Kitchen Garden Forum

Where my wife and I lived in Cardiff we had the Costa Rica Coffee Co. which bought in and roasted coffee beans from around the World.On roasting days the smell of the roasting beans pervaded the whole area.Most certainly a"come and buy me"smell and as Richard wrote a "Black Art" but one which was tempered with experience.The owner would load the machine with the beans,up to 25kg,and using his eye decide when to remove beans when they were lightly roasted and let the rest carry on until they were medium and dark roasted.
His stock was about 20 different kinds of beans so that you could,with the advice of a knowing staff, blend your beans to your taste,tweaking it the next and subsequent visits to suit.
Gone now and replaced by a wet fish shop which doesn't smell half as nice.
Cardiff also had two breweries in the centre of the City and when they were mashing the hops(or whatever they did to them)that smell too pervaded the area when the wind was in the right direction

Daily I travel past a town called Stansted Abbott's, where French & Jupp's have a maltings, some days the rich aroma smothers the bypass a good 800 metres away.

Ever been to Tadcaster, home of three breweries (Samuel Smith, John smith and Coor/Bass)? Wonderful smell of hops and yeast pervades the town and hits you as you approach it!

About coffee: we have a lovely cafe/coffee shop in Skipton (on Coach Street car park, if you are interested). They roast and sell many different beans and the staff will explain their background to you. Best coffee in town and the food isn't bad, either.

Last time I was your way Monika it was to St Andrews in Kildwick for my aunt's funeral.
One of my cousins prowls your area for Yorkshire Water.

On breweries, in Hertford we have McMullens who used to brew in the town, one day each week when the mash was cooked, mmm mmm mmm.

Oh yes, I organised a visit to it and we consumed beer, so I can organise a ****-up in a brewery.

while I was a student, I was lucky enough to get a flat above a coffee shop who roasted their own beans 6 days a week, different origins each day (Sunday used the weeks left over beans, but only cost 50p a mug... so cant complain)

I think the smell of the roasting beans was the only thing that got me up in time for lectures (lecture at 9, Shop opend 8:30, Beans roasting at 7, fresh cup of coffee on way into uni... student dream )

A totally amazing smell

unfortunately, they closed up shop during my final year

Did you know, Peter, that St Andrews Church in Kildwick is the longest church in Yorkshire? It's also one of the oldest in origin. Just thought you might like to know ...