Our Story

2000 years in the making, give or take.

2013, marks a new notch on Fleet Street’s long history, 2000 years in the making. A place known for its Roman road connecting Westminster and Temple, fast forward to the 1500s where the location became a hub for London’s news editorial Press. And this is where we got our name. Press Coffee stepping firmly with their industrial dark punk themes and staple coffee skills. Till one day, a play on the name birthed the iconic tamp logo.

        

Check out this historic video we dusted off from back then:

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There were originally three founders bringing 6 cafes around London and slot roasting in a little corner of Tate coffee’s roastery, Press Coffee starting hearing people talking: “ooo, this has got to be the best coffee with oat milk” 

With Andy now being the sole owner. 2019 was to bring Press’s new story line, our very own roastery starting up in Herne Hill, south London.

What we are today

A roastery, 15 humans, one dog.

Fast forward today, we are 15 strong (including the pooch ‘dustin’) 
[insert dustin with his paw on a coffee bag] 
leaving our shops behind including our beloved Fleet street to become a specialty coffee roastery exclusively. Serving freshly roasted coffee direct to consumer customers and supplying coffee machinery to wholesale customers, along with contract roasting for some of the most loved coffee brands in the UK and who needed a trusted partner to help build their business. We will never kiss and tell, but if you're a coffee fan, you have most certainly tasted our coffee, just in a different name (yep, a shameless humble flex)

contract roasting for businesses who need a trusted partner, and delivering freshly roasted coffee to homes across the country.

Why do you do it?

It started as a living. Then it got personal.

Money & power… Endless, unlimited power- sorry, couldn't resist.

First, it started as a humble way to make a living, serving coffee is something that is truly loved by many cultures and a language spoken universally, giving a moment of peace to a visitor and coffee lover even if its for a few minutes. Until we couldn't help to see the industry for what is really becoming, wasteful, self centred and coffee becoming nothing more than a commodity. We started to notice it was trying to change us, force us into a box, decide A or B. But what if we didn't want to choose? Our customers certainly didn't want to. For years we struggled with what the industry wanted us to be while staying true to ourselves, umm-ed and ahh-ed on how to write our ‘bio’s’ while all we wanted to do was colour outside the lines. Fall in line and pick a lane while being unconventional isn't the easiest thing to do. So why do we do what we do? Cause our customers want it their way, and we give them that option. We are in a constant exploration state, always learning, and sharing with our communities rather than gatekeeping. While keeping our staff, the ones who make what we do possible, front and centre, allowing our diverse cultures to mix and birth what Press is today. 

Yes we want power, but power to make a difference in what we do with the communities around us, such as our relationships with producers, as we know quality in the cup is directly linked to the bond between grower and roaster. We Join forces with like minded organisations and individuals and bring specialty coffee the way it used to and should be, a moment to bring people a centre of joy and connection.

Sustainability

Talking green, no not just the coffee kind.

“If we’re doing it for sustainability, then I want to commit fully, not half arse it just to say ‘we did it’” - Andy MD and founder

Packaging and delivery

The first thing we tackled was what we were sending coffee out in and how we were getting it there. For wholesale clients, that meant clean reusable coffee barrels delivered emissions-free in our electric van. In the past three years alone we've saved over 750,000 bags from going to waste. When bags are needed, we use fully compostable options or our newer yellow and black bags, Level 4 and 5 PCR plastics, with Level 5 being kerbside recyclable in any council that accepts them.
For wholesale customers, we also aim to be a genuinely useful single supplier, coffee, equipment, alternative products like matcha and drinking chocolate, and marketing materials including white labelling. Fewer suppliers, fewer deliveries, less admin. A simpler supply chain.

Let's address the elephant in the room
Shipping a product from the other side of the world sits awkwardly next to the word "sustainable." We know. But rather than pretend that contradiction doesn't exist, we've chosen to work with producers who are actively doing something about it, and let their work speak louder than a badge on a bag.

The Reforest Project — Forest Coffee, Colombia

Forest Coffee are one of our producers in Colombia, Tolima, and one of the most progressive operations we've encountered anywhere in the industry. Their Reforest Project has a simple but serious objective: plant 5,000 native trees across the northern Tolima and southern Caldas regions before 2030, with 500 trees across 60 local producers already targeted for this year alone.
But it goes further than trees. Forest have built their own co-operative community, inviting local producers into their processing plant and rewarding them on quality over quantity, along with a graduation scheme that gives proper credit to the farmers hiking steep hills with sacks on their backs, year after year. We loved what they were building so much we sent our head of operations Jack over to Colombia to see it firsthand.
Read more about the Reforest Project [link] coffeegreenbeans.com/pages/reforest-project Or buy the coffee and the story goes with every bag [link] The Reforest

Herne Hill Allotments 

Roasting coffee produces two natural by-products: jute coffee sacks and chaff, the papery skin that peels off green beans as they roast. Rather than bin them, we've partnered with our local allotment to put both to work. The sacks become raised plant beds and the chaff goes in as fertiliser.

Community and charity

Whether we're supplying for Clink events, who do genuinely remarkable work giving young offenders a second chance through hospitality, (go and look them up https://theclinkcharity.org/the-charity Or showing up at the local school sports day with enough coffee to keep the parents upright through little Timmy's tenth lap of the long distance run, we try to be useful to the communities around us, just showing up.

The people side

We've been a certified London Living Wage employer since we started, because the people who make all of this work should be paid properly for it. We've also assigned Dustin as official workplace morale support, a role he takes very seriously. And for the cherry on our very sustainable cake, we're currently working through our B Corp certification. Wish us luck!

The Team

The unconventional bunch behind the coffee
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Work with us

Let’s get down to business

We supply some of the UK's most loved coffee brands, we'll never kiss and tell, but if you drink coffee, you've almost certainly tasted our work. Whether it's a bag a week or a full supply chain, let's talk.

David is your man! > wholesale@presscoffee.london
Looking for the full wholesale picture? > Wholesale page

Join the crew- oh there’s free coffee!

We're a small team that takes what we do seriously — just not ourselves. If you're good at what you do and want to be part of something growing, we'd love to hear from you. No roles listed right now doesn't mean we're not interested. It just means we haven't found the right person yet. > info@presscoffee.london