Mr Scruff has always been a bit of an anomaly on the post-millennia club scene. The eclectic funkmeister, still based in unsexy Stockport, ignores the usual trappings of DJ success for a more down-to-Earth, prosaic existence. He owns his own pie shop in Manchester, spends his leisure time drawing cartoons, not scoring groupies, and rather than hoover up several lines of grade-A gak during his marathon sets he’d much prefer a lovely cup of tea, ta very much.
Such is Scruff’s passion for the comforting beverage, in fact, that he’s now formed his own company and launched the Make Us A Brew range. His pleasingly organic and ethically produced English Breakfast bags hit the shelves at department store Selfridges last year, and proved enough of a hit that he’s now launching several herbal varieties too, following successful sampling sessions during his sets at last year’s Glasto, Womad and Big Chill festivals.
The Forest Fruit variety is for “berry freaks”, he explains, “and is like being attacked by a giant bag of dried fruit.” The South American-sourced Yerba Mate is “said to have a caffeine kick that lasts longer than coffee”, and Mint and Chilli is “a lot tastier than a red lentil curry with toothpaste in it”, apparently. All come lovingly encased in Scruff’s trademark comic strip packaging, and there are all manner of other tea-related items to peruse at www.mrscruff.com, if you can’t face Selfridges.
So, are his friends and loved ones a bit nervous about serving him their bog-standard, supermarket own-brand beverages these days? “Yes,” he admits, “or using the correct brewing technique. I’ve always been obsessed with tea, or more precisely, a proper brew, and have definitely got more geeky about it over the last few years. I find that people who don’t drink tea make the worst brews. How can something so simple go so wrong?”
Be warned, a brew is a serious business.
To win a selection of Scruff’s warm fluids – plus a lovely caddy, mug, tea towel and oven gloves – answer the easy question below.
What is Mr Scruff’s real name?
