In the early days, when I started making regular visits to the annual London Coffee Festival, I tried to connect with the pioneering specialty coffee roasters of the local scene to find partners for my newly launched Coffeevine box. Though there was a lot of interest and support from the likes of Climpson & Sons, other roasters were more difficult to convince. Everyone was very protective of their space and many were unwilling to share their upward trajectory with others.
Workshop Coffee was one of the many upstart roasters in the British capital that I had to work – pardon the pun – on for quite some time before they finally agreed to be part of one of our boxes and when that day finally came, I felt very accomplished to have brought such an exclusive roaster to our box.
Founded by James Dickson with the ambition to shape the growing third wave coffee culture in London, Workshop Coffee initially maintained restaurants and cafés dotted around the eastern half of London until the decision was eventually made to scale the hospitality business part back and focus more intently on the wholesale part.
A few years ago, Workshop opened its current roastery in Bethnal Green where it was able to grow significantly without the distractions of running various cafés. Currently they have one flagship café in Fitzrovia.
Since the last time they were featured in one of our boxes, a whole six years have passed. Sometimes I’m shocked to realise how time flies. But despite the lack of collaborations, I’ve maintained close contact with the team and was delighted to hear from James Bailey, the current Chief Product Officer at Workshop a few months ago, inquiring about a possible Freshdrip partnership. Freshdrip is my other gig just FYI. I used this opportunity to remind him of my last visit to their roastery a few years ago when we discussed a new feauture that never ended up materialising and he immediately said: “Let’s get this done. YES!”
Workshop Coffee pays special attention to buying the tastiest coffees that they know their customers will love. They work closely with export partners such as Nordic Approach, Primavera and Caravela to help them find exciting producers and maintain relationships with established ones. For them, it’s all about the cup profile and finding that ultimate sweet spot that every coffee keeps locked inside until it’s roasted and brewed to perfection.
For the London outfit’s long-overdue return, we selected two really delicious coffees for filter and espresso. The first is a washed Kenyan coffee from Karimikui that has that classic Kenyan profile that we all love. It’s fruity, crisp and vibrant. The espresso is a washed Peruvian coffee from Inca Valley offering lovely chocolatey notes in the cup.
In the coming year, Workshop wants to implement a new initiative to properly track all of its own emmissions in tandem with their coffee supply network to fund tree planting to re-shade coffee farms in Colombia where their supply chain carbon emissions are highest. Onwards and upwards I say!
Receive this coffee along with delicious picks from 19 Grams and Langøra as part of our upcoming European coffee roasters selection. Browse our shop for all options and to place your order today. Ships globally on 19.10.2023
