Tom Saxon has been working in the coffee industry for over 10 years. He has worked as a barista, coffee roaster, coffee buyer and a coffee writer. Read More

Education

• Manchester University

• Keele University

Contact

• Email: tom@batchcoffee.co.uk

• Linkedin: Tom’s Linkedin Profile

• Twitter: @Tombatchuk

Recent Batch Coffee Club Articles

Growing up in the UK Tom didn’t really have a great deal of exposure to coffee, with both parents your stereotypical tea drinkers.

However, coffee was always present in Tom’s early twenties but he had never really questioned what quality coffee was and took it as a bitter, burnt tasting drink that gave you a bit of a boost when you’re tired.

This was until Laura (Tom’s ‘slowly becoming coffee-obsessed’ girlfriend) and Tom arrived in Australia and he discovered the passion and infatuation that pretty much every Aussie has with coffee.

Tom was well and truly hooked when he tried his first pour over; a naturally processed African coffee at a hipster cafe in Sydney.

He knew then that he wanted to dive into the fantastic world of specialty coffee.

After quitting his job he took a role as a Barista at one of Sydney’s top specialty coffee shops where he would later become a coffee roaster and really started to explore the complexity and artistry of coffee and really honed his expertise in the industry.

After almost 5 years in Australia, Tom had a thirst to visit where all of this delicious drink was actually coming from. No better place to start than Latin America. First, stop Guatemala.

Tom spent over a year travelling down the continent and into South America, with each country having a slightly different relationship with coffee.

It was a once in a lifetime experience and an insight into the connections that the farmers have with coffee and a part of the process that most people know little about.

A coffee farm was visited in each country, from the dizzy Andean peaks of Bolivia up to the sweltering cowboy vistas of Cuba.

A month volunteering on a coffee farm in Colombia really shaped Tom’s coffee career and opened his eyes to the reality of coffee production.

Returning to the UK it was clear to see that the coffee scene had evolved in the 6 years he was away and coffee culture was now here to stay.  

Tom jumped straight back into the coffee scene, roasting for an independent coffee roastery in Manchester while discovering as many coffee brands in the UK as he could.

This led him to start Batch Coffee Club and share his coffee expertise.

Tom is now in charge of sampling coffee and selecting the pair of single origin coffees that feature in each fortnightly coffee club box.