I have worked in the coffee industry for over a decade now and during the last few years I have had the pleasure of dealing directly with hundreds of UK coffee roasters to feature their coffee in our coffee subscription.
There are coffee roasters popping up all the time in the UK and it’s kind of hard to keep track to be honest.
However, I’ll save you a bit of time and recommend my top 50 coffee roasters in the UK below alongside a map highlighting the rest of the UK indy coffee roasters.
There are a few factors that make a really great coffee roaster.
Quality of the roasted beans.
The most obvious factor is the quality of the roasted coffee. Coffee roasting is both an art and a science.
Raw coffee beans are placed into a coffee roaster (essentially a revolving oven) and roasted for a specific amount of time.
It is the coffee roaster’s responsibility to highlight the inherent flavor compounds of the coffee by adjusting variables such as temperature, drum speed, airflow, and roast time.
Skilled roasters continuously tweak the roast profile, as external factors like humidity can also influence the process.
Quality of green beans.
Green coffee, also known as raw coffee, are what coffee roasters purchase either directly from coffee farms or via coffee importers.
The green coffee beans would have initially been harvested as coffee cherries before being processed and dried at origin.
The green coffee is then roasted into what we refer to as coffee beans.
The green coffee that the coffee roaster uses is an extremely important factor in how we decided on the best coffee roasters in the UK.
Firstly, like any other product, there is a whole scale of quality. In green coffee, the quality scale starts at the lowest grade of commodity coffee that there is, which usually is later processed into instant coffee all the way through to specialty grade coffee which can be sold at auction for thousands per kg at auction.
The way green coffee is graded depends on a number of factors where high quality greens usually come from farms at higher altitudes, that grow specific varietals of coffee and conform to high standards of coffee farming.
Ethics.
The best coffee roasters in the world today not only produce the best coffee but also lead the way in their values and ethics.
This includes sustainable practices throughout their business, from paying the farmers a wage that the deserve and trying to source coffee directly from the farm all the way through to the coffee roaster and packaging that they use.
The Best Coffee Roasters UK
So, now that I have covered what makes the best coffee roaster in the UK, let’s dive into our top picks.
If you think that we missed off a great coffee roaster, please leave a note in the comments below and we’ll check them out.
Why Trust Me?
With over 10 years of experience in the coffee industry worldwide, I have visited numerous local coffee roasters. I have also worked as a coffee roaster in the UK for one of Manchester’s oldest independent roasters. Beyond my professional experience, I am the founder of Batch Coffee Club, one of the UK’s most popular coffee subscriptions. We receive coffee from all over the UK to feature in our fortnightly dispatch. Over the past few years, I have tasted thousands of different coffees and built relationships with hundreds of the UK’s best coffee roasters, gaining unique insights into how each operates.
Origin Coffee was founded over 15 years ago by Tom Sobey in Cornwall and are one of my favourite roasters to feature in our sub boxes.
Having been involved in his father’s coffee business from a young age, Tom has always been immersed in the industry.
After a trip to Australia in the early 2000s, where coffee culture thrives, Origin was born.
Since then, Origin Coffee has grown into a team of industry professionals, developed a world-class coffee program, opened six coffee shops, and continually expanded its product range.
They are one of the pioneers of third-wave specialty coffee in the UK and are among the industry’s leaders.
Origin Coffee sources directly from farms, a practice true to specialty coffee that rewards the growers rather than the many middlemen.
Through their direct trade practice, they support their farm and mill partners directly, providing customers with full traceability of the coffee in their cup.
They strive to visit the farms in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Brazil every year.
The relationships they have built over years of visiting these coffee-growing regions allow them to ask questions and provide support to workers and their families.
For me what sets certain coffee roasters apart for me are the stories they tell through their coffee.
I think Origin Coffee excels in this regard; the quality of their coffee is matched by the stories behind it, making it clear why they are leading the way into the fourth wave of coffee.
World class coffee roasting crossed with laid back surf vibes. Waka waka.
Foundation coffee roasters are an independent roastery and equipment supplier based in St Ives, Cornwall and one of my favourites.
They began their coffee journey with a mission to create quality and high-grade speciality coffee while at the same time using the best possible ethical practices that have a minimal impact on the environment.
This transcends from the sustainable relationships they build at source all the way through to the Omni-degradable and home compostable coffee bags that they showcase their coffee.
Assembly is a quality and customer-focused UK coffee roaster based in Brixton, London and I’ve featured a number of their coffees so far.
They are among the few coffee roasters in the UK pushing the boundaries in every aspect of their business.
The Assembly roastery is located in a 19th-century fire station in the heart of London.
Their use of a Loring roaster, a state-of-the-art coffee sensory lab, and event spaces for cuppings demonstrates their commitment to specialty coffee.
Launched in 2015 during the annual London Coffee Festival, Assembly now showcases their coffee on a global scale.
Their uncompromising quality and meticulous quality control standards are why they are producing some of the best specialty coffees on the market today.
The biggest difference in how Assembly operates for me is their collaborations.
When I talked to their business manager, Ed, he explained how the team is in constant conversation with their customers, whether it’s a retail customer purchasing a 250g bag every other week or a wholesale cafe that orders dozens of kilos per week.
Rounton Coffee Roasters are based in North Yorkshire and I have showcased their coffee a number of times so far.
Their mission is simple. They aim to source coffees that guarantee a fair cut for everyone at origin, and they make sure that their hard work comes through in the taste of the coffees that they roast.
Their story began 8 years ago in Sumatra, where they met a wonderful group of farmers in a region that they continue to support today.
It was this meeting that brought to their attention the plight of many smallholder farmers around the world. They decided that if they could do something for them, they should, and so on their return to the UK, Rounton Coffee Roasters was born.
Rounton finds themselves today, having formed relationships not just in Sumatra, but all over the world.
They believe as I do, that quality and sustainability can (indeed, must), go hand in hand.
Carnival Coffee Roasters, are an eco-friendly, speciality UK coffee roaster based in the heart of Penge, South East London and were one of the OG Batch Coffee Club features.
Their love for life resonates through their bright and bold branding that always brings a smile on our faces each time they pop up on our Instagram feed.
Carnival are an inspirational team. Their focus on providing an eco-friendly product is a great example for future roasters to follow.
Their ethics transcend all the way from Colombia where they support sustainable coffee projects all the way to South East London where they offer local delivery on a bicycle.
Their story started in Medellin, Colombia where they grow and produce coffee on their family farm.
The farm has been in the family for generations ever since Juan’s Grandfather won a mountainside on the outskirts of the city in a very lucky game of cards. Even more luckily the conditions were ideal for growing coffee.
Fast forward to today and Juan’s Parents, Aunties and Uncles still live and work on the mountainside.
The coffee farm is surrounded by orange groves and banana plants with a waterfall separating the boundaries with neighbouring farms. Traditional drying methods are still used.
Carnival hand-roast all of their coffee in Penge inside their garden workshop.
Kurt Stewart is the man behind Volcano coffee works which was founded in 2010.
Kurt grew up in coffee-mad New Zealand and created Volcano to bring the great tatsing coffee he had grown up with to the UK.
He did this while supporting the livelihoods of the communities who grow and produce it.
Volcano started life as a coffee cart that graced the streets of West Norwood but has now grown to a team of 30 passionate coffee people that operate out of their state of the art coffee roastery in Brixton.
The first batch of the day is always roasted by Kurt who is still the beating heart of the coffee business.
Volcano consistently produce some of the best coffee available in the UK at such a high volume.
Volcano Coffee Works believes in complete Supply Transparency, which means they insist on knowing where their coffee is from and visiting many of their farmers annually.
This level of transparency is important, it enables Volcano to ensure they only buy coffee from farmers, co-ops and importers who they are confident believe in the same ethical principles they do.
Mission Coffee Works started as a street van back in 2012 serving coffee to the people of Peckham, London.
Shortly after they relocated both their physical location and focus and started roasting coffee.
The green beans that Mission purchase I think are of the highest quality, while at the same time adhering to their ethics and values of sustainability.
They don’t hide from the fact that the coffee has already been on such a long journey to get to their coffee roaster and are humble in their marketing approach.
They make sure their customers are fully aware that the farmers, pickers, mill workers, green buyers and importers all made their cup of coffee possible.
Their passion for coffee enables them to build awareness of the complicated supply chain in speciality coffee and has given them the platform to build sustainable relationships from the finca to the flame.
At Mission they have a mission – to source incredible green coffee and roast it with care. Hoping that you have as much fun brewing it as they did getting it to you.
A few steps that they have taken to stay on top of the sustainability game is making a huge effort to recycle everything they can in the roastery.
It is sometimes painful to see the amount of waste in shipping and packaging, however with a little innovation reusing or recycling certain things can really help.
Balance Coffee the health focussed roastery based down in London.
Founder James has worked in the coffee industry for 8 years and wanted to create a coffee brand with a mission to inspire people to drink better quality coffee at home.
The coffee that they roast is focused on selling to people who are looking at becoming more of a home barista and create that coffee shop experience in their own home.
With really clean and slick branding their eye-catching watercolour design is a clue about the style of coffee that they offer. They are not afraid to showcase an unusual origin and may provide that unique bag of speciality coffee you are looking for.
As is now demanded as the norm in the speciality coffee world, Balance wants to ensure they create a positive impact by supporting the livelihoods of coffee farmers at origin which in turn, helps create a sustainable supply of coffee for the future.
All of their green beans are ethically sourced from some of the highest quality coffee farmers from around the world.
A multi-award-winning coffee roasting company, Square Mile Coffee Roaster UK was founded in 2008 by speciality coffee pioneers, Anette Moldvaer and James Hoffmann.
Synonymous with London coffee culture, they’ve grown to be a dynamic team of over 22 talented coffee professionals, all sharing a wealth of experience and passion for what they do.
Focused on wholesale, they choose to work with, train and support like-minded businesses wishing to serve their mindfully sourced and skilfully roasted coffee to the best of their ability.
Square Mile are on a mission to continually evolve, measuring their impact and looking for better solutions to their everyday tasks.
By working together and supporting their partners across the supply chain, they strengthen their relationships, build expertise and contribute towards placing London’s speciality coffee & culture on the map.
They pride themselves on the exceptional quality coffee they source, buy, import, roast, and deliver internationally.
The Colonna coffee journey started in Australia in 2008.
In Melbourne, they discovered an underground movement called Third Wave coffee.
Captivated by the flavour and provenance-driven approach to coffee, they dove in head-first and learned everything possible about this enigmatic drink.
Maxwell and Lesley were driven by the opportunity to learn and innovate at a time when people were beginning to think differently about what coffee could be.
In 2009, they opened the destination coffee shop Colonna & Small’s in Bath, UK.
The shop was dedicated to showcasing the most exceptional coffees in a space built to engage a conversation around coffee.
Colonna & Small’s soon became internationally recognised and was awarded the ‘Best Coffee Shop in Europe’ title in 2016.
The roastery was launched in 2015, as they sought to take more control of the sourcing and flavour profiling of our coffees.
Caravan Coffee Roasters are the laid back pioneering coffee roasters based in London. Their culture and values are exactly the type of coffee brand we look to work with at Batch.
After chatting to Fletcher at Caravan coffee roasters for 30 seconds I could already tell that I was going to love working with them.
These guys have been around for over ten years now and in speciality coffee that’s quite a long time, they have now grown into a huge multi-venue coffee roaster that supplies coffee to cafes all over the UK.
Although they have now become one of the biggest coffee roasters in the UK on the back of their passion for sourcing and roasting high-quality coffee their personality and character have remained.
This may be one of the factors why Caravan has grown from strength to strength.
Caravan coffee, roast their seasonal and carefully selected coffee on a state of the art Loring Peregrine S70 (the Tesla of the coffee roasting world).
Loring machines are the most efficient machines on the market, using up to 80% less gas than the average drum roaster.
The term ‘independent coffee roaster’ has, over the last few years, become a sort of stamp of quality when it comes to coffee and although there are exceptions generally speaking you will find higher quality coffee at independent coffee roasters.
Commercial coffee roasters (brands that can be found in the supermarket) don’t really have the scope to source such high quality raw coffee.
This is because these brands produce huge amounts of roasted coffee that has to be consistent, high quality specialty coffee is generally grown on small farms that produce smaller lots of coffee, so it is hard for a commercial roaster to produce truly single origin coffee, traceable back to a particular farm.
Secondly, the coffee roasters that commercial grade coffee is roasted in are huge machines capable of producing hundreds of kilos of coffee per hour, this is great for quantity but less so for quality.
Independent coffee roasters are able to purchase a relatively small amount of coffee and roast in coffee roasters that hold from 0.5kg up to 30kg.
This gives the coffee roaster much more control during the roast so they are able to manipulate the profile as they wish.
Another aspect that sets independent coffee roasters apart from commercial grade, is that most independents will pay well above the fair trade coffee price for green coffee beans and will support the sustainability of coffee farming as well as other parts of the supply chain.
To surmise, you are not only on the whole, purchasing a better raw product when you buy through independent coffee roasters but also a better quality of roast as well as a more sustainable supply chain.
How Many Coffee Roasters Are There in The UK?
There are currently over 600 coffee roasters in the UK. This number does change as the coffee industry ebbs and flows.
FAQs
A coffee roaster is the name of the machine that roasts raw coffee and turns it into the coffee beans that we know. Coffee roasters come in various sizes and styles, but typically consist of a large revolving drum where coffee is added at the top and dropped into a large cooling tray beneath.
A coffee roaster is also a name given to a company that roasts coffee and either sells directly to customers or to cafes.
London has the most coffee roasters in the UK. It is home to some of the UK’s most famous coffee roasters such as Assembly coffee roasters and Square Mile. Checkout our article on the best coffee roasters in London.
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