-to-face exchanges play a big role.
“It’s education, it’s creating connections with people and showing them more about what’s available and why it’s better for you. There are many reasons why local is good, but I think it helps people to put a face behind a product and make that connection.”
An increasing appetite for understanding where our food and drink comes from also inspires the Coffee Lover’s courses on offer at their roastery.
“We have a little training area and we limit groups to four or six people, so everyone gets hands-on experience,” Carina added. “There’s a barista one and a home brewers one. Personally, the home brewers are my favourite. This is where we go through all the different methods you can use at home from your mocha pot, French press, aero press, filter. There’s a lot of tasting and hands-on brewing. It’s informal, it’s a fun session, but there’s a lot of knowledge and hands-on practice and tasting.”
And, 20 years on, coffee culture in England is catching up fast.
“One of the nice things we’ve seen is how people have travelled and come across good coffee in other places. Then they want to bring some of that here.
“England has a bit of a mish-mash of all those cultures – Australian, European – so you get a nice kind of mix. Since we opened the café we’ve seen a lot of change in the northeast and that’s exciting.”