Parallel Coffee is a Glasgow coffee company that sources and roasts the coffees of each season, “always chasing distinctive and exceptional flavour profiles”. The name refers to the coffee belt: coffee grows mostly between 23.5° north and 23.5° south of the equator, the parallels that frame the world’s growing regions, and understanding how altitude, soil, climate, shade and variety shape a coffee’s flavour is at the heart of how it buys.

Each coffee is roasted with its origin, variety and processing in mind, and most sit towards the lighter end of the roasting spectrum. Most of the range is Colombian, with experimental lots from farms such as Bella Vista and Betania in Huila and Quebraditas, whose Typica Mejorado is yeast-inoculated and thermal-shocked, next to Rwamatamu’s Musozi lots from Rwanda in washed and natural versions, a Purple Typica from the Yunlan Estate in Yunnan and a Catigua from Costa Rica. The range also includes Paubrasil, a natural from Brazil’s Cerrado Mineiro, and Palmera from Huila.

Parallel also sells brewing and espresso equipment and runs private barista training, in sessions for one to four people built around each customer’s experience, equipment and goals, covering espresso, extraction, milk steaming and brewing. Wholesale customers order through a separate portal.

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Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Parallel Coffee