The roasting

We put the roaster in the window on purpose. Roasting is not a secret, it is the whole business, and the people drinking the coffee should be able to see it happen.

Ffion roasts on a 12kg drum roaster, twenty to thirty batches every Tuesday, each one logged on a laptop that records the bean temperature every second so a good roast can be repeated and a bad one understood. Green coffee comes in 30kg and 60kg sacks from importers who tell us who grew it and what they were paid, and from two farms we buy from directly, in Colombia and Rwanda, which Ffion has visited.

Every roast is cupped the next day against the last one before it goes anywhere. The house blend is roasted to the same profile it has had since 2016, because thirty-eight cafés have dialled their machines in on it; the single origins are roasted lighter and change with the harvests. On Tuesdays the roastery smells of it from the end of the street, and the door is open.

The short version

• 12kg drum roaster, in the window
• Every Tuesday, eight until two
• Every batch logged and cupped
• Named farms and washing stations
• Two direct-trade relationships
• The door open; come and watch

Prices and when

Roasting days are Tuesdays, from eight until about two. The café is open as normal and the window seat is the best seat in the house that day. Prices include VAT where it applies. The full café menu is on the menu page, the shelf on the beans page, and the wholesale price list on the wholesale page.