‘I Was Already Entrenched In Coffee; This Was More Like A Natural Progression Than A Lightning Bolt Of Inspiration’

“In 2008, three things came together”
for Australian Brock (Badger) Lewin: “marrying an Irish gal, moving from the
Melbourne scene to Ireland, and arriving pretty much the same time as Stephen
Morrissey won the World Barista Championships”.

Badger and Dodo are a coffee company that epitomise the traits of
Ireland’s burgeoning coffee industry: a community-connected boutique company
that focuses on quality and individuality over mass production, and involves
itself in every element of coffee brewing from beginning to end.

As well as roasting their own
direct-from-estate coffees and supplying it to cafés across the country, they
have highly-trained baristas who serve their coffee from their own place in
Galway, where they also run private barista training.

READ: 13 Reasons You Definitely Need To Head To The Dublin Coffee And Tea Festival This Weekend

They also sell from carts
in farmer’s markets in Cork and run an online shop. In addition to that, they
specialise in advising on coffee machines, and help cafés source equipment to lease or buy.

This focus on high training on
top of high quality is what makes Badger and Dodo unique, according to Lewin.
For example, “Elia who works with me to source, roast, cup and fine tune our
coffees has just qualified as Q grader [the highest. Elia is the second in Ireland ever to
do so, and the only one working for a micro roaster in Ireland.”

Their roaster,
called Dr O, is also one-of-a-kind in Ireland, and makes for sweet and clean
coffees.

This weekend at the Dublin
Coffee and Tea Festival, Badger and Dodo will be launching their new JAMJAR
blend, as well as showing off their signature customised machines.

• Badger and Dodo will be one of many exhibitors at the Dublin Coffee and Tea Festival this weekend in the RDS. For more information, click here.