York coffee business brews up special blend for Castle Howard

York Coffee Emporium is brewing up a special blend of coffee for the thousands of visitors to Castle Howard, one of the North’s most iconic stately homes.

The special coffee, which has a light caramel taste with a hint of fruitiness, was specially blended by York Coffee Emporium in its tasting laboratory at York Business Park for the estate, which is serving it in its two cafes and two restaurants.

The coffee – Castle Howard Expresso Blend – is available in Castle Howard’s Courtyard Café, Coffee Shop, Boathouse Café and Fitzroy Restaurant and is also being sold in packs in the estate’s farm shop along with other special blends including The Ninth, Stable Blend, Ethiopian, Kenyan, Brazilian, Sumatran and Columbian.

York Coffee Emporium first started to supply the Boathouse and Courtyard cafes at Castle Howard in 2014 but has now also been contracted to supply the Coffee Shop and Fitzroy Restaurant, for which it is also supplying hot chocolate, making it the first hot beverage company to supply all the food outlets at Castle Howard which opened to the public in 1952 and had more than 270,00 visitors in 2016.

York Coffee Emporium director, Laurence Beardmore, says: “Castle Howard is achieving excellent quality food and drinks in its cafes and restaurants, often using suppliers within a 40-mile radius, and we are very pleased to be part of this.

“Supplying Castle Howard will involve at least two tonnes of specially-roasted and blended coffee beans each year. We are able to do this as part of Upton Group which allows us to create consistent, very high-quality coffees in large volumes with the service back-up of a big company experienced in handling large contracts.”

Head of trading at Castle Howard, Karen Hall, says: “We chose York Coffee Emporium as our local supplier to continue our delivery of a quality tasting coffee for the catering operation.

“The coffee receives a consistently high level of customer satisfaction and we are pleased to be able to extend its availability through our retail outlets. The decision to work with York Coffee Emporium was aided by the evident passion and experience the team has for the product and delivery of good levels of care in the service to Castle Howard.”