How is coffee from an Independent coffee roaster different?

We know that buying from local independent retailers is brilliant in many ways.

It helps support the local economy plus you’re helping to support small businesses and the dreams of their owners. As a small independent ourselves, we know how it important it is to support each other.

By building a network of local independents, all supporting each other by selling each other’s products or by recommendations. The local economy can thrive through word of mouth, helping customers to shop local.

Two Chimps Coffee roastery

Independent retailers are often able to offer a product or service that either cannot be found elsewhere or trumps the quality of those available elsewhere. As an Independent coffee roaster, we are no exception to this. At Two Chimps Coffee, we don’t only offer awesome tasting fresh coffee, oh no, there’s so much more.

So what do you get from one of the UK’s top 40 independent coffee roasteries? (voted by muddy stilettos – the urban guide to the countryside)

Ethically sourced single origin speciality coffee

We only ever source our beans via as direct trade as possible to us.  This means we source straight from the farm through the assistance of a trade house. Because the supply chain is as short as we can make it, this allows more of the money paid to go directly back to the coffee farm and its workers. In turn, this allows the farmers to build their business by improving working conditions and pay for the workers, alongside living conditions.

Through education, farmers and generations to come can learn new skills which will also help them grow their business also. In fact, some of the farms we source our amazing speciality coffee from even have their own school!

Ladies standing on and with green specialty coffee

We source single origin coffee which, to us, means it comes from one farm or small cooperative in one certain area of one county.

Often, single origin means just that; coffee from a single country. But for us, it is much more targeted than that. We even know the farmers’ name! This allows us full transparency of the traceability of the coffee. If we ever encounter a problem, we’ll know the exact farm that the beans were grown. This is more difficult if you have a blend of coffee from many farms in the same country because you’d never be able to trace back to the exact grower.

Speciality coffee is the highest grade of Arabica coffee available. More often than not, everything is done by hand rather than the use of machines; from picking the ripe cherries to sorting the defected beans from the good. To gain speciality status, the coffee must receive a quality score of at least 80 points. It is scored by professional coffee tasters, known as Q-Graders to ascertain the quality on points like the body, mouthfeel, aroma and acidity in the coffee.

worker on the coffee farm in honduras

Our Fresh Coffee

We roast coffee as single origins rather than as blends. This is because we want the individual flavours of a particular coffee to really shine in every sip. We only use seasonal crops, guaranteeing us of the freshest coffee and not a coffee that has been stored for months on end before we’ve even received it.

As we look to source coffee from smaller farms and cooperatives seasonally, this does mean that from time to time, our coffees do change. Once a coffee has been grown, harvested, processed and drunk, that particular coffee ceases to exist. As our stocks run out, we must find another coffee to take its place. This replacement is always similar to that of the predecessor, but never exactly the same.

coffee being sampled from a roaster

On top of our range of six single origin coffees, we also have two Limited-Edition coffees.

These change more frequently than our other coffees and don’t always follow a pattern; giving you lots of coffees to try across the year.

We think everyone should be drinking their coffee at its freshest. Which is why we only source the freshest seasonal coffee and roast this by hand in small batches. Once we’ve sourced fresh green coffee beans from a small farm or cooperative, we store them at our roastery in perfect conditions to keep them fresh.

As an independent coffee roaster, we know that the best time to drink coffee is between three and fourteen days after roasting. This is when the coffee is at its absolute freshest. As the coffee gets older, it starts to deteriorate. The longer it is left, the more it goes stale. After the initial fourteen days, the beans will slowly oxidise up to 4 weeks after roasting, and very little is lost until after 12 weeks. After this, however, the beans start to change in taste, and the flavours that were there can be lost.

If you notice, many off the shelf brands of coffee will have a best before date. This doesn’t help you know when they were roasted; they could have been roasted months and months ago. That’s not fresh!

set of three two chimps coffees with a tin

The beauty of buying coffee from an Independent coffee roastery is that we put the roast date on all of our bags so you can see just how fresh your coffee is.

Our top tip would be that it’s best to order a smaller bag every week or two, rather than a large bag to last the month. This way, you know you are getting freshly roasted coffee every time. If you are looking for ground coffee, then that will be just as fresh as we only grind on the day of despatch.

Roasting

Our hand roasted speciality coffee is roasted to perfection using our onsite coffee roaster. Our head roaster, Andy manages the roasts by keeping an eye on them and adjusting if necessary, all the way throughout the roasting process. He has to make sure that the temperature is right to start with and then throughout. Andy uses smell, sound and sight to monitor the roast. These senses will tell him at which point in the roast the beans are at, at any one time. For example, when the smell of hay is present, this means the beans are well into the phase of losing moisture.

Coffee being poured from a roaster drum

We never over roast our beans as this will only cause them to become burnt and taste bitter. The beans have been cared for throughout their journey. From cherry to cup, and we continue to show them care by roasting to showcase their wonderful flavours.

By using the freshest ethically sourced beans, only roasting when necessary and offering no minimum order and spend over £25 for free 1st class tracked delivery , you can enjoy awesome fresh coffee every week. This is why buying coffee from an Independent coffee roaster is so much better than everyday lower grade coffee from the supermarket.

Artisan coffee made with care and attention to detail is just a few clicks away. Give it a try!

 

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