As those who know me will know, I love my coffee. In fact, I love speciality coffee, which is more than just a way of saying “really good coffee”. It’s a term in the industry for coffee that is farm traceable, graded by calibrated standards of taste and quality to be of a certain standard, and then brewed with care and precision. You might like to read about the “third wave” coffee movement. Coffee drinking has progressed from mass-produced instant coffee, to fresh coffee that is mass produced and then packaged long before it's brewed, to the kind of coffee I'm talking about. In the past 5-10 years, there's been an explosion of third wave coffee shops and artisan roasters across the UK. Quite some time ago I started a Facebook group called Speciality Coffee UK. It now has nearly 10,000 members, and is full of posts where people recommend out-of-the-way places to buy beans or a cup of coffee.
My own journey of coffee went through the three waves. As a teen, I drank instant quite happily (1st wave). Then I discovered fresh coffee, but was buying pre-ground from supermarkets (2nd wave). I then bought a cheap blade grinder, and cheap supermarket beans. Sure, my brewing equipment gradually improved, but my beans went from the supermarket to places like Whittard (kind of, wave-2.5, they have no seasonal variation and will sell beans 28 days after roasting).
Finally, I hit the third wave as it hit the UK. The pioneer (yes, “the”, credit where it's due) was a man called Steve Leighton. Steve set up a company called HasBean coffee in Staffordshire. I can't link to it, because the business sold a few years ago to Ozone Coffee. But for old-times' sake, and for nostalgia for those of us who were fans of HasBean back in the day, here's a picture:
Everything was red because Steve supports Sunderland. He found beans from obscure places, eventually travelling to origins to meet farmers, and being appointed to the roster of jurors for the international “Cup of Excellence” competition that awarded the best coffees in a number of countries. He was warm and hospitable, and when I lived close enough I’d order green beans to collect in person, and he’d pause work to brew some espresso and chat about the latest sacks that had just arrived. As I say, he’s sold up and moved to Sweden. The Ozone brand is just not the same, in lots of ways, so I no longer buy there.
I now buy coffee from lots of suppliers. Here is my current list of favourites. All of these I find to be absolutely excellent. They’re in alphabetical order because I don't wish to attempt to rank them. They’re just different.
I’ve now added a little widget in the sidebar of this website, that will tell you at any given point which coffee I'm currently drinking and which roaster I bought it from. Coffees go in and out of season, and in and out of stock. My tastes vary, and I have phases of using my espresso machine, before fancying pour-over filter for a month or two. So what I’m drinking is always changing, but by sharing it here it may give you all some ideas too.
I'll end with a quotation from a coffee legend: “Life’s too short for bad coffee.”
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