Welcome to the first of a series of interviews to some of our dearest clients around the world. Today, we’ll be traveling to Dunlop in Scotland to visit Morven & Piero, the founders of Idle Hands Shop & Bakery.
What is the story of Idle Hands Shop & Bakery?
We (Morven and Piero) opened Idle Hands Shop & Bakery in June 2019 when the little space below our house became available. Being in a small village, it seemed quite risky to open with specialized products, but everyone has been so encouraging and supportive it has been better than we could have imagined.
There are queues waiting on us opening, and it stays busy right until we close, with people traveling to us for the cakes, bread, interesting groceries and of course, great coffee! We only open at weekends. Not because there wouldn’t be the need for us to open throughout the week, but the volume of goods we need to produce just for Friday to Sunday is so huge we couldn’t do it every day. There are only two of us doing everything and it’s hard but really enjoyable work. When Covid restrictions are lifted we will be able to employ some people to help with the workload.
Why did you choose Mokaflor?
We chose Mokaflor because we instantly loved the packaging and knew how good it would look on our shelves. It comes from our favourite city, Florence, and when we read about Mokaflor’s history and that is was founded by Vasco Bernini, we felt a little connection as Vasco is the name as our son. But most importantly, when we sampled it we really loved it. It just seemed the perfect coffee for us to have as it ticked all the boxes.
Which Mokaflor coffee is your client’s favorite?
The “black” 100% arabica is probably the fastest to sell, but our customers like to try all the blends and will report back on the ones they like best. The customers who really like their coffee will choose Mokaflor for their home brewing – they want a good strong flavour, not just something that gives the ‘aroma’ of coffee without any of the kick.
Your personal favorite coffee extraction method?
At Idle Hands we use a classic Gaggia – it’s not the most modern machine and it makes Piero do all the work, but it’s trustworthy, has served us very well and up to thousands of espressos. We have lots of spare parts just in case something goes wrong, as we don’t want to say goodbye to our pale blue workhorse.
As soon as we can travel again, we’ll be visiting Piero’s family in Tuscany and would love to pay Mokaflor a visit and spend some time at the Espresso Academy.
