Martin Homer was one of the first people to settle in Harbour Village and his coffee has quite a strong following. In the spring of 2015, he opened Mocha Mondo and faithful customers who frequented his previous location were eager to follow him.
Homer’s coffee business initially targeted commuters who were on their way to catching trains in Alnmouth. His initial offering consisted of freshly brewed flat whites and lattes and while the new location has come with a much slower pace, the output has increased significantly.
At the Alnmouth station, Homer’s coffee had already established a reputation for its quality and this definitely left an impression on many people. His past regular customers knew him for always having their coffee ready when they got to the station, just in time to hand it to them as they rushed to catch the train.
Despite the location’s success, Homer’s interest in, not just brewing, but roasting the coffee as well is what would lead him to set up shop in Amble. Because many of the businesses in the village are relatively small and experimental, he knew his coffee shop would fit right in.
A few years later and it’s already clear that the challenge has paid off. The Mocha Mondo now boasts a flapjack oven and a milkshake blender apart from the coffee machine and thanks to the success of the business, Homer is now considering diversifying the goods on offer.
Apart from a unique single origin chocolate, the Mocha Mondo also offers specialty coffee beans. The roasted beans are provided to shops in packets and he also gets wholesale orders from cafes and restaurants. The ‘Roasted and Posted’ venture is intended to make it even easier for customers to purchase coffee beans. The mail order service will allow customers to email their orders for chocolate and coffee beans and make the payments online. The goods will then be delivered by post.
As part of his team, Homer now has five staff working part-time at the shop and he’s hoping this will allow him to dedicate his time and energy to other sections of his business such as his chocolate lines. He claims that his shop is the only one in Northumberland that makes chocolate bars from scratch at the moment. The shop receives many different types of customers from those rushing in for their regular orders to those who just pop in looking for something warm to drink. The Pod is open every day from 10 am to 3 pm.