Irish Coffee Company Robert Roberts Launches New York Roast – first strength 6 coffee produced in Ireland
Robert Roberts has been selecting, blending and roasting the world’s finest coffee beans in Dublin since 1905. The company has just launched New York Roast, a dark roast coffee with rich cocoa overtones.
The coffee was developed in Dublin and has a rich dark roast to give an authentic New York experience and reflect the city’s love affair with strong deep coffee. It is the first Strength 6 coffee to be produced in Ireland and is made by expert coffee roasters, many from families that have worked with Robert Roberts for generations. New York Roast has a deep earthy flavour with no acidity and is a single origin coffee made with specially selected Mandheling Arabica beans from Sumatra, Indonesia. Strength 6 coffee has an extra strong flavour and packs a punch without containing any extra caffeine. This is achieved by a controlling the roast to 211ºC for exactly 11 minutes resulting in a dark roast and a deep strong earthy flavour.
Robert Roberts will be launching New York Roast at Taste of Dublin food festival 9-11 June 2011. It is available nationwide in Dunnes, Superquinn, Tesco and all good independents priced at EUR4.59 for 227g. Robert Roberts produces a wide range of premium coffees and teas and has won numerous prestigious awards including multi-star Great Taste Gold awards.
About Robert Roberts – An Irish Business with a Rich Heritage Robert Roberts premium award-winning teas and coffees have been produced in Dublin since 1905. The business is wholly Irish owned and has been based at Broomhill Road, Dublin 24 since 1989. It selects and buys premium coffee beans and teas from around the world; packs and blends a wide range of black, green, herbal and functional teas and expertly roasts coffee beans in the traditional way to produce a wide range of single origin and blended coffees. Robert Roberts is the legacy of two great Irish families – the Goodbodys and the Wardells. The Goodbody family were Quakers from Tullamore, Co. Offaly. The business was started by E Gaynor Goodbody following an apprenticeship at the famous Robert Roberts Cafe in Liverpool.
E Gaynor Goodbody returned to Ireland to set up a Robert Roberts cafe in Suffolk Street, Dublin and a bakery in South King Street. The famous cafe was a huge success and was frequented by leading businessmen and politicians.
A second Robert Roberts cafe was opened in Grafton Street in 1921. This cafe was a haunt of the intelligentsia. It boasted a string trio and often hosted private concerts. Lady Gregory used the café as a meeting point for her PEN literary society. Maud Gonne McBride would buy her coffee nowhere else. A third Robert Roberts Cafe was opened in Dame Street in the 1930s. In 1971 Robert Roberts Coffee business merged with another Irish Quaker business, the famous Baker Wardell tea company which was founded by John Wardell in the 1700s.
Robert Roberts Cafes closed in the 1970s when they fell prey to the harsh economic environment of that time. Robert Roberts was based in Francis Street in the Liberties, Dublin until late 1989 when it moved to its current premises in Broomhill Road, Dublin 24.
The company employs about 200 people and many come from families who have worked with Robert Roberts for generations.
Today in Robert Roberts, though much has changed, the company continues to live up to the high standards of its founders. The same attention is still paid to the blending of teas and roasting of coffees. The company continues to adhere to its original Quaker principles by taking a leading role in the Fairtrade organisation and supporting local and national charities.
