A very warm welcome to the first article in our new "Proper People by LANX" blog.
The idea of ‘shopping local’ and community spirit has never been more significant than now, and so we thought we would share with you some "proper people". Individuals, companies and things we find and deem to be right good and proper. Anything and everything associated with designing, making, distilling and creating that makes us feel proud about being from Lancashire, England and Great Britain. Whoever it is, we want you to know about them as a way of spreading a little bit of wholesomeness.
We found it fitting to begin our ‘Proper People’ feature with something that most of us begin every day with: a proper cuppa. In fact, that is just what Atkinson’s Coffee Roasters has been offering since 1837, and as one of the only surviving original Tea & Coffee merchants left in Lancaster they have evidently been doing it properly.
We came across Atkinson's a little over a year ago when mooching around Manchester and stumbling across their coffee shop at the popular Mackie Mayors food hall. After tasting their coffee and reading up on them we have loved their ethos ever since. We see a few parallels between ourselves and Atkinson’s: we both produce a traditional crafted product that has been a prominent industry in Britain for hundreds of years, and we continue to develop that product for modern men and women. Shoes and coffee are of course very different things, but the same philosophies are there.
Atkinson’s realised early on that a good brew was ‘a staple that was also an affordable luxury’ and have brought that same thirst into the 21st Century. While other merchants fell victim to changing trends, Atkinson's have survived two world wars and countless recessions by sticking to their guns and never compromising on the quality of their product. Paying homage to founder Thomas Atkinson's original mission statement "The Grasshopper only eats the Finest of Leaves", this modern day family of roasters like to personally visit the origin of their beans, in places such as Costa Rica and Rwanda, perusing their product at source and bringing that knowledge and experience back home to their Lancastrian baristas.
They boast a few statistics that made us appreciate the effort that goes into a coffee. For example, it takes 400 man-hours to produce a pound of coffee beans, and to learn the craft of roasting takes around 10,000 hours! It’s a few things to bear in mind while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil. Now with four shops in and around their home town, us Lancastrians are never too far away from a decent brew and a nice trip to the seaside.
If you’d like to learn more about Atkinson’s, have a read through their website below, and take a look into their subscription service if you’re fond of a regularly filled teapot.
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To read more articles from our Proper People blog please click here. If you would like your company or idea to feature in our blog and social media please email hello@lanxshoes.com and let us know a bit about what you do and what makes you "proper".
Thanks for reading.