Founded nearly 20 years ago, Hasbean – under the leadership of new general manager Dale Harris, 2017 World Barista Champion – has recently rebranded itself into a colourful reality.
Hasbean is one of the already “classic” specialty coffee roasters in the United Kingdom: founded in Stafford in 2002, since 2018 it has shared ownership with Ozone Coffee, the New Zealand giant of specialty coffee.
An important agreement that did not change the identity of Hasbean, born so long ago from the dream of Steve Leighton, founder of the company and one of the coffee world’s biggest personalities. Steve’s dream of working in coffee started when he was just a kid: as the story goes, he was only 7 years old, when he asked Santa for a filter coffee machine; and then, years later, Steve is finally ready to conquer his dream. First, the opening of a small market stall; followed by a coffee shop and a small roastery, until the opening of the big specialty coffee roastery that is today Hasbean.
But the success of Hasbean probably wouldn’t have been the same without another key figure, a guy who has worked alongside Steve for the past decade: Dale Harris. Former director of wholesale and Hasbean’s General Manager since 2019, Dale Harris career had one of its highs in 2017, with the winning of the World Barista Champion competition.
Under Dale’s managing, Hasbean has completely rebranded itself, putting on the market a new series of coffee bags created following a colour based flavour system, to make it easier for customers to spot what they really love. On the bags – 100% compostable – are large colourful labels to help you choose the “right” coffee, thanks to seven new flavour profiles (spicy, sweet, floral, fruity, citrus, cocoa, and nutty; each corresponding to a different colour), and of a totally new coffee naming system. Each coffee is now named after its origin country, and it comes with a unique edition number to identify it, the production year and what edition number it is. They also moved the varietal and processing information to the label rather than in the coffee name so customers can learn more about each one in a simplified way.
But obviously behind Hasbean’s success there are more than a few cool bags of coffee. Founded on great values, their ethical policy affirms the desire to trade fairly and, whenever is possible, directly with coffee producers; at the same time, Hasbean are also certified as Living Wage Employer (paying their workers a minimum wage based on the calculated cost of living, rather than the legally considered minimum wage).
Hasbean
(Est.2002)
Unit 16, Ladford Covert
Ladfordfields Industrial Estate
Stafford ST18 9QL
UNITED KINGDOM
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La Chorrera
Origin: Colombia
Roast Type: Filter
Process: Washed
Region: Huila
Variety: Caturra
Altitude: 1735m
(Coffee #01 in 2022 June CHAMPIONS edition)
In the 2022 June's Coffee Club CHAMPIONS edition we featured 'La Chorrera' Washed Colombia Caturra roasted by Hasbean. With this edition we went backstage with four incredible roasters all highly experienced in competing AND winning some of the biggest coffee competitions in the world - World Barista Championship, World Cup Tasters Championship, Coffee Masters & World Roasting Championship - and we interviewed Dale, 2017 World Barista Champion about his experience competing.
