Wellingborough roastery's coffee to boost Lions in South Africa tour

An award-winning Northamptonshire coffee roaster is hoping their special blend of beans will spur the British and Irish Lions rugby team on to victory in their next matches.

The Roastery, a small batch, organic coffee roaster based in Wellingborough s Nene Court in The Embankment had been picked to become the coffee supplier to the squad for their tour of South Africa.

Working with numerous British and Irish rugby players over the years, The Roastery was reached out to directly to supply their coffee and machines from parent company Bella Barista to keep the players in quality beverages.

The Roastery managing director Marcel Binley said: “It is an honour and a pleasure for The Roastery to supply the coffee for the tour.

"Integrity, passion and respect are key features of this sport, and they match our company’s values. Great coffee and great sport have become synonymous over the last few years, we have been building this link within the rugby world for many years now and we are delighted to have been asked to supply the coffee for the Lions Tour."

With Covid restriction still in place whilst they are touring South Africa, the team are having to remain in camp when visiting many of the different regions.

Sarecens' Jamie George and Elliot Daly have been acting as head baristas, with the team holding a coffee club to ensure they have a supply of their favourite hot drinks.

Elise Porter, marketing said: "Over the years we have built a strong relationship with The Saints rugby team, who have our coffee equipment in their changing room and drink our coffee to power them though their matches and training.

"From this, we started working with The Saints Foundation, a charity inspiring, supporting and educating the young people in our community. The young people involved worked with us to create their own coffee blend, which is now known as ‘Marching In’, and £2 of every kilo sold goes to the charity."

Family business Bella Barista was founded in 1998, springing up from Towability that converts and builds catering trailers. Many of the mobile units were fitted with commercial coffee machines which led to the company becoming a supplier for high café-quality espresso machines home use.

Customers would visit the showroom and enjoy the buying experience learning about the machines and receive barista training. To continue this relationship, The Roastery was founded in 2014 to offer customers pick of the crop Arabica single-origin coffee, freshly roasted.

The business has gone from strength to strength, supplying many local coffee shops, cafes and restaurants with our freshly roasted coffee as well as individuals all over the UK with their coffee subscription service.

Elise added: "We have a really good relationship with the Saints working with Dylan Hartley and George North and we've been into an England camp. It is an accolade to be asked to supply the coffee."

The British and Irish Lions continue their three match series of games against the Springboks tomorrow (July 31) at 5pm in Cape Town, with the Lions one-nil up.