This is a story of two traveling adventurers who poured their hearts into Whitley Bay’s first speciality coffee shop.

Australia Day 2017, we set off from Perth WA on two motorcycles, heading towards the UK. We couldn’t have known at this point the epic journey that was in store for us.

Riding through Indonesia drinking a filtered coffee called ‘sock coffee’, we realise there’s more to coffee than Australia’s coffee culture. Soon after, we see our first coffee plant growing wildly in Timor-Leste — exciting times!

We meet a Luwak on Gili Islands, the animal that creates expensive coffee beans! Kopi Luwak is considered to be the world's most exclusive coffee, mostly because of it’s unusual method of production. Google it!

In Mongolia, we have our first coffee brewed by syphon, just before we headed off to spend a week with reindeer Nomads.

We get to Veronika’s parents in Slovakia and winter the bikes. We spent a long, cold winter planning and researching for our future business, drinking lots of Turkish coffee, and doing some snowboarding.

We fly to Florence, Italy to meet some pretty cool and knowledgeable people that teach us a lot about coffee. We drank tons of espresso, and fell in love with pour over brews.

We get the keys to 28 Park View, and the building work on Rustic Cup begins.

The Cafe Racer, the masterpiece, and the Coffee Machine arrive as we gear up towards our long-awaited opening.

Rustic Cup opens, and we couldn’t be happier to be living our dream as owners of Whitley Bay’s first speciality coffee shop.

Five weeks after opening, COVID hits the UK, and we’re forced to close our doors as the country enters lockdown.

After a turbulent first few months in business, we’re again forced to close our doors as the UK enters it’s second lockdown.

We slowly start to rebuild after what was a tricky first year in business. With the help of our epic team, and the support of our wonderful coastal community, we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Celebrating 4 years of business, still making awesome coffee.