Quarter Horse was first founded in 2012 by Nathan and Ameeta in Oxford, where their coffee shop quickly gained a reputation for being one of the best in the country. Following the dream to roast their own coffee, they then opened a new cafe in 2015 in Ameeta’s hometown of Birmingham. Certified Q-Grader Nathan started working in coffee shops whilst studying at uni, and after graduating, he decided to keep working in the coffee industry, gradually working his way up to management positions. He is now a certified Q-Grader. The first independent café & roastery in Birmingham. After opening up …
Top Craft Coffee Roasters
39 Steps Coffee – Featured Roaster
The story of 39 Steps Coffee began in early 2018 in Soho, London. The founders had the dream of providing the finest specialty coffee with the highest quality service - and this is a mission they still follow today. The majority of their coffee is sourced directly from the origin, offering full traceability and generating better salaries for the growers. This relationship with their farmers ensures that each brew is grown and picked with love, skill, and most importantly, respect. With beans freshly roasted from their London roastery, you can experience their delicious specialty …
New Ground – Featured Roaster
New Ground creates delicious, expertly ground coffee which has been carefully selected from small-scale farms around the world. Their mission is to become a leading player in European coffee, along with creating hundreds of opportunities for ex-offenders and helping to change policies in the criminal justice system. They believe that coffee can go far beyond the cup - and this is why they give some of the most overlooked people in society a new beginning. Revolutionary Coffee Business When New Ground realised that prisoners are much more likely to re-offend after release if they are …
Roasting Plant — Featured Roaster
Roasting Plant are a unique team of roasters with an equally unique claim to fame: they are the only coffee retailer to roast in every store. This particular badge of honour comes about in part thanks to the innovation of founder Mike Caswell and his inventions, so we spoke to him about his work and the story of Roasting Plant. How did you get started in the coffee business? Caswell started working for Coffee Connection when he was just out of college. After an early career in engineering and management consultancy, he was recruited into Starbucks after they bought CC on the basis of his …
Maude Coffee – Featured Roaster
Maude Coffee is a specialty micro-roaster focused on high-quality and single-origin coffees, all whilst ensuring a sustainable livelihood for the coffee producers at origin. How it started Matthew Van Elkan is the mastermind behind Maude Coffee, having started the business in 2014. He had worked as a barista for several years, studying the complexity of the coffee bean and learning from as many industry professionals as possible. Through this, he realised that there was a quality of coffee that simply wasn’t being achieved - or at the very least, it wasn’t being shared with consumers. His …
Heart & Graft – Featured Roaster
Heart & Graft is an independent coffee roaster founded by James Guard and Sean Fowler in 2012. James was fed up with the complete lack of unique, specialty coffee in his home city of Manchester, so he started up The Coffee Circle - a humble setup consisting of small quantities of coffee, a garage roaster, and an incredible amount of dedication. Working as a barista on the side, he began to learn about the complex craft of roasting. Q Grader Sean was the youngest person in the country to become a Q Grader, trained and licensed by the Coffee Quality Institute. He had worked as an assistant …
