Coffee Roaster Introduction: Square Mile Coffee Roasters
Best Coffee's roastery guide is a compilation of the very best, tried & tested coffee roasters from around the world. We’ve hand-selected a small collection of amazing coffees for you to sample. Not all coffees are created equal, and not all coffees make it into our shop. So we’re starting a series of articles shining a light on our chosen roasteries to explain why we picked them for your drinking delight.
Square Mile Coffee Roasters
Where: Walthamstow, London
Who: Founded by James Hoffmann and Anette Moldvaer, Square Mile has grown into a dynamic team of 28 with Felicity Whitehead at the helm.
Since when: 2008
Why: We’re proud to feature coffee-royalty like Square Mile in our subscriptions and online shop because their focus is always so squarely on the quality of their coffee. Through careful sourcing of their green coffee & a detailed approach to roasting, you’ll never find a Square Mile coffee that’s anything less than delightful.
What’s the story: Square Mile Coffee Roasters began with a dream to foster a culture and community of specialty coffee in London. Starting in a railway arch with 3 people, one roaster and a pushbike for deliveries, they’re now multi-award winning and shipping coffee all over the world to both retail and wholesale customers.
Sustainability credentials:
Through partnerships, Square Mile has supported communities and producers both directly and indirectly over the years. Some recent projects that come to mind are Muungano, and their current involvement in Amal Yemen, a project to raise awareness around coffee from Yemen.
They are in the process of switching to entirely recyclable packaging for all their lines while also moving onto paperless order processing systems. In the meantime, they recycle all cardboard they receive into packing materials and offer reusable, Not boxes to their wholesale customers.
Soon, an electric van will be used for local London deliveries, and they send used coffee sacks to London Zoo for the gorillas to play with.
Our favourite coffees:
Red Brick Espresso – This edition of Square Mile’s seasonal signature espresso blend is the perfect combination of creamy chocolate Colombian coffee (75%) lifted with the bright apple acidity of Lima coffee from Peru (25%).
Los Vascos, Colombia - Los Vascos is a bright, vibrant single origin, well-suited to filter. Produced in the Tolima region, farmers harvest only the ripest cherries & develop coffees that get more and more delicious each year.