A love for coffee and a career in fitness, exercise, and performance have come together perfectly for local personal trainer and strength & conditioning coach, Ruth Pottinger, thanks to the success of her Valhalla Strength Coffee range.
Now, with the International Island Games heading to Orkney in 2025, she hopes athletes from around the world will be able to take advantage of the performance benefits of caffeine through coffees roasted right here in the islands.
Ruth owns the Performance Training Studio in Kirkwall and has worked with some of Orkney’s most talented and dedicated athletes over the years. Improvement is key, and Ruth is always on the lookout for ways to push her clients towards peak performance. That’s where the idea for her own coffee range began.
“I’ve always loved coffee. I spent a few years travelling the world when I was younger and experienced some amazing coffee flavours in different countries and continents,” she says. “Caffeine is well-researched and widely regarded as beneficial for sports performance when used appropriately. I was inspired to use the natural stimulant that comes from it to create some really tasty pre-training blends. That led to the launch of Valhalla Strength Coffee in 2019.”
Research has shown caffeine can enhance both endurance and high intensity exercise by helping improve energy levels, focus, reaction times, and fat utilisation.
“There are also the added benefits of improved alertness and decreased tiredness,” says Ruth. “So, reaching for a coffee half an hour or so before training can be very beneficial for many of the clients I train.”
Ruth always had an idea of the kind of coffee she wanted to make – think caramel, chocolate, and malt flavours – all she needed was a local expert to help bring her plans to life. Enter Euan Smith from The Orkney Roastery. Euan has been roasting coffee from the Roastery’s base on the outskirts of Kirkwall for nearly ten years, growing a popular range of coffees that are available across the islands and online.
He also works closely with local businesses and eateries to help them create their own coffee ranges, so Ruth knew she would be in good hands. “Euan is great to work with and his knowledge and roasting experience shines through. He just had an uncanny ability to understand exactly what I was looking for, from caffeine content to flavour.”
With Euan’s expert roasting, Ruth now proudly promotes four unique blends: Thor, Kolbein, Sweyn, and Magnus. They’re all espresso-style blends with a medium to dark roast profile, with a caffeine content that ranges from 70mg to 105mg per espresso shot. All the coffees are available on the Valhalla Strength Coffee website and come in 250g bags of Whole Bean or Cafetière Grind, with mixed boxes available too.
Ruth also offers monthly orders of freshly roasted coffee across her social media platforms, where customers can pick their grind type and bag size, ranging from 125g right up to 1kg, making it personalised for each coffee lover. She’ll even hand-deliver the bags in Kirkwall and Finstown, or they can be collected from the PT Studio or placed in the post.
From original idea to actually selling coffee, it has been quite the journey for Ruth. “When Euan delivered my very first roast five years ago it was really special,” she recalls. “Seeing the logo, which my niece had drawn for me when she was nine years old, and having the finished product in my hand, it was a very proud moment knowing it had all become a fantastic reality.”
All the coffees have been taste-tasted by Euan and Ruth, as well as her trusted team of coffee lovers too, a process which she particularly enjoyed. “It’s almost like a wine tasting – there was a lot of discussion about the notes we were all picking up,” she remembers. “The coffees can taste so different depending on the various brewing methods used, so there’s a lot of sampling before I make a final decision.”
Ruth has steadily built Valhalla’s customer base by developing sponsorship links nationwide, providing freshly roasted coffee to a Great Britain Age Group Duathlon champion, a Masters World Champion powerlifter, and Harlequins captain and Scottish rugby internationalist, Jade Konkel. All these athletes use Valhalla Strength Coffee as part of the pre-training routines, highlighting its positive impact on performance.
You don’t have to be a fitness fanatic to enjoy the coffee though. Here in Orkney more than 200 bags of Valhalla Strength Coffee are sold every month and posted across the UK. “The support locally has been fantastic - its always great to see the coffee on the shelves in so many local shops and to have returning customers get in touch to tell me how much they enjoy their favourite blends,” says Ruth.
Sport is set to take centre stage in Orkney in the summer of 2025 thanks to the International Island Games arriving in the county. It will be the first time Orkney has held the multi-sport event, which will bring thousands of competitors and spectators from islands across the world.
Ruth, a keen sportswoman who has competed for Orkney in athletics, hockey, and football over the years, is keen to make sure both local and visiting athletes and spectators know all about the distinctive and flavoursome blends Valhalla Strength Coffee has to offer during the week-long games.
“I’m currently planning a limited-edition Island Games blend and will be catching up with Euan soon to go over taste profiles, with the aim to start roasting early next year to get the perfect blend,” she says. “I also have a new coffee cart that I’ll be out and about with at some of the events, promoting that connection between coffee and physical activity and sports.
“It’s going to be such a busy year, so hopefully everyone will need a coffee or two to help keep themselves fuelled up for all the fun!”
Find out more about Valhalla Strength Coffee and order online via the official website.