Speciality refers to the quality of the beans. Coffee is assessed by a qualified “Q Grader” on a range of attributes , the resulting assessment produces a score between 0 and 100. A coffee with a score above 80 is deemed “Speciality grade”.

Coffee beans are grown from two main species, Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is harder to grow, demanding higher altitude farms and a narrow range of climatic conditions but has decades of research behind it to develop quality and flavours delivering a much tastier coffee. Robusta grows at lower altitudes and produces a higher yield with less quality and flavour so is mostly used for production of instant coffee.

We don’t, the different flavour notes found in our coffees are all the natural flavours found in the beans.

The most effective and simplest way to vastly improve your coffee at home is in buying a “Burr” Grinder and using whole bean. Grinding fresh and grinding well gives the best opportunity to brew a great coffee at home.

Most bags of coffee will illustrate a number on the label to indicate the roast degree - generally between 1 and 5. This refers to a reference called ‘Development Time’ and simply put a short DT ( No 1 ) will be a very light colour but have lots of natural acidity and fruit flavours and conversely a long DT ( No 5 ) will be dark and bitter - this is due to the effect of roasting the natural sugars in the beans.

The strength of your brew is entirely down to the ratio of coffee to water that you like to brew with – like it stronger , put more coffee in. The trick is to be consistent in your favoured brew method - there’s only one way to make coffee and that’s however you like to make your coffee !

We roast for Filter and Espresso. Our filters coffees are generally roasted to the midpoint in the Development Ratio so are perfect to use in Cafetière , Filters, Pour Overs ( V60s ). Our espresso roast is for just that - ideal for Bean to Cup espresso machines.

Coffee is a natural product so will degrade over time. This is mostly caused by oxidisation ( air circulating around the coffee ) so Whole Beans will always last longer than ground due to the surface area being much smaller. In order to store your coffee keep it air tight, dry, room temperature and out of direct sunlight. You can put whole bean in the freezer but there’s really no need as it increases the risk of absorbing moisture and aroma from other goods, as such we don’t recommend storing ground coffee in the freezer.