PS COFFEE ROASTERS

MARTHA REINA | COLOMBIA | FILTER

PS COFFEE ROASTERS, IRELAND

Tasting Notes:

Honey, apple, peach

Country: Colombia

Region: Pitalito, Huila

Process: Fully Washed

Variety: Tabi, Pink bourbon, Caturra, Castillo

Altitude: 1770 masl

PS COFFEE ROASTERS PROFILE

How did PS come to be and who makes up PS ?

We started in 2015 as the recession was still hanging on. Simon had come home from living in New Zealand and Peter was tired of earning minimum wage as a manager of a Costa Coffee. We both wanted to start a business our whole lives, but now was the right time to start one in coffee in Ireland. We knew how well Speciality coffee was doing in Australia and New Zealand and how Ireland seriously lacked that at the time. So after debating whether to become roasters or just a cafe, we decided to do both and start with a small roaster and use it as our unique selling point in the cafe.

What is PS purpose/mission?

In a nutshell we focus on providing a specialist product by constantly pushing ourselves and supporting producers who share our passion.

What that means is that we are not afraid to push ourselves and do things that not every roaster will do. Things such as buying more expensive coffees of a similar quality to a cheaper option, simply because we believe in the projects or people behind the coffees and what they are trying to achieve. The bonus we have also found these people and companies (e.g. Nordic Approach, Belco) provide us with more consistent coffees too. We reinvest our time and money in our education constantly, we buy from the same farms year after year even if the cup quality drops a bit because its more sustainable, we invested very heavily into a new Sovda colour sorter to improve our cup quality and we didn't just accept plastic packaging and pushed hard to get a home compostable material for our 250g retail bags that helped us win Going Plastic Free awards.

Hot take: How would you describe the coffee scene in Ireland?

Ireland has had a transformative change in the coffee scene over the past ten years. However, the biggest change has come since covid where we have jumped onto coffee as a more common daily driver than it used to be. The cafe culture has well and truly kicked off here too now and its great to see. Not having a coffee culture here before is a double edged sword, but mostly a good one. Good in that we can take the best techniques from other places around the world and apply them to our cafes and grow with this attitude. The negatives are we dont have many people with years of coffee experience particularly at a higher level and this has led to a lot of mediocre results.

Overrated or underrated and why?

Slightly underrated. There has been some amazing places pop up like the Brew Lab and Unfiltered in Dublin. I know we put our lives into our business and coffee education because we simply love it and we have sacrificed a lot to stay on top. The key difference is how much work everyone puts into constantly upskilling and getting better of which I believe there are enough of us doing. I see this all the time and its great.

BEST coffee you ever had…where?

There are two that stand out. An El Salvador I had from 3fe in Dublin in 2017. Another was an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe we had a few years ago that tasted like Bubblegum.

What is one thing about PS that most people do9;t know?

We have won Irelands first Gold Standard for Going Plastic Free in 2020. This was given to us again in 2023.

What do you want to change most about the coffee industry?

So many things really. I'd love coffee to become more of a genuine career path for more people. People see robots and AI as something that can replace work and it can, but perhaps if those robots took away the need for an extra barista in place that needs 3 people. Then maybe they can run with 2 people and pay those 2 people better. There's a growing coffee brand in the USA are living proof of this concept which we might be able to learn from.

What is your favourite way to brew and why?

Hard to go wrong with a V60. A lovely balance of flavour and I find the 4:6 method works really well with most coffees.

What is your favourite processing method at the moment?

Honeys. A well processed honey can be a beautiful balance of clarity, complexity and body.