Will Greavner, head of sensory and quality control at Butterworth & Son in Bury St Edmunds, finds a link between coffee and Chanel’s Antaeus

Will Greavner is Butterworth & Son’s head of sensory and quality control and he has two passions – coffee and fragrance. To that end, his favourite coffee is a pour over or filter coffee and his favourite perfume is Chanel’s Antaeus. Here he tells us how his passions combine in his job.

On September 14, I visited the Bristol Beacon as a first-time competitor for the SCA Cup Tasters Competition.

This is a national event where competitors are given four sets of three cupping bowls (called a triangulation) with one of the bowls being a different coffee to the other two. The aim is to correctly identify the odd one out in the fastest time possible over the four sets.

There are four heats; Bristol, two in London and Manchester. The top 36 from the heats will go through to the finals in Glasgow next year.

I finished my heat in eighth position and am now waiting for the last heat to conclude to see if I’m through to the finals.

I feel incredibly privileged to have had the opportunity to compete in a national coffee competition. I was a full-time barista for many years and fell in love with coffee. I did, however, eventually reach a point where I felt I had done all I could within that line of work. Luckily (in the case of coffee), the industry is full of variety and opportunity.

When I was a full-time barista, another passion had been percolating alongside coffee. My focus had turned to collecting fragrances, which soon led to a curiosity in how I could make them for myself. I began studying raw materials and making perfumes from the tiny desk in my bedroom at the time.

This love for fragrance (and by extension, flavour) has had a huge influence on me and enables me to make broad comparisons and interpretations when tasting coffee. After discovering this fortunate crossover of fragrance and flavour, I was keen to take my experience further.

The next step for me was joining the team at Butterworth & Son Coffee Roasters. I had been using their coffee for all of my years as a barista and felt I could put my skills to good use. They took me on as their head of sensory and quality control. This would facilitate my growth and allow me to flex my olfactory muscles. I could finally implement my skills within my full-time job, indulging in both my passion for caffeine and cologne.

Working at Butterworth & Son continues to be a fantastic opportunity for me and remains incredibly refreshing, especially after working in catering for almost a decade. I never thought I’d be eligible to compete in the big competitions, this is to say: I urge anybody with the means to have a go and get yourself involved. I’ve now been able to represent myself and a local, family-run business in Butterworth & Son, which is an achievement within itself.

I’ve since learned to only be in competition with myself – to push myself and to keep improving. Progress is the measure of success in my eyes, not the place you finish. Compete because you enjoy the journey and not because you want a place on the podium. The competition isn’t a means to an end, it should be used as a fantastic opportunity to grow and experience a small corner of the giant industry that is coffee.

Butterworth & Son coffee roasters and tea smiths are based on Moreton Hall, Bury St Edmunds

Visit www.butterworthandson.co.uk

Owner Rob Butterworth’s job takes him around the world visiting coffee farmers to source great coffees