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One man coffee company means business

Dubliner Jamie O'Neill got bitten by the coffee bug while working in the UK. "I've always been a ...
Newstalk
Newstalk

14.35 24 Apr 2017


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One man coffee company means b...

One man coffee company means business

Newstalk
Newstalk

14.35 24 Apr 2017


Share this article


Dubliner Jamie O'Neill got bitten by the coffee bug while working in the UK.

"I've always been a bit of a coffee geek – I’ve worked in a lot of restaurants and bars.

"And it turns out that’s what I wanted to do all along, it was there in front of me all the time”, he told Newstalk.com.

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O’Neill was living Britain for four years and trained in a coffee roastery in the Hackney area of London.

"I started off sweeping the floor, and helping out", he says.

Image: Upside Coffee

While at Climpson & Sons he took on more duties, such as buying and sampling different roastings.

"I decided to bring it back here".

O’Neill has been up and running at his premises – a little unit in Dublin’s Fairview – for the past eight months.

He says Upside Coffee is a pretty simple operation.

"It’s a roasting machine - a roasting drum over gas burners - it’s how you cook the coffee.

"I roast them in the machine and pack them into bags".

He is now selling them on online and to locals popping into his unit.

Image via @upside_coffee on Twitter

He is also looking to engage with small to medium independent coffee shops around the city.

O’Neill does all this on his own: "It’s just me at the moment; it’s all very conveniently laid out".

As well as the roasting drum, he has a machine that seals the bags on a conveyor belt.

He also uses sales and accounting software to conduct his business.

"It’s growing at a nice steady pace", he says, "automation is taking the sting out of it".

Coffee beans | Image: Upside Coffee

The company is buying beans from places like Brazil, Burundi, Costa Rica and Rwanda.

"The idea is to get in small amounts of coffee seasonally.

"The most recent fresh crop arrivals are Costa Rican and Honduran, as well as Ethiopian and Kenyan.

"Getting in small amounts ensures that the green coffee is as fresh as possible before roasting, which preserves the flavour."

"We want good coffee to be approachable and transparent, so people are always welcome to pop in, check out the process and have a chat.

"The big picture is supplying a healthy amount of independent cafes", he says.

You can get more information here


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