Island Life Magazine Ltd June/July 2007 | Page 114

life - FOOD & DRINK

Classic
Coffee
at its best

5 St. Thomas Square, Ryde. Tel: 562393

Classic Coffee is just the ticket if
you love quality coffee. Opened
recently in Ryde by husband &
wife team Genevieve & Jim, their
aim at the outset was to provide
customers with exceptional coffee
accompanied with locally made
fresh food. However, it wasn’t all

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plain sailing.
Many of you reading this may
think it’s easy to open a coffee shop,
lets face it, it’s not exactly rocket
science, is it?
Firstly, when opening a coffee shop
the coffee has to be the best you can
find as it’s your business, get this

bit wrong and you may as well pack
up and go home. Luckily Genevieve
spent two years in France, (a
dedicated coffee drinking nation)
building up knowledge of the coffee
business. Genevieve explained;
“Choosing the coffee was a two
year process, it involved many hours
of research and meticulous planning
to ensure we selected the right
coffee. Coffee was the main part of
our business, so it had to be right.
“We looked at all different types
and blends, and of course franchise
deals with such companies as Costa
etc.
“We finally decided on Seattles
Best Coffee because of the amazing
flavour and wonderful history of
their coffee.”
Seattles Best Coffee was started
in the early 70’s when a group of
passionate coffee lovers started a
revolution. The founders of Seattle’s
Best were some of these early coffee
pioneers, and in the beginning
the coffee was roasted in an old
peanut roaster down on the Seattle
waterfront. They used the finest
beans and roasted them to achieve
a bold and full flavoured cup that
was also smooth and mellow. In
those days, the Northwest was such
a hotbed of competing coffee styles
that a local restaurant held a tasteoff to crown “the best cup of coffee
in Seattle.” And guess who won? To
celebrate the occasion, they officially
re-named the company “Seattle’s
Best Coffee” and the rest is coffee

history.
In 2003 Starbucks who has over
6,500 stores worldwide bought out
Seattles Best Coffee, however the
brand still remains untouched and
unchanged.
Genevieve went on to say, “I found
that Seattles Best had a wonderful
flavour, not at all bitter, quite mild
and smooth.”
So with the coffee finally in place
the next item on the list was food.
“We knew from the outset that the
food had to be exceptional as Ryde
is very competitive when it comes
to food.
“Because we have not got a
kitchen (only a prep area), we had
to think very carefully what type of
food we could prepare within the
limited preparation space we have,
so putting together a menu was
rather a challenge. .
“Our remit for the food was that
it had to be made locally wherever
possible, and like the coffee had to
be one of the best in town.
“We spent many long months
looking for suppliers with the right
quality products and in the end I
think we struck the right balance.
“Many of our cakes such as
carrott cake, passion cake, victoria
sandwich, and coffee & walnut
cake come from Grannie Annies, a
well established small island baker.
Things such as our fillings for the
paninis and baguettes are sourced
locally wherever possible, and we
use the best produce available, it’s

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