Name:
Chris Tough
Age:
37
Job title:
Coffee buyer & taster
Company and location:
Lincoln & York, Brigg
Education:
Degree in Business and Marketing Management
Favourite food/drink:
Coffee (obviously), red wine, Guinness and pizza
What inspired you to enter F&B?
I did my degree in Business & Marketing at Sunderland University and in my third year, I was offered the chance to do a placement year at Young’s Seafood in Grimsby.
It was at Young’s that I established my love for food and drink. Working across various categories and understanding more about processing and manufacturing was all fascinating and, in a lot of ways, shares many similarities with the coffee supply chain.
Tell us about your role:
My role as a coffee buyer and taster spans both the commercial and manufacturing sides of the business. I’m one of Lincoln & York’s three registered Q Graders, which we like to describe as the coffee version of a sommelier, and our team are responsible for tasting and assessing up to 200 cups of coffee a day to ensure quality and consistency for our customers. Our tasting skills also enable us to blend match existing coffees as well as developing and creating delicious bespoke blends of our own from scratch.
On the commercial side, me and the team always have eyes on the coffee market so we can advise our customers on what to buy and when. The coffee market has been extremely volatile over the past three years and since December has seen record high pricing levels. Consistently monitoring the market enables us to help our customers navigate the situation.
I also meet regularly with customers to discuss their coffee needs, helping to understand their blends and ensure they have all the information they need to share the stories behind their coffee and where it comes from.
What does a typical day look like?
I arrive at the office around 8.30am and take the first half hour or so to catch up on any emails received overnight. As a global business, working with suppliers and traders across the world, it’s not unusual to receive emails at all hours of the day and night.
Next, the full coffee team attends our daily production meeting. As a business operating on a short lead time of just two weeks, we need to understand any changes in demand from our customers and see if there are any urgent requirements to ensure our customers don’t go out of stock.
Each day we speak to our customers and have calls with our coffee traders to ensure we have the latest updates on the coffee market. Between these meetings, we can be found in the tasting lab, quality testing the previous day’s coffee to make sure it meets our standards as well as checking all of the pre shipment and arrival samples that come in for roasting.
How did you get to where you are today?
If I’m being entirely honest, I’d have to say by chance! I started my career in marketing and spent 10 years in this field working with some well-known retail food brands.
In 2018, I fell into the world of coffee at Lincoln & York and was instantly hooked. Learning about the process of bean to cup and all of the different touch points through the process fascinated me.
I did two years in marketing here at Lincoln & York before a Friday afternoon chat with the then coffee buyer & owner of the company resulted in me stepping into the coffee team. After studying for my Q exams over the next 12 months, I then became the business’ new coffee buyer and a registered Q grader.
I now manage the whole coffee team and oversee the process of roasting 10,000 tonnes of green coffee and tasting over 40,000 cups of coffee a year.
When you’re having a bad day, what cheers you up?
A bad day in the office is solved with a great cup of coffee made on our amazing Cimbali machine, followed by a nice glass of Valpolicella when I get home. At home I have two young children, aged six and one, who never fail to keep me busy and can always cheer me up.
What’s your favourite part about the sector?
I really enjoy being involved in the supply chain and manufacturing process. Not many roles give you the opportunity to visit growers at origin, in incredible places like Brazil and Peru, and understand the whole coffee supply chain.
I’m also really proud of the work we do here at Lincoln & York in ensuring the quality of products that our customers receive. Our coffee is assessed and tasted at every stage of its creation, making sure we are always offering the best possible product and producing coffee we can be truly proud of.
If you could change one thing about the F&B sector what would it be?
I feel there is work to be done to help consumers gain an understanding of complex food and drink products and the supply chains behind them. It’s easy to sometimes forget just how much goes into the bag of coffee on a supermarket shelf or the takeaway flat white you pick up on the way to work. Communicating the work that goes into these products will help consumers understand their complexity and in turn foster greater appreciation for high quality coffee.
What’s next for you/what’s the dream?
Lincoln & York is very proud to be working with Omwani Coffee Co and Migoti Coffee to fund the construction of a community water reservoir to bring clean, drinkable water to hundreds of families within the coffee farming community of Kinama in Burundi. I would love to visit the project and see first-hand the impact it is having on the farmers and their families.