Ritual is the only roaster here with its own café. It started in 2019 to raise the standard of coffee in the Cotswolds, and roasts by hand at a roastery on the Lansdown Industrial Estate, west of the town centre, where it also runs a brew bar and a kitchen. Four other coffee shops in Cheltenham bring their beans in: The Scandinavian Coffee Pod works with Assembly in London and other roasters from the UK and Europe, Society Café pours Origin from Cornwall alongside a rotating list of guest roasters, Suffolk Coffee serves Triple Co Roast from Bristol, and For The Saints pours Quarter Horse Coffee from the West Midlands. The Pod opened in 2014 and Suffolk Coffee in 2022.
Ritual Roasters, Lansdown Industrial Estate
Ritual Roasters was founded in 2019 by Courtney Conroy and Callum. They built it around a gap they kept seeing in the coffee trade: plenty of attention on origin, processing and roast profiles, much less on the person pulling the shot and the team opening up at six in the morning. Every batch is roasted by hand in Cheltenham and profiled for real café conditions, and the wholesale side supplies cafés, hotels and workplaces with coffee, barista training and machines, as an official supplier of La Marzocco, Mahlkönig and BWT. Ritual became a certified B Corp in 2026.
The Brew Bar sits inside the roastery and serves espresso and filter coffee, and the Ritual Kitchen cooks breakfast and brunch in-house from locally sourced ingredients, on a seasonal menu. An outside café adds coffee, milkshakes and soft serve in the warmer months. The bar is walk-in only, dogs are welcome and there is free parking in front of the roastery. The shop sells the core blends and the newest single origins in 250g and 1kg bags, from the Brown Sugar and Foundation espresso blends to washed Kenyan and Ethiopian lots, and the Head of Coffee, Joel, leads cupping evenings called The Roasters Table, where the single origins and core blends are cupped side by side.
The Scandinavian Coffee Pod, by Royal Well
The Scandinavian Coffee Pod opened in September 2014 in a glass and steel coffee pod of five square metres, painted yellow, which gave the business its name. It has since moved into a larger building at The Studios, by Royal Well bus station and two minutes from the Promenade, and the original pod is now the permanent entrance.
The Pod is built on the Scandinavian principle of “doing simple, well”, which here means concentrating on the coffee and leaving out anything that would distract from it. The bar works with roasters from the UK and Europe, among them Assembly Coffee in London. It runs latte art classes and coffee skills courses, and has opened a second espresso bar at Gloucester Food Dock.
Society Café, the town centre
Society Café was founded in Bath in 2011 by Jane and Adrian, who wanted to run a friendly coffee shop serving specialty coffee when it was still hard to find. The family-run group now has seven shops in Bath, Bristol, Oxford, Cardiff and Cheltenham, and the Cheltenham café is in the town centre.
The house coffee is sourced and roasted by Origin Coffee Roasters in Cornwall. The espresso in every Society shop is Donas de Café, a natural-process coffee from four women producers in Sul de Minas in Brazil, with notes of apricot, hazelnut and milk chocolate. Guest roasters rotate through the shops, more than forty names in all, among them Assembly, Round Hill and NewGround from Oxford. The group also sells its coffees, subscriptions and brewing equipment online.
Suffolk Coffee, The Suffolks
Suffolk Coffee opened in 2022 in The Suffolks, the neighbourhood it is named after, a short walk from Montpellier Gardens and 10 to 15 minutes on foot from the Promenade. The aim is “to serve delicious coffee of exceptional quality”, for commuters picking up a pastry on the way to work and for people settling in with a slice of cake.
The baristas use a Rocket Doppia espresso machine and a Mahlkönig grinder, with beans from Triple Co Roast, which Jo Thompson founded in Bristol in 2015 after two years learning coffee and roasting in California. Much of the rest comes from nearby: friands from Lara’s Tarts & Friands in Cheltenham, cakes and traybakes from Wild Flour Cake Company in Bath, tea from Born Wild Tea in Cirencester and soft drinks from Nuisance Drinks in Guiting Power. The cake menu always has a vegan option and a very low gluten one, and well-behaved dogs are welcome.
For The Saints, Montpellier
For The Saints is an espresso bar in Montpellier from JM Socials, the Cheltenham restaurant group of Jay and Michael, which also runs Prithvi, Bhoomi Kitchen and BAO + BBQ in the town. The baristas make Quarter Horse Coffee, from an independent roaster in the West Midlands, on a Modbar, and the menu runs from espresso and filter coffee, black or white, to flat whites, frappés and an affogato poured with a double espresso.
The kitchen makes its pastas, salads, pizzas and toasted dishes in house and changes them every week, next to Italian-style sandwiches, pastries from The Artisan Baker and scotch eggs from The Cotswold Guy. As the day goes on the bar turns to aperitivi, with Italian-inspired cocktails such as a coffee negroni, wine and Italian beers.
What you need to know about Cheltenham specialty coffee
Which coffee shops in Cheltenham roast their own coffee? Ritual Roasters roasts by hand at its roastery on the Lansdown Industrial Estate and serves the coffee at its brew bar in the same building. The Scandinavian Coffee Pod serves Assembly and other roasters, Society Café serves Origin and guest roasters, Suffolk Coffee serves Triple Co Roast and For The Saints serves Quarter Horse Coffee.
Where is the coffee in Cheltenham town centre? Society Café has a branch in the town centre, and The Scandinavian Coffee Pod is two minutes from the Promenade. Suffolk Coffee is in The Suffolks, near Montpellier Gardens, and For The Saints is in Montpellier. Ritual’s brew bar is out on the Lansdown Industrial Estate, with free parking in front.
Which Cheltenham coffee shops serve breakfast or brunch? The Ritual Kitchen cooks breakfast and brunch at the roastery from locally sourced ingredients. Suffolk Coffee serves pastries, friands and cakes from local bakers.
Where can you learn about coffee in Cheltenham? The Scandinavian Coffee Pod runs latte art classes and coffee skills courses, and Ritual holds cupping evenings at the roastery.
Can you bring a dog? Ritual and Suffolk Coffee both welcome dogs, and Ritual keeps water bowls and treats for them.
Photo credits
Photographs belong to the businesses and are reproduced from their official websites with attribution.
