This photo was taken in June of 2009, shortly after myself & @mrstephenleighton had pulled off something of an unlikely coup by taking home 4th place at the World Barista Championship in Atlanta. In truth, having had only a year's experience as a barista I was very much a conduit for Steve's knowledge & tucked in behind the quality of the coffee from Machacamarca that he sourced from Bolivia.

52 countries competed at the world championships in 2009 but knowing Steve had my back meant I could walk confident amongst the best in the world that year*.

A few months later we opened our first shop in the lobby of the Twisted Pepper on Abbey street, Steve came on as my business partner and in the years that followed we opened more shops, won more competitions & started a 3fe coffee roastery of our own as our wholesale and online sales began to grow. He's always been an integral part of our business and a great friend to boot.

Today I have some very exciting news to let you all in on, in light of Steve's recent decision to move on from his old business in the UK. As of this week we're delighted to announce that @mrstephenleighton has been appointed as our full time Green Buyer at 3fe and will also be helping out with some webshop, social media and other bits we can find a use for him with.

He's always been a huge part of the business but to have him on board as a fully fledged member of the 3fe team is quite the coup for us all & a massive statement as we look to grow the business in the coming months and years.

What it also means for 3fe is that we will be doing more direct trading with coffee producers, ensure more transparency & relationship building with our green buying and we'll undoubtedly all see the benefit of that in the cup.

This also means more containers turning up in Glasnevin from the producers we'll be working with, so unfortunately there's going to be more lifting too but we think it's just about worth it.

Steve has always chosen every coffee that has come to 3fe so nothing will change there but we have plans afoot to further improve and diversify what we do @3fecoffee

- Colin

*helped in no small part by @davidofwalsh 📸