An interview with… Abe and Co

We spoke to Guy, based near Manchester, about his fast-growing coffee business, and he gave us some epic tips for brewing too!

Abe and co coffee

RISE: Hey Guy! Thanks for featuring in our box in July. We loved showcasing your coffee and brand. Thanks too for taking the time for the IG Live! For those that missed it, can you give us an overview of how you started?

There’s more info on our story page but the headlines are, Guy, the founder and chief coffee lover decided to buy an Aillio Bullet coffee roaster after getting a little disgruntled with some of the coffee he had been buying… After giving away coffee samples to friends and family, he realised he was on to something good! Since then the orders have been flooding in and he now sells via his thriving website.

rise: Your obviously a fairly new brand, where can people find your coffee at the moment, and what are your plans for growth?

Our main outlet is currently our website, which has lots of good info about our coffee, but you can also find us in Village Greens, The Jewish Museum, Siphon, Farras and Moonbeam, all in and around Manchester.

RISE: What’s your favourite coffee you are drinking right now?

I am currently drinking an amazing Colombian coffee called El Quebradon, which is from the Palestina area of Huila. When I drink it as a filter it has lovely peach/apple notes, and in espresso it has a lovely toffee and caramel vibe. It is really versatile and a classic Colombia through and through.

RISE: What would your top tips be, for making your coffee at home? Feel free to get technical!

Always keep your coffee as fresh as possible - if you are reusing the same bags, put an elastic band around the bag to keep out as much air as possible, it really does make a difference to how long the coffee lasts. I have been usings 50ml centrifuge plastic test tubes I bought from ebay to split the coffee down into single does. That way i dont let new air into the packet each time i open the bag.
Make a note of how much time difference to extraction each notch on your grinder makes. On my Niche Zero, each big mark adds or detracts about 5s from my espresso extraction. This makes it so much easier to dial in. If it only takes 20s and i like a 30s extraction, two big marks finer and i should be nearly there. It saves on wasting a lot of coffee.
One of the latest coffee trends which has started to shift from coffee professional to home coffee enthusiast is the Refractomer. This is simply a device which measures how much coffee is dissolved into the water, therefore telling you if you are over or under extracting. These devices used to be super expensive but are now coming down in price to make them more accessible. A lesser known use is to see when your grinder burrs need replacing. If you see you are having to grinder finer to achieve the same amount of dissolved solids in your brew - it might be time to change those burrs!

QUESTION 5: Finally, what will you be up to for the rest of 2022?

We are on a mission against mediocre coffee! We are a time where it is easier than ever to make good coffee at home, or find a good coffee shop. As long as your are drinking something you enjoy, all is well, but don’t put with anything less than tasty! My role is this mission is to partner with more coffee shops would want to serve our coffee, increase our offering online and keep adding educational material and to attend Cafe Culture and Manchester Coffee Festival to keep in touch with the scene. Watch this space :)