Tasted by the experts, our ‘1690’, ‘Viking City Roast’, & ‘Copper Coast Roast’ Blends from Coffee House Lane were awarded Great Taste Stars in 2022

Coffee House Lane is a family run, artisan coffee producer based in Waterford. We hand-roast 100% of our beans here in the Déise & are proud to continue the tradition of coffee roasting in the county. Three of our Coffee House Lane blends have been named among the top food and drink producers globally this year, Viking City Roast picking up a highly prized 2-star as well as 1690 and Copper Coast Roast picking a 1-star Great Taste award.
More than 14,000 products were put through the competition’s rigorous blind judging process; and Coffee House Lane was dubbed “very smooth as an espresso, with milk, everything is further enlivened, delivering great balance” at the world’s most coveted food and drink awards. 4,078 products were awarded a Great Taste 1-star – ‘food and drink that delivers fantastic flavour’, 1,237 were awarded a Great Taste 2-star – ‘above and beyond delicious’, and 241 were awarded a Great Taste 3-star – ‘extraordinarily tasty food and drink’.
Our Coffee House Lane Blends was a big hit with the Great Taste judges, they talked about how they “really enjoyed” trying our coffee.
We believe that coffee should be nurtured through all stages of its journey from bean to cup and to see our Blends become 3 of 5,556 products to receive a Great Taste award in 2022 (which is only 39.1% of the total products entered).
What is Great Taste?
Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, values taste above all else. All products in the line-up for judging are blind tasted: every product is removed from its packaging so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process.
This year, the judging took place over 90 days across two judging locations (Dorset and London) with a panel of more than 500 judges. This year’s line-up saw food and drink products submitted from a staggering 110 different countries from across the world.
Mark Bergin, founder & owner of Coffee House Lane comments: “We are delighted to have won Great Taste awards for our ‘1690’, ‘Viking City Roast’, & ‘Copper Coast Roast’ Blends. I am so proud to be adding yet again the iconic black and gold Great Taste logo to our blends.”
Over 330 years ago, in 1690, Coffee House Lane, adjacent to the then busy trading port of Waterford, boasted what is long believed to be Ireland’s first ever coffee house. Green coffee was traded at the port, then roasted, brewed and sold at John Aikenhead’s Coffee House on what became Coffee House Lane of Waterford.

Our range is not just inspired by the name, but also by the ethos of coffee roasting and brewing back in 1690. This ethos is the cornerstone of our business – we select only the finest green arabica coffee beans from all over the world and slowly hand roast them, to a medium-dark roast in small batches, in our Toper Roasters here in Waterford. Our smooth and rich flavoured coffee is filled with heritage and know-how…We roast by sense; by watching, listening, smelling and tasting each and every roast, as roasters would have done in 1690.
We launched the business in 2014 to help meet the growing demand for quality coffee in the city. At that stage, myself and my father had been employed in the coffee industry for the best part of 20 years as agents for imported coffee brands. My father’s first job was with then local coffee roasters Chapman’s on The Quay in the early 1960’s, & since they closed in the 1990s there has been a serious lack of quality locally produced coffee. So, we decided to do it ourselves, and the rest is history! I must raise a mention to the Supervalu Food Academy, as being listed in Supervalu nationwide after only our first year of business was invaluable. Since then, we have made appearances in the Grow with Aldi programme, along with other Bord Bia Initiatives – again, which have been a great help. So, to be where we are today is just wonderful.
“Being recognised by Great Taste stars means so much to independent producers such as myself, as it makes all the hard work and determination worth it! Great Taste is the most recognised accolade for taste and quality in the food and drink world, so it really is a big win! Bergin concludes.
Our Coffee House Lane Blends are available on our website or in Supervalu nationwide, Musgraves Cash & Carry’s nationwide & Ardkeen Quality Food Store.
For more information about Coffee House Lane and our products visit www.coffeehouselane.ie