Hospitality Awards 2020

www.lux-review.com Page 33 LUX 2020 Global Hospitality Awards Situated on the outskirts of Glasgow, the Roast- Den is a hybrid of artisan coffee shop and online platform run by a father-and-sons team who share a love of delicious, high-quality coffee. “The market is saturated with commercial quality coffee that tastes bitter, lacks complexity and masks the true sweet lingering taste of great coffee that farmers toil tirelessly to cultivate,” says Alan Bryden, father and owner of the Roast-Den. “I recall being taken to the coffee purveyor, every other Saturday, by my father where he would discuss with the merchant the pros and cons of each varietal. The supermarkets have pretty much put an end to such speciality merchants, but I wanted us to reinvent the glory of those days using a modern, online store.” Striving to find the highest quality in coffee beans, the company was originally created to give Alan’s sons the opportunity to learn about business management in a real-world setting. However, the idea soon took off into a fully-fledged business venture, as the family realised the need for more specialty coffees on the market and learnt from experts and professional artisan coffee roasters about the four pillars of great coffee: the beans, the storage, the roaster and the craftsman. The Roast-Den decided to use only the highest quality Specialty Grade beans, which only comprises less than 4% of the world’s total coffee production. The team learnt that green, pre-roasted coffee, when properly stored and aged in wood becomes smoother, so all Roast- Den coffee is aged in oak and chestnut barrels, and benefits from Glasgow’s ideal green bean The Roast-Den is a coffee roastery unlike any other. Combining the practice of sourcing high-quality coffee beans from merchants with an artificial intelligence system that they have fondly named Fiona, the Roast-Den is able to deliver the four pillars of a great cup of coffee efficiently and consistently. Owner Alan Bryden tells us more about how this family learning project has evolved into a successful and cutting-edge business. Roast-Den Ltd. Best Specialty Coffee Roasters - UK storage climates. The team has also carried out extensive research into roaster designs and roasting techniques, with one of Alan’s sons undertaking an intensive training course in the art of roasting artisan coffee. As a result, the Roast-Den today produces small batch, hand roasted, speciality coffees for the coffee connoisseur, that represent the very best of global coffees. With a focus on micro-lots and rare coffees, the team is constantly seeking fresh new avenues of taste and quality in the best crops they can find. Every single bag of coffee is hand-selected and packaged by hand, and the team can even discuss bespoke, custom blends of coffees for customers seeking to give the perfect, personalised gift. In addition, the Roast-Den wants to educate its coffee drinkers to become coffee connoisseurs, and as such launched their bi-weekly coffee courses that have been received with incredible praise. It is a great opportunity for the firm to tell their clients about the wonders of their product and build their clientele, all whilst delivering a fun and accessible course that centres around the coffee lovers themselves. A family-run, micro-roastery, it is the Roast- Den’s commitment to delivering exceptional customer service alongside exceptional coffee that sets them apart. However, it is the family-centric, artisan coffee roastery’s adoption of a F ully I ntegrated O nline N extgen A utomation (Fiona) - an artificial intelligence - that makes the Glaswegian enterprise a truly inimitable find. Fiona was first used as an administrator who automated the back-office functions and managed the website, but her role has evolved as she has learnt more about the roastery. Thanks to Fiona, guests are now able to make their own coffee blends, using the flavour profiles that she puts together from tasting notes accrued from tasting events and coffee courses. Moreover, the Roast-Den built special algorithms for Fiona to predict the taste of coffee blends, then compared her results to actual tasing notes. The results showed that Fiona became very accurate at identifying coffee flavour profiles, but more importantly, she could do it almost instantly. Today, the Roast-Den uses Fiona to create new recipes, taking different coffees from all over the world, adjusting quantities and putting together methods for the roaster. At the same time, Fiona creates a catalogue entry for the product and loads it on to the website ready to be sold in next to no time. This remarkable mix of traditional Artisan roasting skills with high tech predictive AI and back-end automation has allowed The Roast- Den to become the connoisseur’s choice for speciality coffee. UK customers can get a hold of this luxury coffee at incredible value online, whilst international customers need only get in touch with the Roast-Den through their website. Company: Roast-Den Ltd. Contact: Alan Bryden Web Address: roast-den.com