Andrew Willis - Carrow coffee - A passion for lighter roasts
Sligo’s First Artisan and Organic Coffee Roasterie
Carrow Coffee Roasters is a start-up roastery based on a family farm in the West of Ireland, perched on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and circled by ancient forests and Neolithic sites.
Andrew Willis is passionate about coffee and together with his partner Paola roasts superb coffee in an award winning wooden shed in Beltra, Co. Sligo. Andrew’s background is journalism with over a decade’s experience working throughout Europe, South America and Africa, including four years covering coffee for Bloomberg News in Colombia.
While there he developed numerous contacts with coffee growers, exporters and industry experts and started roasting coffee on his Huky 500 in the attic of our apartment in Bogota. He is now a certified Q Grader (coffee cupper), and has taken courses in Roasting and Barista Skills from the Specialty Coffee Association.
A taste-bud-opening visit to Carrow
When we first met Andrew and Paola, we could sense the energy and enthusiasm for their business. Paola and Andrew are concentrating on roasting single origin coffee beans from small-scale farmers. They do compare themselves to winemakers and speak of the terroir of their coffee depending on the soil, the country and the climate the coffee is grown in. Beans are stored green, a state in which they can be kept without loss of quality or taste for about a year.
And like the farmer who influences the coffee’s flavour through their choice of variety, harvesting and processing methods, coffee roasters like Andrew work with temperature, airflow and drum speed to create their own signature taste.
Roasting brings out the aroma and flavour that is locked inside the green coffee beans and Andrew tells us that he prefers light-to-medium roasts to create the best flavour. Although he uses his laptop to monitor the roasting process, he still uses the trier, a small device on the roasting machine, that he pulls out for manual inspection. He tells us that freshly roasted beans still emanate Co2 in the first 7 days, that can lead to a bitter taste and recommends using the coffee beans only a week after the roasting date. That date is in his opinion more important for the consumer than a best before date, as coffee should ideally be drunk within a few months of its roasting date.
“We favour light to medium roasts.”
We ask what is there ethos: “We constantly strive to source the best sustainably-grown beans from small-scale farmers, and then use our roasting expertise to maximize their flavour in the cup. What do they want to achieve inntheir roasting process? “We favour light to medium roasts that allow a bean’s intrinsic flavour to shine through.”
Finally what is their message to us consumers? “As well as quality and craftsmanship we value our community. This is why we want our roastery to be a place for our ‘specialty coffee' community to meet and cup amazing coffees. A space to discuss coffee but also the need to preserve the omnipresent nature around us that so strongly defines the place that we live and work.”
Many cafes and restaurants in Sligo and further afield and more recently coffee carts use Carrow coffee as their house coffee.
The coffee tasting on a Sligo Food Tour is always sensational and educational. Find out more about Carrow coffee on www.carrow.ie
Here is Andrew Willis uncovered
What is your favourite food? Coffee
Finish the sentence: A chef (or a coffee roaster) is someone who trys to bring out the maximum flavour from their raw ingredients.
The country you travel for food: Colombia. It’s where our passion for coffee comes from and it’s also staggeringly beautiful.
Three things you always have in your larder/fridge? Cheese, beer and olives. (It can’t always be coffee).
What is your most used gadget? The vacuum cleaner. Packing coffee can be messy.
Do you read cookbooks and which one do you come back to? The cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat is fantastic and much of it also applies to coffee.
Who is your inspiration (not necessarily from the food world)? The American writer Hunter S Thompson.
What are you currently listening to? Thelonius Monk.
Something people don’t know about you? I’m a farmer in my ‘spare time’.
What will be hot in 2021? The continued trend to better tasting beans and lighter roasts AND the return to reusable cups as well as compostable packaging, like our retail bags!
