Wild Heart comes from the shores of Strangford Lough in Newtownards Co. Down and the two souls that are at the heart of this roastery are Sam and Chris.
Sam is head roaster- he started his roasting career at home about 5 years ago when he turned a barbecue oven into a roaster and fell in love when the results took his breath away! Chris is the resident barista, coffee lover, and you may also recognise him as the current Aeropress champion in Northern Ireland!
Their goal is to increase awareness of specialty coffee, especially the journey and all the hard work that goes into its creation. Wild Hearts strives to communicate to its customers the journey their coffee beans have to take before they reach the final cup-the effort that needs to be invested in each aspect of the coffee bean's life cycle, from growing, to harvesting, to processing, and that's even before it gets exported. At the same time, they want to support the farmers from whom they source their green coffee and help them improve their standard of living and conditions through their production. They strongly believe in creating strong and long-lasting relationships with specific producers, which allows them to know exactly where their coffee is coming from.
Wild Hearts are still quite a fresh addition to the family of Irish coffee roasters, and jumped into the industry right bang centre of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, and they have absolutely no regrets in doing so! At their core, Wild Heart is about making the perfect coffee, building community relationships and ensuring everything they do is as sustainable and ethical as possible. The roastery is based on a former farm and a quirky fact is that their whole roastery is powered by electricity from a local wind turbine! The Wild Heart boys are also very conscious of the environment and sustainability, which has led them to develop strategies to ensure all their packaging is recyclable and reusable, from coffee roasting to sales.
It hasn't been too long since they've come onto the coffee scene, but thus far they seem to be loving every moment of this new adventure and we cannot wait to see what's to come in the next months and years from these wild-at-heart boys!!
