At BEAR, coffee is our world and we use it as a benchmark for everything we do. We always have 3 beans on offer: house, guest and decaf. We choose our house roast for its versatility with and without milk, meaning that it’s a general crowd-pleaser in whatever form you choose to drink it. Our guest roast is usually something a bit more complex and different. We pick this one to give you lot a chance to try a flavour profile that’s a bit more outside-the-box. We tend to change our guest more regularly than the house, especially if some exciting new beans have arrived at the roastery! So far, our guest roasts have all very quickly become staff favourites (we all love an edgy coffee). As well as being single origin, our decaff coffee beans have their caffeine removed using the Swiss Water Process™. This process removes 99.9% of caffeine without compromising the taste by using variables of time, temperature and concentration gradients – no chemicals required! How clever.
We offer all of our coffees in espresso form, adding perfectly textured (dairy or non-dairy) milk to create our yummy drinks. The largest cup option we serve is a modest 10oz, to ensure that our delicious coffee isn’t lost within the milk. As well as our espresso-based drinks, we also offer our coffees on the Brew Bar in the form of an Aeropress or Chemex to really highlight and distinguish the flavours in each cup. If you love coffee, ask our Baristas about these – they’re real game changers.
We choose our Baristas based on their attitude and personality over their coffee skills. That way, everyone grows together through the BEAR training programme, paired with heaps of encouragement and coaching from Louise (our insanely clever Head of Coffee). By the time Lou’s finished with them, they’ve got pure espresso running through their veins and can answer even the most complicated questions about all of the roasts we’ve got on offer. We’ve got a few Staff Profiles lined up to be posted on our Instagram and Facebook pages over the next few weeks, so make sure you’ve Liked and Followed us over there so you can learn a bit more about the people behind your beautifully-poured Flat White!
Our coffee equipment is where it all comes together. At both of our stores, we make sure that everything is top-of-the-range to help us make the most of every coffee. We use a beautiful, reconditioned 1999 La Marzocco Linea machine in our Uttoxeter store, retrofitted with a PID controller and individual group boilers. This basically means that we’ve got ultimate control over every little aspect behind our coffee from grind to cup, and a firm handle on our water temperature to help us keep every espresso consistent and delicious.
In Derby we are verrrrry lucky to have the Ducati of all coffee machines at our disposal: the Sanremo Cafe Racer. Manufactured in Italy, inspired by classic motorcycles, and innovated by World Barista Champions. The Advanced Espresso Technology (how cool does that sound?!) is designed for speed and precision, and our baristas love steaming textured milk on the Racer – it heats up at lightning speed and makes the milk perfect for producing gorgeous, Instagrammable Latte Art. We treat this beauty to a Reverse Osmosis Water System, which means we essentially have our own water treatment plant under the counter. This allows us to filter and mix the water we use to brew our coffee to extract a more balanced cup, and make the most of the bean’s flavour profile. Both sites use on-demand Victoria Arduino Mythos 1 and Quamar grinders – the burr blades grind our beans fresh to order to produce an aromatic and tasty brew!
Although it’s our passion, we understand that coffee isn’t to everyone’s taste, so we also have a full range of freshly made smoothies and milkshakes, alongside seven different Brew Tea Co. teas which are available as loose leaf or teabag. Our Hot Choccies are Fairtrade and can be made with any of our vegan-friendly milk options. There’s no excuse not to visit, we’ve got something for everyone!
