Root & Branch Coffee, Belfast

Root & Branch opened in 2016 on a Belfast back street, in a space only big enough for a roaster and a coffee bar. It was “Belfast’s first specialty micro-roastery”, and its live acoustic Sunday Sessions filled the small courtyard with friends and travelling musicians. Two more cafés and an Irish kitchen followed as the business grew. Its line is “Really Good Coffee. Roasted in Belfast.”

Simon, the company director, was born and raised in Bangor. He studied biotech in Aberdeen and theology in the US and London before a year of research into specialty coffee led him to set up Root & Branch. Prin, the head roaster, came to coffee as a barista in Chiang Mai and moved to Belfast in 2012. Stephen, the operations manager, joined in June 2021 and runs the Roastery Brew Bar.

The roastery and brew bar are at Portview Trade Centre in East Belfast, where the current coffees are on as filter and espresso and bags are sold to take home. Root & Branch works with farmers and green coffee importers it believes in, and ships wholesale coffee to cafés, bars, restaurants, offices and hotels, on the view that “a beautiful meal shouldn’t be followed by a forgettable coffee”. Its two subscriptions are Core and Discover.

The current retail range is listed below with the roaster’s own tasting notes.