Williams & Johnson Coffee Co. roasts in Leith, in the same room as its flagship café at Custom Lane, a contemporary co-working space and design hub on the Shore. Every coffee is roasted and packed there on a 12 kg Probat, and the company invites visitors to learn about the process, look round the gallery at Custom Lane or take a coffee along the Water of Leith. The café is open seven days a week, for coffee in-store and bags of the current roasts. Todd Johnson makes origin trips, including a 2022 visit to Brazil that came back with an exclusive natural yellow Catuai lot from Fazenda Passeio, and Mercanta is a sourcing partner.

The range is seasonal single origins split into filter and espresso roasts, with a decaf and the company’s first espresso blend, Peanut Butter & Jelly, which pairs its El Salvador espresso with a washed Sidama lot. The company looks for raw coffees produced sustainably in ways that benefit the communities that grow them, and the information cards packed with each single origin describe the farmers and pickers behind it. Bags are 250g or 1kg, whole bean or ground to order; a 250g order ships in a biodegradable sleeve inside a letterbox envelope. Filter and espresso subscriptions arrive every two, three or four weeks, with a new coffee from a different farm roughly every fortnight, and the whole range is offered wholesale to cafés and offices through a trade account.

Coffee on the shelf