Mornings, made better.
We're an independent specialty roaster working out of a Bristol railway arch — two people, one drum roaster, and a stubborn belief that the first cup of the day deserves a great deal more care than it usually gets. This is how we got here.
It began on a market stall.
Back in 2016 there was no roastery — just a fold-out table on Gaol Ferry Steps, a borrowed grinder, and a single sack of Ethiopian greens we'd roasted in batches barely bigger than a baking tray. We sold out by eleven most Saturdays, mostly to the same faces, who came back the next week and brought a friend.
What started as a weekend experiment turned into something we couldn't put down. We learned to roast by burning a lot of beans, taking notes on every batch, and asking far too many questions of anyone who'd answer them. The coffee got better. The queue got longer. Eventually the kitchen counter wasn't going to cut it.
So we found an arch, moved the roaster in, and kept the same promise we made on that first market morning — roast it fresh, roast it small, and never send out a bag we wouldn't happily brew ourselves.
Arch 14, Gaol Ferry Steps.
You'll find us tucked under the railway in a brick arch at the bottom of the harbourside — The Roastery, Arch 14, Bristol BS1 6XN. It's not big, and it smells permanently of caramel and toast, which is exactly how a roastery should smell at half-seven in the morning.
At the heart of it is our drum roaster — a proper cast-iron workhorse we run by feel as much as by gauge, watching the colour turn and listening for first crack. Every batch is small, every batch gets full attention, and nothing leaves until it's cooled, rested and weighed by hand.
Out front there's a little café counter where we pull shots, brew filters, and let people taste the week's roasts before they buy. Pop in if you're passing — the kettle's always warm, and we love talking far too much about coffee.
Four things we won't budge on.
Freshness over everything
Coffee is at its best in the weeks just after roasting, not the months. We roast to order, in small batches, and send it the moment it's cooled — so it lands on your doorstep tasting the way we tasted it.
Direct & fair
We buy through importers we trust and, wherever we can, build long relationships with the farms and washing stations behind our greens. We pay properly for quality — because the people who grow it should share in it.
Small batch
Small batches mean we can taste everything, adjust everything, and stand behind every bag. We'd rather roast less and roast it brilliantly than chase volume and lose the plot somewhere in the middle.
Kinder packaging
Our bags are recyclable and home-compostable, our boxes are plastic-free, and we're forever chipping away at the rest. Great coffee shouldn't leave a mess behind — not in the cup, and not in the bin.
A small roaster, quietly growing.
Freshly roasted in Bristol · The Roastery, Arch 14, Gaol Ferry Steps
Taste what we've built.
Eight years on, the promise hasn't changed — roasted at dawn, in small batches, sent fresh. Pick a bag, brew it slow, and see what all the fuss is about.