Coffee Roaster Introduction: St Martin’s 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.

Where: Leicester

Since when: 2010

Why: We like St Martin’s for their no-nonsense, job-done-well approach to coffee. They’re hands-on with their customers and the sourcing of their coffee, working with people who believe in fairness and sustainability.

What’s the story: Family-run St Martin’s Coffee Roasters set out to put Leicester on the map for specialty coffee. As the first roastery ever located there, and now supplying retail and wholesale coffee nationwide; they’re certainly living their dream of providing a decent cup of coffee outside of London. Each coffee is carefully sourced & roasted in small batches, to enable the true flavour profile of the coffee to be enjoyed.

Sustainability credentials:

St Martin’s are careful about sourcing their coffee, placing an importance on relationships traceability. They work exclusively with 2 sourcing partners, aligned to their own values and can trace their coffees back to origin. They also make sure to pay more than Fairtrade pricing to ensure the producers are well compensated for their work.

Currently their packaging is made from 100% recycled materials, but looking to improve their eco-credentials; St Martin’s are developing 100% compostable packaging which should be in use in 2022.

The Women’s Washed Sidamo coffee is grown and sold entirely by women – St Martins Coffee donated 100% of profits of this coffee during international women’s week to a local women’s shelter.

Our favourite coffee:

Women’s Washed, Ethiopia: The community-driven Buleso Washing Station in Sidamo is famous for its excellent quality coffee & how it is empowering women working in coffee. With tasting notes of apricot, lime and caramel, this coffee tastes good and does good.