Cafédirect Coffee Roasters
Cafédirect are the well seasoned sustainable coffee roasters based in London. Their London Fields roastery sits among a vibrant scene of local artisan breweries, bakeries and cafes, a stone’s throw away from the famous Broadway Market.
About Cafédirect Coffee Roasters
Cafédirect are the well seasoned sustainable coffee roasters based in London. Their London Fields roastery sits among a vibrant scene of local artisan breweries, bakeries and cafes, a stone’s throw away from the famous Broadway Market. The team of three Q graders work at the Cafedirect Roastery and tirelessly cup all of the small batch roasted coffee. It’s pretty unique to have one Q grader working at a roastery let alone three. To become one of the most elite coffee tasters in the world (there are only 5000 worldwide) you must complete a grueling course followed by 19 exams with an extremely low pass rate. Q graders are then certified to grade and score coffees on a variety of characteristics. To tell the story of Cafedirect we have to rewind to 1989 when there was an international coffee crisis and the base level for commodity coffee was cut in half after the collapse of the ICA (International Coffee Agreement). This had a huge effect on coffee farmers as the base price was still pretty low. In 1991 Cafedirect came about as the innovative result of four pioneering organisations as well as three forward thinking coffee grower cooperatives all with the desire for change when it came to the conventional coffee market and to find a more personal, direct route. The three coops in Peru, Costa Rica and Mexico sent a container of coffee to the UK on a trust basis. It was then sold through community groups and churches and the profits were then sent back to the growers. This has been the foundation from which Cafedirect has flourished into the sustainable and people-focused coffee roaster they are today. They were the first Bcorp coffee company in the UK, this means they meet the highest environmental and sustainable standards and are only accredited to a small number of businesses. To become Bcorp a business must pass a rigorous assessment and score over 80, Cafedirect scored a whopping 97. 50% of Cafedirect’s profits are invested into ‘Producers Direct’, this is a UK charity that works directly with farmers to improve sustainability and livelihoods, right across the coffee-growing world. The charity is run by farmers, for farmers, taking leadership and developing innovative solutions to the challenges they face. Check out our 30 best coffee roasters in London. We spoke to Sam at Cafédirect about what’s next at the roastery
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Coffee Origin
Cafédirect had a fantastic year last year under extremely difficult circumstances and this year is shaping up to be even better with our 30th Anniversary to celebrate.
What To Expect
We source most of our coffee from Peru where we have a vast network of producers that we have strong and direct relationships that go back decades. We work extremely closely with them through our affiliated charity Producers Direct who have several centres of excellence where training and support are given to farmers to improve their farming practices and overall quality of coffee.
