AFTER an intense year of local market research and professional training, Sadie Hopkins woke up and smelled the coffee.

Her training, which included a course at the London School of Coffee, readied her to open the York Coffee Emporium in High Petergate in February – with the help of what she dubs “the Tardis”.

That is a large coffee roasting machine that helps to process the finest grades of coffee designed for every palate. The coffee is then sold either ground or as whole beans, depending on customers’ wishes. Nicaraguan and Central American coffee are special preferences.

Now Sadie is being nominated as Young Entrepreneur Of The Year and for New Business Of The Year.

The York Coffee Emporium is right next door to La Cremeria Ice Cream Parlour & Coffee House, which Sadie bought as a going concern in 2006.

After listening to what her customers wanted, she launched the York Coffee Emporium and on the back of the venture has become involved with a charity names Coffee Kids, set up by a coffee roaster to improve the education and medical care for growing coffee communities in Central America – and to help them diversify from the coffee harvest. It offers “micro credit” to women to help them start businesses.