Roasters Village - London Coffee Festival 2023
Preview #1 - Roasters Village, A Firm-Favourite
Are you going to London Coffee Festival later this week, 20-23rd April? Over the coming days we’ll be sharing our unofficial countdown to the event held at London's Truman Brewery, highlighting the roasters and brands we’re particularly looking forward to seeing and those we think you should definitely swing by if you’re attending. Keep an eye out for these on our social media each day until the event. If you're yet to bag yourself a ticket - pun intended - head over to www.londoncoffeefestival.com.
We won’t be exhibiting at the event this year, but all our team will be visiting in search for the latest in speciality coffee, meeting up with all our partner roasters and saying hey to all our good friends within the industry. To all those GUSTATORY coffee subscribers who are baristas and coffee roasters yourselves, maybe see you there over one of the Industry days?
Here we begin, and for our first preview, we take a look at those we think are particularly worth visiting in the coffee event’s Roasters Village.
Missing Bean Coffee Roasters
Our first to highlight, Missing Bean became Central Oxford's first independently owned coffee shop in 2009. A small, passionate coffee team who oversee everything from sourcing, to roasting, working with wholesale clients, and making perfect coffees for all their customers, Missing Bean's coffee shops are equally laid-back and welcoming spots. All single origin specialty coffees, brewed just the way you like it.
All of their coffee is sourced with the highest environmental and ethical standards, and so, Missing Bean have been worthy features within GUSTATORY's speciality coffee subscriptions in the past. Buying direct means that farmers receive 100% of the costs for their goods, which results in a price that’s often far higher than fair trade. With a direct partnership with their farmers means that they can ensure sustainable production and ethical labour practices are being followed. Besides, being in direct communication with their farms also gives Missing Bean more options when sourcing their beans and allows them access to unique coffees. Fully recommended by GUSTATORY, be sure to visit Missing Bean this London Coffee Festival 2023 within the Roasters Village.
Outpost Coffee Roasters
Based in Nottingham, Outpost Coffee Roasters are one of our most local roasters, also one of the leaders in the city’s coffee scene. A small, independent and focused specialty coffee roastery, at their core, Outpost are a group of specialty coffee people on a journey, not too dissimilar to the one you’re probably on right now. Life long coffee learning is their thing and they love it. With that learning comes a genuine desire to share, support and help others to progress in their coffee journey.
With a commitment to total quality extending into providing a personal and devoted wholesale service, Outpost support like-minded coffee retailers who sharing their values and goals. Overall, the goals of Outpost are to provide better pay and support for growers, who are committed to growing stand out coffees, through good farming and processing practices; carefully select great lots and roast in-house in Nottingham; invest in the training and development of industry professionals, and; support with equipment selection. A one stop destination for any cafe, you too can enjoy Outpost coffees via a GUSTATORY coffee subscription, with features past and in the future.
Clifton Coffee Roasters
A quality coffee outfit hailing from Bristol, the city’s speciality coffee scene wouldn’t be the same without. Clifton Coffee Roasters was founded in 2001, beginning its life servicing espresso machinery in the independent businesses of Bristol. As the reputation for service grew, so too did the demand for supply of coffee and equipment and so, just a couple of years later, Clifton Coffee began wholesaling roasted coffees to the surrounding area. As the company grew, a few key Bristol-based multi-site customers joined Clifton Coffee, and today, they boast having a large training facility, the first of its kind at the time.
Fast forward to 2013, Clifton Coffee decided to invest in their own in-house production roastery to concentrate solely on sourcing, roasting and supplying the worlds finest specialty coffees. Embarking upon a journey as much for own interest as for their customers to deliver a program of coffee quality and education that would help drive the industry forward further still, it can be said that Clifton Coffee remain to be one of the forerunners of the UK specialty coffee scene now supplying many of the leading retailers from independent specialty coffee shops to Michelin starred restaurants and 5-star hotels across the British Isles.
Allpress Coffee Roasters
Allpress Espresso is built on relationships. Their success as a coffee roaster is down to the success of the people they choose to partner with – from their first cafe customer, to their staff around the world and even down to John, who comes in to their Dunedin Roastery Cafe every morning for a long black. Human connection is why they are here and it’s these important relationships they create that steer them on the right path when they veer off course. They realise that sometimes it’s as simple as connecting two people in a cafe over a couple of flat whites.
Michael Allpress (yes, there’s a guy) was inspired to establish Allpress Espresso after witnessing the specialty coffee revival in Seattle during the late 1980s. Early on, their obsession with flavour saw a switch from being New Zealand’s first coffee cart, to roasting coffee in the back of a garage and supplying it to cafes around Auckland City. They’ve come a long way since 1989 and today they’re lucky enough to work with over 1000 independent cafes around the world.
Perhaps the best known in our highlight today, we're sure you may have seen such a staple speciality coffee roasters within the London high street. Plus, yes, you guessed it, Allpress Espresso have certainly featured within our multi-roaster coffee subscriptions.
Hundred House Coffee Roasters
Hundred House Coffee Roasters are based in the rural hills of Shropshire and combine expertise with passion to source, roast and supply unique coffees from small holds around the world. A core part of their approach is supporting the arts through industry. As such, Hundred House work with a variety of artists and designers – allocating a portion of their profits to art and design initiatives. Of this, their collaborations include working with public galleries, along with art and design entities, to create spaces that invite social and cultural dialogue, coupled with great coffee.
Hundred House use analogue knowledge, and based on over 20 years of speciality roasting experience, they sample and develop the roast for their coffees in response to their innate flavours and aromas. As a result, Hundred House only stock a small and carefully selected range of responsibly sourced coffees at any one time, taking time to discover and roast the best they can find. Alongside this, Hundred House have created a selection of expertly fused espresso blends – ranging from the sweet and jammy, to the 'made for milk' and the 'pure organic'. Art + coffee, what’s not to love, and as a featuring roaster in GUSTATORY's coffee subscriptions, you're always in for a treat with Hundred House.
Press Coffee & Co Roasters
Completing our London Coffee Festival 2023 Roasters Village preview, we've London's Press & Co coffee roasters. As part of the growing London speciality coffee scene since 2013, Press Coffee & Co has been dedicated to offering high quality coffees, ethically sourced and sustainably processed. Always investing in specialised equipment and the best technology to guarantee a high standard of coffee in your cup, in the past 3 years alone, Press Coffee & Co have saved 750,000 coffee bags from going to landfill through their reusable coffee drums for wholesale partners, as well as also delivering the majority of their wholesale customers' coffees, and all coffee to their cafes, by hand in a zero emission vehicle.
Remaining a family owned business to this day, Press Coffee & Co Roasters now have 3 cafe sites across London as well as their own roastery since 2019. Yet to feature with GUSTATORY, maybe watch this space.
And there we have it, GUSTATORY's first preview of London Coffee Festival 2023, this time wandering through the event's Roasters Village. For our next, keep an eye out on our social media or check back in our School & Insights for tomorrow's edition.
GUSTATORY (adjective): curating excellence in taste.