Birmingham coffee shops worth leaving New Street station for

Java Roastery and Under Pressure Espresso roast their own coffee in Birmingham. Java Roastery opened as Java Lounge in Moseley in 2005 and now has coffeehouses across the city, and Under Pressure Espresso, a coffee shop in Sutton Coldfield since 2014, has roasted on the premises since 2020. 200 Degrees brings coffee roasted in Nottingham to three shops, one of them less than 50 metres from New Street station. Faculty has served a different roastery’s coffee every fortnight from the Piccadilly Arcade since 2013. Wayland’s Yard pours a house blend roasted in Bristol beside its diner brunch, and The Early Bird Bakery, in Kings Heath, bakes and serves Hundred House coffee. The Steam Room, in Harborne, serves coffee from Triple Co Roast in Bristol.

Java Roastery, Moseley and the city centre

Java Roastery has roasted and served coffee in Birmingham since 2005, when it opened as Java Lounge in Moseley Village. The second coffeehouse opened in 2015 in a Grade I listed Arts and Crafts building from 1900, in the heart of the city’s commercial district. A coffeehouse at Blythe Valley Business Park in Solihull followed in 2017, and a fourth is in the Jewellery Quarter. In 2019 the business took the name Java Roastery and set out its idea of the coffeehouse for 21st-century living as “coffee 3.0”: rooms to read, work, meet and relax in, with events built around music, literature and ideas.

The house blends are Siena, of Central and South American coffees with Mocha beans, roasted medium-dark for espresso, and Rilio, of coffees from South America, Asia and Africa, made for lattes. Single origins change with the harvests, and recent lots include Colombian coffees fermented with strawberries, watermelon or kiwi and a Panama geisha from Hacienda La Esmeralda. Java’s experts in roasting and blending include a Q grader, and its coffee school runs barista, latte art and brewing courses.

Under Pressure Espresso, Sutton Coldfield

Under Pressure Espresso began in 2014 as a small coffee shop in Sutton Coldfield. In 2020 it opened its own in-house roastery, and the coffee is now roasted at the shop every Monday and sold as The Coffee Wizards. The green coffee comes through importers including Raw Material, Osito, Primavera and Omwani. Two coffees are roasted for espresso, so the recipe behind the shop’s espresso drinks stays fairly constant, and the decaf, a sugarcane-processed Colombian, is roasted for every brewing method. The filter roasts are single lots from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Colombia, Brazil and Guatemala, each sold with its producer, altitude, importer and roast date.

200 Degrees, by New Street station and the cathedral

200 Degrees started in Nottingham in 2012 as three men around an old roaster in a garage, and now roasts more than 200 tonnes of coffee a year at its roast house there. Its first Birmingham coffee shop sits below the Grand Hotel, a Victorian building that faces the cathedral, with 90 seats on the ground floor and a barista school and meeting room in the basement. The barista school teaches brewing methods, dialling in, milk steaming and latte art. The second Birmingham shop is less than 50 metres from New Street station, on the ground floor of the old Midland Hotel, where some of the original interiors have been reclaimed. A third opened in Harborne in September 2025, bringing its coffee and “cosy surroundings” to the suburbs. The signature espresso blend, Brazilian Love Affair, is a medium roast with notes of chocolate, caramel and hazelnut.

Faculty, the Piccadilly Arcade

Faculty is a small, independently owned coffee and tea shop in the historic Piccadilly Arcade, established in 2013 with a simple purpose: “to serve exceptional drinks with a friendly service”. The coffee changes every fortnight, so that the bar can showcase “some of the world’s outstanding roasteries” in turn. The menu runs from espresso, piccolo and flat white to pour-over on the V60, served black only, with loose-leaf teas alongside. The food comes from its own in-house bakery, with a brunch menu from the kitchen, and the shop sells retail beans and home brewing equipment and runs coffee workshops.

Wayland’s Yard, the city centre

Wayland’s Yard serves specialty coffee and modern diner food under the motto “Always believe in your sauce”. It has been a neighbourhood coffee shop since 2016 and has two cafés, one in Worcester and one in Birmingham city centre. The house coffee, Yard Grind, is a medium-roast blend of a Brazil, a Peru and an El Salvador, sourced through direct trade relationships and roasted in Bristol; its tasting notes are chocolate and fudge as espresso and vanilla, raspberry and cream as filter. Breakfast is served all day, every day, from locally sourced produce, with vegan and vegetarian dishes on the menu.

The Early Bird Bakery, Kings Heath

The Early Bird Bakery is a coffee shop and bakery on the historic Kings Heath high street. Its pastry chef, Tim C, ran pastry kitchens in five-star hotels before moving back to Birmingham in January 2017 and selling his cakes at local food festivals; at that year’s Birmingham Coffee Festival he met Tim G, and the two founded the bakery with Joe. Pastries, cakes and savouries are baked daily in-house, brunch is served every day, and the coffee comes from Hundred House. Most of the tables are kept for walk-ins, and dogs on a lead are welcome. Its sister café, Perch, is in the city centre.

The Steam Room, Harborne

The Steam Room is a small independent coffee shop in the heart of Harborne, run by a small team for the local community. The coffee comes from Triple Co Roast in Bristol, including its BS1 Espresso, a washed Colombian, and Cruise Control, a pulped natural Brazilian from Cerrado Mineiro. Matcha is served hot or iced, with strawberry, vanilla, blueberry, rose, coconut and lavender flavours, and cakes are the only food while the kitchen is closed.

What you need to know about Birmingham specialty coffee

Which coffee shops in Birmingham roast their own coffee? Java Roastery has roasted in Birmingham since 2005 and sells its house blends and single origins at its coffeehouses and online. Under Pressure Espresso roasts at its Sutton Coldfield shop every Monday. 200 Degrees roasts in Nottingham.

Where is good coffee near New Street station? The 200 Degrees shop in the old Midland Hotel is less than 50 metres from the station, and Faculty is in the Piccadilly Arcade in the city centre. The first 200 Degrees, below the Grand Hotel, faces the cathedral, and Java Roastery’s city-centre coffeehouse is in the commercial district.

Which independent coffee shops are outside the city centre? Java Roastery’s first coffeehouse is in Moseley, The Early Bird Bakery is in Kings Heath, The Steam Room is in Harborne, and Under Pressure Espresso is in Sutton Coldfield.

Where can you learn to make coffee? 200 Degrees has a barista school in the basement of its shop below the Grand Hotel, Java Roastery runs a coffee school with barista, latte art and brewing courses, and Faculty runs coffee workshops.

Where is the brunch? Wayland’s Yard serves all-day breakfast every day, The Early Bird Bakery serves brunch daily and takes bookings for it, and Faculty has a brunch menu alongside its in-house bakery.