KillBean is a roaster in Kilburn, North London, with the motto “Good coffee. Simply selected.” It roasts very light, and its bags recommend drinking the beans between eight and twelve weeks after roasting. KillBean once sold coffee that had already rested a month, but customers linked freshness with quality, so it now roasts close to dispatch and leaves the resting to the buyer.

The shelf leans on Geisha. From Panama there are lots from the Lamastus family’s Elida and El Burro estates, Café Kotowa’s Las Brujas, Hacienda Barbara and Finca Hermanos Pérez, the last through Altieri’s Abbraccio project. From Ethiopia come Gesha Village lots, among them GVA.20, a honey-processed Gesha 1931 from the estate’s 2026 Pride of Gesha auction; a Buku Abel natural ranked sixth in the natural category at the African Fine Coffees Association’s Taste of Harvest; and a zero-fermentation washed coffee from ALO in Sidama. Colombia is represented by a washed Bourbon Ají from the Las Brisas farm in Huila. KillBean also roasts the Hachi project’s experimental lots, among them a Gesha soaked for 36 hours in the fermenting liquor of a natural Gesha and a Yunnan coffee made by cascade fermentation. Rare lots come in 50g and 100g bags.

A monthly selection sends one coffee a month, recently a washed Geisha from Lincang in Yunnan, selected and roasted by KillBean. He Yanyi writes KillBean’s blog, including a recipe that pairs a Relax Fruit dripper with a Switch base to bring back the acidity of ultra-light roasts. KillBean also sells its own fast lyocell filter papers and supplies cafés through a wholesale platform.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: KillBean