Last month, after discovering @coffeebeanshouse on Instagram1, I had the opportunity to visit Ingrid at her premises in Athy and chat with her about her business and her passion for coffee and tea.
From Klaipėda to Kildare
For Ingrid, the story of Coffee Beans House is about more than selling coffee and tea. It is a story of determination, independence and a genuine love of what she does, as well as the relationships she has built with customers over the years.
Originally from Klaipėda in western Lithuania, Ingrid moved to Ireland in 2004 with her partner, Andrius. They initially settled in Kilmacrenan, County Donegal, where Andrius had found work near Letterkenny. Ingrid arrived speaking no English, but she was determined to learn. After more than a year in Donegal, the couple decided to move to Dublin.
In Lithuania, Ingrid had worked as a bartender, and when they relocated from Donegal to Swords, she found employment in a fruit and vegetable factory. Although she was glad to have work, many of the workers conversed in Russian, and she began to question whether this is what she had come to Ireland for, “I want to get to know the people of Ireland and learn about life here”. Determined to learn English, she took the initiative to ask her managers if she could speak with them more often. Her efforts paid off – she learned to speak English fluently and eventually became a supervisor. It was an early example of the determination that would later shape her own business.
After the birth of their son, Airidas3, the family moved to Naas, where they lived for about two years. They moved to Athy in 2009. Andrius worked in construction, initially around Carlow and Kilkenny, and later for an Irish company on projects in Poland. His work meant he would sometimes be away for two months at a time, leaving Ingrid to manage life in Ireland. When he returned, together they gradually settled into their new home. In 2013, their daughter, Amanda, was born, and as their family grew, Ingrid began thinking about starting a business of her own.
Coffee Beans House Café
In October 2016, Ingrid opened her coffee business in Naas. The idea grew partly from her experience of coffee culture in Lithuania, where small shops selling coffee and tea were a familiar part of everyday life. She felt there were fewer such places in Ireland and saw an opportunity to bring something of that experience here.
The COVID pandemic brought a major change, and with the additional pressure of increased rent, Ingrid had to close the original café. Rather than abandoning the business, she adapted and continued operating from home, initially storing stock in her sitting room and organising deliveries from there.
Following the closure of the café, Ingrid adapted the business to online sales, while maintaining the personal service that had been central to its original offering. Some of the people who had shopped with her at the café continued to order online. These former customers remained regulars, and since COVID, Ingrid has delivered her customers’ favourite coffee and tea to their doors. She delivers around County Kildare approximately once a month. Orders from further afield are posted.
Coffee Beans House Today
Coffee Beans House is currently celebrating ten years in business, and is now predominantly online. If you are lucky, you may catch the 20% off deal which runs until the 13th of October!
Ingrid imports products from across the world such as Germany, Lithuania and Poland, and stocks coffee beans and teas to artisan bakery and café, An Tearmann in Kilcullen and the gluten- and dairy-free café, Daily Dose in Abbeyleix. She also prepares Christmas hampers and previously participated regularly in seasonal markets around Ireland.
Her stock is now housed in an industrial estate in Athy, where customers can also visit by appointment. Those who prefer to shop in person can browse the available products and smell the coffees and teas before making their selections. As Ingrid also helps with her husband Andrius’s flooring business, Fix Fella, she is not always on the premises, so visits need to be arranged in advance.
Coffee Beans House has a fantastic array of coffee beans, gourmet loose leaf teas, and infusions to choose from:
- Roasted coffee beans: including roasts from Brazil, Cuba, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and their own house blend
- Flavoured coffee beans: including flavours such as chocolate orange, tiramisu, hazelnut, caramel, strawberry cheesecake, Turkish honey, pistachio cream…
- Black tea: such as earl grey blue flower, peach/apricot, pomegranate + cranberry, blood orange, acai blueberry…
- Green tea: such as guava + mango, gunpowder, mint, fig, jasmine, lemon…
- Rooibos tea: plain or with flavours like lemon + ginger, blueberry yoghurt
- Herbal infusions: such as lavender, chamomile blossoms, mountain tea + citrus, chakra…
- Fruit infusions: such as Christmas mulled wine, Christmas berry, pineapple + coconut, wild cherry, strawberry + passionfruit…
Coffee Beans House has evolved considerably from its beginnings as a café. But Ingrid has found a way to continue supplying products she loves to customers who have remained loyal to her over the years.
She was recently asked, “why do you still run your business if your husband’s business is doing so well?”, to which she replied, “I just love it!” Ingrid’s enthusiasm came across throughout our conversation, reflecting a genuine passion for coffee, tea, and sharing that passion with customers in Kildare and beyond.🤍
- Which is beautifully styled by photographer @neringa_norman_photographer ↩︎
- ‘Quite summer evening in the port city Klaipeda’ by Mantas Volungevicius, 2014, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) ↩︎
- Named after the Lithuanian word for Ireland, Airija ↩︎
- Both photos kindly provided by Ingrid ↩︎
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