We opened the doors to our roastery cafe in the London borough of Richmond in the spring of 2018. With a deep dedication to sustainability and quality, our coffee roastery is an expression of our values. We roast on the world’s most environmentally sustainable coffee roaster, the Loring Smart Roaster. By recycling the heat in the roaster the Loring uses far less energy than any other roaster.

The history of coffee weaves through the history of nations and peoples all around the world, but it all started in what is modern day Ethiopia. The coffee bean is the fruit inside a small cherry-like fruit that grows on trees. There are many myths surrounding how humans started cultivating coffee but the best evidence is that the first people to begin planting coffee were living in present day Ethiopia. From there coffee spread to Yemen and across the Islamic world before coming to Europe and the rest of the world.

Coffee in the UK goes back to the first coffee house, opened in Oxford in 1652 by an Armenian man named Pascal Rosée. Cafes and coffee houses spread across the UK as the appetite for coffee grew. The history of coffee is also a history of which stories go untold. Coffee was always seen as a commodity, each cup the product of countless people working together across the world, but that story was not part of the wider narrative until the rise of speciality in the late 90's and early 2000's.

Speciality coffee is Arabica coffee which is transparently sold, with farmer names and their story being told. Speciality coffee is also a standard of quality. It is coffee that expresses a unique and distinct flavour, giving those who drink it more than just the generic flavour of coffee. This unique quality is formalized using the Specialty Coffee Association’s score sheet, which qualified coffee sommeliers called Q Graders use to rate a coffee. If a coffee scores above 80 that means it is officially speciality.

Arabica - This is a species of coffee and the most popular one in the world. The second most common is called Robusta, known for its bitter intense flavour. Although they look similar, these two types of coffee are as genetically similar as apples and pears.

Cultivar - Also called varietal, this is the kind of Arabica coffee a given lot is. Cultivars are like different kinds of apples: granny smith, pink lady etc. They all have their own unique characteristics.

Altitude - The best coffee is usually grown in environments with lots of sun and steady temperatures around 23 degrees Celsius. This means higher grown coffee is usually the best. Although altitude is a traditional way to know if a coffee is good, because of the changing climate, advancements in farming and how unique micro-climates can exist anywhere it is becoming less popular to rely on. Don't judge a coffee by its altitude!

Omni-Roast - There are countless ways to roast coffees, from really light to really dark. At Kiss the Hippo all our coffees are roasted using an omni-style which means they will taste great as an espresso or filter.

Processing – One of the most important things that affects a coffee's flavour is how the producer processed the coffee—that is, how they removed the fruit from the bean. The three primary processing methods are:

Washed – The coffee is picked and completely pulped before fermenting in a water tank and then drying. Washed coffees are easy-going coffees and the most common to drink.

Pulp Natural – Also known as honey processing, the coffee is picked and the skin is removed, leaving the pulp on before it is dried. These coffees are usually a bit fruitier and more vibrant than washed.

Natural – The coffee cherry is picked and the seed is left inside as the cherry dries like a raisin before being removed. These coffees are very complex and fruity.