Goodbeans: Great cold brew sprouting out of Hackney

Rosa Escoda the co-founder of Goodbeans. Credit: Solomon Elliott

For many devoted coffee drinkers cold brew is still a step too far. Rosa Escoda co-founder of the cold brew start up Goodbeans aims to end this.

The founders of Goodbeans, which was set up in 2014, say they produce a “damn good cold brew coffee by brewing coffee beans in cold water, producing a smooth, aromatic and delicious ready-to-go drink.”

Graduating as a Cambridge politics student Escoda followed the typical Oxbridge conveyor belt to big business working for Apple as a business recruiter for six years.

Her career aspirations took off in a dramatic new direction during a trip to San Francisco in 2012 with her childhood friend Becky Neale.

While in California the pair realised “that despite its popularity abroad, finding a decent iced coffee in the UK was near-on impossible. Bringing the smooth cold brew style to London became a no-brainer.”

Escoda and Neale “just decided to go for it, forming Goodbeans as an independent, local cold brew distributor.

Escoda’s driving ambition was to “invest my time to positively impact the world.”

Goodbeans achieves this by teaming up with local schemes including Hackney Laces, a football empowerment charity. One of their players, Chloe, is now being trained by Goodbeans on an internship. She is learning a range of skills “from the art of cold brew to softer skills like customer service and speaking to strangers.”

Escoda told Eastlondonlines Goodbeans cold brew can be drunk “straight up, on the rocks or paired with other ingredients and liqueurs to make a cool coffee cocktail.”

They have expanded out of Hackney and Tower Hamlets and are now stocked by prestigious food venues including Borough Market and Selfridges Food Hall.

Yet for Escoda these achievements still do not match the “crazy, exhausting and exhilarating” Goodbeans launch at the 2014 Coffee Festival held at Brick Lane’s The Old Truman Brewery.

Escoda is currently busy creating 3,000 bottles in a three-person production team including her two interns. For the future, Escoda is focused on “getting Goodbeans to more people” but the challenge remains scaling the business in a “conscientious way”.

In her spare time Escoda is an actor and model and is one of the faces of Skype and McDonald’s most recent advertising campaigns. Perhaps she might use these skills for Goodbeans’ future marketing drives.

Goodbeans sells its produce at the following locations in Tower Hamlets and Hackney:

Albion Shoreditch

2-4 Boundary Street

London E2 7DD

As Nature Intended (Spitalfields)

The Exchange Building

132 Commercial Street

London E1 6NG

Beagle Coffee

397-400 Geffrye Street,

London E2 8HZ

Sorry Coffee CO @ Kit and Ace