Aether Coffee roasts in Hackney and runs a café, Aether Coffee Lab, in Wood Wharf at Canary Wharf. The idea took shape in Hackney and on journeys through coffee shops and roasters across Europe, and its slogan is “Indescribably Delicious. Rare. Beyond Compare.”

The Lab pulls an alternative espresso and brings in guest coffees, recently from a roaster in Rotterdam. It also serves matcha from Lalani & Co and sells single-origin bars from Pump Street Chocolate.

Aether gives each coffee a transparent account of its pricing and trade data, from cost and rating to origin, and shares a portion of its profits with its wholesale partners. Cafés that buy its coffee also get equipment, staff training and maintenance.

Most of the range is Colombian, from producers including Wilton Benitez at Finca La Macarena, Nestor Lasso at El Diviso, Edinson Argote at Quebraditas, Cesar Buesaquillo at La Esmeralda in Quindío and Luis Aníbal Calderón at Villa Betulia in Huila, many of them processed with long, controlled fermentations. Two Kenyan lots come from the Karumandi and Kianjiru factories of the Baragwi Farmers Cooperative Society in Kirinyaga, and the Danche honey from Yirgacheffe comes through SNAP Specialty Coffee, a partnership that began in 2022. Recent lots are roasted separately for espresso and filter, and one was also offered as an omni roast.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Aether Coffee