SMELL
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PROOF MAGAZINE
24
“Go on, have a taste.”
“No, not like that. A real
taste, not a baby sip…
There you go.”
“So, what do you think?”
What do I think? I think that I
might have just had the most divine
cappuccino in my life.
A spontaneous decision led me to visit Wyndhams
Bajan Crafted Roasters, a beautiful, coffee brewery
tucked away on the South Coast of Barbados. I was
doing research on an article about the coffee culture
in Barbados and of course, no article about the local
coffee scene would be complete without an interview
with owner of Wyndhams, Dominic Gittens.
We had a fantastic, early-morning phone interview,
and when we were wrapping up, Dominic posed a very
pertinent question to me: “But how can you write an
article about coffee without letting me make you a cup?”
And that’s how on a Thursday morning in the
middle of April, I started my day with the most
delicious, beautiful, refreshing cup of coffee.
It might seem a little strange to refer to a hot
coffee beverage as refreshing, but according to
Dominic, it actually makes perfect sense.
“What if I told you that you could make a delicious
brewed coffee that is sweet and creamy, with the
slightest aroma of fresh fruit, zero trace of bitterness
and requiring absolutely no milk or sugar?” he asked
with a small smile. “You’d probably say I’m crazy, right?
HISTORY
The coffee plant, which was discovered in
Ethiopia in the 11th Century, has a white
blossom that smells like jasmine and a red,
cherry-like fruit. Back then, the leaves of
the so-called “magical fruit” were boiled
in water and the resulting concoction was
thought to have medicinal properties.
But with the right training, equipment and
understanding of coffee, you could do just that.”
For Dominic, coffee is not just a hobby
or a profession; it’s a passion. “My wife and I
have devoted much of our professional life to
educating the public about coffee” said Dominic,
“ideally we want both
consumers and the people who
make the beverage, to truly
understand what goes into
making a good cup of coffee,
because it is an extremely
complex product.”
Wyndhams roasts and packages their
coffee fresh to order, using carefully vetted
sources and in-season, specialty grade beans.
The beans are certified organic, fair trade and
whenever possible, regionally sourced. For the
uninitiated (like myself), coffee roasting is the
process that transforms green coffee beans into
the beautiful, chocolate-coloured coffee beans,
that we are familiar with. The roasting process