The 22-year-old is on the look-out for more unique spaces to make coffee in with hopes of opening his own café
Meet the man from Northern Ireland who is making coffee in unique places – including on the London Underground.
Samuel Netherton from Lisburn studies actuarial science at Queen’s University Belfast, and was on his placement year in London when he fell in love with coffee and began learning how to improve his own coffee making.
Loving the connections to be made over a brew, the 22-year-old began to think of ways to spread this around and put a smile on people’s faces. He began to learn more about social media video making from friends, and decided to pair the passion for creating content with making a good cup of coffee.
Documenting his journey on TikTok @samsroamingcafe, Sam shared a video of him making free coffees on the Northern Line in London. So far, the video has been viewed almost 500,000 times.
Looking ahead, he’s hoping to find more random spaces to set up a coffee shop, with the hopes of owning his own café in the future.
Speaking to Belfast Live, he said: “I’ve always enjoyed going out for coffee with people, and the depth of conversations you can have when you go out for a coffee. Then when I went away to London, like a lot of people I helped myself through the 9 to 5 by drinking a lot of coffee.
“I decided to get myself a coffee machine to try and improve my coffee making, which was a slow process. A lot of friends I made in London do social media stuff, and I’ve always been interested in the filming, photography, and media side of things, as I do wedding photos and videos. So I decided I would pair the two ideas and passions into one.”
Sam said the idea to set up a coffee shop on the tube came from thinking about where the craziest place would be to set up a café in London. When he initially pitched the concept to friends, not many thought it could be done.
Facing a steely reaction of initial dirty looks from commuters on the busy tube, Sam soon found people lining up for a coffee when they were going from A to B.
“After a bit of research and investing in a generator which hurt the bank a bit, I set myself up in the tube and it was great. The response online has been amazing,” he said.
“When we first set up on the tube there were a lot of dirty looks, when people initially see someone doing this they probably think I’m doing something strange. For me in that moment, it’s like you can decide whether you go into your shell, or you can respond by matching and rising to it, which is what I did.
“Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and doing things you wouldn’t normally do is so great and freeing. It gives you so much confidence in all the areas of your life. After the slight awkwardness of setting up the coffee shop on the tube, we had our first customer which took a wee while.
“Once I made him the coffee, it seemed like everyone in the carriage wanted one, and it very quickly got busy. But the response was great and people were loving it, it helped put smiles on people’s faces, which was part of the reason I wanted to do it.”
The next stop for Sam’s coffee shop is the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland, where he is travelling with school friends with the boot of his car converted into a café.
He said a big part of the series he’s starting is documenting the conversations to be had over coffee and the experience towards setting up his own place, as well as highlighting the beautiful spots he travels to.
“I’m very excited about what there is to come, and all the different places I’m going to make coffee,” Sam added.
“I’m excited about documenting having great conversations with people over coffee, and documenting the journey of hopefully setting up my own coffee shop one day. Starting on day one, I think a lot of people like to see the process of things.”
He continued: “We’ve converted the boot of my car into a coffee shop and are going on the Wild Atlantic Way. We’re going to stop off at different points along the way, on the side of the road or the beach, to hopefully be able to capture how beautiful Ireland is while making coffee and chatting to people.”
Looking to future plans for random spaces to serve from, Sam said one plan in his mind would be to take to the skies and create a coffee shop on a plane.
“I’ve thought about setting up on a plane but I don’t know how that would go down logistically,” he said. “But people said the tube wasn’t possible when we went on to do it, so maybe we’ll see what we can do.
“There are plans to turn my university house garage into a coffee shop, so gut it out and properly set that up to try and replicate that coffee shop feel and environment. There’s still some work on that, but that’s potentially the next venue.”
You can follow Sam’s journey on TikTok by clicking here.
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