Outside Lane

This is Outside Lane by Lane Eight Coffee. Bringing you the stories behind the people and businesses inspiring coffee culture today. From coffee roasters to ceramicists, and from furniture designers to bakers. In this final episode of the series, we speak to Emilie Holmes, and hear the story behind her business Good & Proper Tea. Emilie started the business to solve a personal problem - she found that while cafe baristas carefully pored over each cup of coffee, perfecting their latte art, they often neglected tea and served it without much care or attention. She began by sourcing, brewing and serving her teas from a converted Citroen H van at Kings Cross and other markets in London, which she funded through a Kickstarter campaign. Several years later, Emilie opened a tea bar in the heart of central London on Leather Lane, before switching focus to wholesale, delivering teas into coffee shops and restaurants up and down the country.

This is Outside Lane by Lane Eight Coffee, bringing you the stories behind the people and businesses inspiring coffee culture today. From coffee roasters to ceramicists, and from furniture designers to bakers. In this episode we speak to Blendsmiths founders Ryan Moore and Chris Farnworth. Blendsmiths make a range of six premium, vegan-friendly, caffeine & gluten free drinks including hot chocolates, matcha, turmeric , beetroot and chai, each with our distinct flavours. The company serves over 300 cafes across the UK and is also distributed across Europe. We talk about what it's like to start up a business with a friend you've known since the age of 8, how they transitioned from their previous careers, why they chose to make their products vegan-friendly and how they keep customers coming back time after time. First, we hear from Ryan about where the idea for the business came from.

Outside Lane by Lane Eight Coffee brings you the stories behind the people and businesses inspiring coffee culture today. From coffee roasters to ceramicists, and from furniture designers to bakers. In this episode, we sat down with Anna Brightman, co founder of UpCircle, a brand pioneering the by-product beauty movement. UpCircle elevate leftover natural ingredients, including coffee grounds collected from hundreds of independent coffee shops across London, bringing them back to life as beauty products. With stockists including Boots, Sainsbury's and Urban Outfitters, we talk about their rapid growth to date and hear about Anna's day to day as founder of the business.

Outside Lane tells the stories of the people and businesses inspiring coffee culture today. In this episode we speak to Luminary Bakery's Essy Sparrow. Essy has over 11 years experience in coffee shops and now oversees a team of 20 as manager at Luminary's Camden branch here in London. We talk about what it's like to open and manage a cafe, and hear about Luminary from the inside - one of London's leading bakeries, which also gives training and employment opportunities to some of London's most disadvantaged women.

Outside Lane tells the stories of the people and businesses inspiring coffee culture today. In this episode we sit down with Dickon Morris, co-founder of coffee roasters and social enterprise New Ground Coffee. Based in Oxford here in the UK, New Ground set out to blend high quality product with social purpose - alongside a top class roastery, coffee shop and wholesale business they help local ex-offenders get back into work. We talk about the challenges of starting a social enterprise from scratch, and hear the behind the scenes on their recent pop up with Highsnobiety at Selfridges in London. Hope you enjoy!

Outside Lane tells the stories of the people and businesses inspiring coffee culture today. In this episode we sit down with Will McCallum, co-founder of New Zealand-based signage, menu and display makers George & Willy. Use discount code OUTSIDELANE at georgeandwilly.com for 15% off.