A coffee break with...

Lynsey Harley
Founder, Modern Standard Coffee

What does your job typically entail?
It’s a mix of sales, marketing, finance and firefighting. I’m not someone content with just doing one thing – if I don’t have four things on the go, I feel out of sorts. I got into the coffee industry because I loved the social aspect of coffee, and for me as a young 20-something, I was able to travel and that was exciting.

Now, I’m doing basically no travel which was a large part of my job before; visiting producers at origin and customers in the UK and Europe. I spend that time now with my staff doing a lot of education and passing on my knowledge and experience, which is going to pay dividends for Modern Standard.

How did you get into the industry?
When I was at university, I had a part-time job as a barista. When I moved to London after university, I wasn’t still quite sure what I wanted to do. I ended up taking a job at Fernandez & Wells in Beak Street, Soho. It was voted Timeout’s best café in London, so working there was pretty cool. However, after a few months living on minimum wage in London, I realised I needed to earn more, so I e-mailed a bunch of coffee roasters asking if they had any positions open and I received a response within an hour.

What’s your favourite part of your working day?
Cupping coffees first thing in the morning. I enjoy the process of quality control as it’s quite a good way to start the day. It’s a bit like mindfulness, when you are trying to just focus on the coffee and note it’s character and flavour profile.

And your least favourite?
Doing the boring but necessary stuff – but I won’t bore you with the details!

What’s your favourite food and beverage?
Ramen and coffee, of course. I have a slight obsession with good ramen, my favourite place is Slurp in Copenhagen and Momofuku in New York. Slurp, in particular, has one of the most flavourful broths I’ve ever had, it’s utterly delicious. I usually spent a few days in Copenhagen a month, pre-Covid-19, of course, and I had a little routine. I would purposely go to Slurp on my own, as it was on a first come basis, and there was usually a seat for one, so I could jump the queue on those cold evenings and warm up with a bowl of ramen.

And your least favourite?
I like most foods, but if I had to choose it would be tofu. And my least favourite beverage would be bad coffee.

What one piece of advice would you offer someone working in the industry?
Take your time and do your stints in different businesses – large, small, commercially focused and disrupters. It gives you a broad appreciation of all the things you need to have experienced to add value to wherever you work next. I see a lot of people I used to work with just moving on after a few years, like a merry-go-round, and I often think it’s because they’ve not stayed long enough somewhere to truly understand what made that business.