There’s no point being modest about it, we know our coffee is good. Really good in fact, but we also know that’s not enough. Taking an independent coffee shop from being something really good, to something truly exceptional requires more than just good coffee. It’s about making the experience more than a transaction; it’s about introducing people to artisan coffee in a way that’s not pretentious or intimidating, it’s about creating an atmosphere where regulars and visitors feel like they’re amongst friends and it’s about us having as much fun making coffee as you have drinking it.
Don’t get us wrong, we’re pretty geeky about our coffee, but we won’t impress that on you unless you ask for it. The coffee itself is respectfully roasted by Anne and Chris at Monsoon Estates. We started off using a big-name London roaster – they sold us great tasting coffee, but we had no control, no relationship and nothing distinctive from the hundreds of other coffee shops grinding the same beans. It just didn’t feel right to us. After a couple of years we decided to move away from them, perhaps the biggest tell of all is that they didn’t even notice we’d stopped ordering. Working with a local roaster allows us to have a real hands-on approach to the coffee we serve. We can pop into the roastery at a moment’s notice, and Anne and Chris are regularly in the shop tasting the coffee in its final resting place – it works.
What else? Well our cakes are banging (that’s an official term), in fact our brownies have become legendary. We buy our milk in from a local dairy farm - we think Sid and his cows are ace (even if he parks his van in the middle of the road and blocks the traffic while he delivers it) and our breakfast menu is just posh enough to feel like an indulgence, without burning a hole in your wallet.