YOU wouldn't expect coffee to be made in Harrogate - but Taylors tea and coffee merchants have been hand growing their own blend for the last eight years.

Unfortunately, this has only made enough for eight cups of coffee - so there is still a long way to go before they can supply their famous Bettys chain of tearooms!

Coffee buyer Mike Riley managed to bring a small, six-month-old coffee cutting back to Harrogate eight years ago from Jamaica's Blue Mountains and has been cultivating it in a purpose-built "tropical house" in the Taylors factory ever since.

This year it has borne fruit of 300 coffee "cherries" - which encase the beans.

They have been picked and processed before being medium roasted.

Updated: 11:25 Friday, May 03, 2002