Sara Tait and Euan Smith spent seven years planning before opening The Orkney Roastery in 2016, on an industrial estate at Hatston outside Kirkwall. Roaster Roger, who joined to work alongside Euan, now leads the day-to-day roasting, working specialty green beans in small batches of no more than ten kilograms at a time. The roastery supplies its own Aria-brand coffee to cafes, restaurants and hotels across the islands rather than serving customers from a shopfront; orders are otherwise placed through its online shop. Profiles are developed bean by bean rather than to a house style, with an emphasis on keeping the whole process hands-on. It is one of only a handful of coffee roasters working from the Northern Isles, and Orkney venues serving Aria coffee credit it by name on their menus.
Surveyed