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Sisters Beth and Hannah run Applaud Coffee – described as the best speciality coffee shop in Ipswich. And today they are celebrating its 10th birthday!
Are you Suffolk born and raised?
Yes, we are, and we love the Suffolk area – countryside and coast.
When did you open Applaud Coffee and what were you doing before?
We opened Applaud in 2013, so are celebrating our 10-year birthday this Summer. Before this Hannah worked as a freelance illustrator and Beth worked at Fine & Country in Woodbridge.
How have the past few (challenging) years been for Applaud Coffee?
We did various things over the lockdowns to keep things ticking over. We did online coffee workshops, coffee and cake deliveries and when we were able to re-open a lot of our regular customers came back quickly!
Would you like to give a shout out to local suppliers?
Yes. Rob at Butterworth & Son for sourcing an extensive range of consistently excellent coffee – he works directly with the coffee farmers.
What is particularly special about the coffee you use?
We have a four-bean blend which we use for all our espresso-based drinks, and our customers absolutely love it. It is a smooth and well-balanced coffee with notes of chocolate and nut, so it works perfectly as an espresso or with milk.
We feature single origin coffees on our batch brewing for filter coffee or cold brew depending on the season. We’ve currently got a coffee from Peru on the Cold Brew – this has flavour notes of sweet citrus and oranges, very refreshing.
It’s important to you to also offer creative workshops? And there are illustrated coffee prints to come?
There’s a lovely creative community in Ipswich and we love hosting workshops. We have a monthly drawing club which has a big following and we’re often told it is people’s favourite evening of the month. It’s always a welcoming and friendly group and coffee and cake is included too! We then host other workshops on Saturday afternoons and on weekday evenings – check out our website for what’s coming up!
How are you planning to celebrate the 10th birthday in July?
We’re celebrating our 10th Birthday on Wednesday 19th July – we will have live music in our courtyard garden and will be giving out our much loved birthday cookies.
What are your hopes and dreams for the future?
We are already doing what we love which is building community, making amazing coffee and baking delicious cakes…we always have ideas bubbling, so there is always new things to come!
Applaud Coffee can be found at 19 St Peter’s Street, Ipswich, IP1 1XF, and is open from Tuesday – Saturday, 8.30am – 4pm. Visit applaud-coffee.co.uk and @applaud_coffee on Instagram
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