Our Story

The Bean Around is a locally owned and operated, coffee-obsessed, family-run business with a Zimbabwean and Sicilian heritage. Sicilians are renowned for their love of a good espresso, whilst Zimbabweans have a do-it-right or don’t-do-it approach to life - this is a great melding of these two ‘groundings’.

“Success is never owned, it is only rented. And the rent is due everyday”

Randy Pausch

When I moved from Zimbabwe to the UK 20 years ago I was first introduced to the wonderful social aspect of drinking coffee. Sadly, Zimbabwe was not then known for it’s coffee-connoisseurship, in fact my formative years were spent making my parents cups of chicory instant coffee!! Now Zimbabwe have a wonderful medium-bodied Arabica coffee growing in the Chipinga region – but that’s a story for another day.

Back to the UK and I spent his first couple of years here drinking coffee for purpose rather than flavour and this was simply down to the fact that I did not know that coffee could taste amazing, but only if grown lovingly, roasted carefully and brewed by the hands of someone who really cares about coffee. So this was always my question, “Why do we pop into a coffee shops to meet friends or for a ‘morning fix’ and choose the shop because it is the closest rather than the best place for coffee?.”

Then one day, whilst preparing for a job interview, I passed a small gold Coffee kiosk and reached for a quick espresso to help me be super alert for my interview. The first sip of that espresso changed the direction of my life and started me on this journey of discovery and love affair with coffee. That sip caused me to cancel my interview and immediately apply to work in that very gold coffee kiosk.

The whole operation of that kiosk spoke of the gold-standard coffee served there – yes, that was AMT Coffee and it was to be my ‘home’ for the next 13 years, where I was able to hone and develop my coffee mastery and learn all aspects of the service industry – from being a Barista to Regional Operations Manager. It was a true journey of discovery and something for which I will be forever grateful. I then moved on to work with other international coffee and pastry companies but AMT will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Every day since that first sip the dream has been to serve the very best coffee in my own business, and although the Bean Around is small, the dream has begun and the reality is growing with every new and loyal ‘awesome’ customer we serve.

Thank you for showing an interest in our adventure and welcome to the journey.

Gareth & Family

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