Monmouth Coffee Company started roasting and retailing coffee in 1978, in the basement of its Covent Garden shop, on direct-flame machines: first a small UNO, then a 1930s Whitmee. That shop is still open. In 2007, having opened a second shop by Borough Market and outgrown the basement, Monmouth moved its roasting to three converted railway arches in Bermondsey, and ten years later a little further east to Spa Terminus, where five arches hold the roastery, a tasting room and the offices, with two Loring roasters. The third shop opened in Bermondsey, around the corner from the roastery.

Monmouth sources and roasts coffee from single farms, estates and cooperatives, and when it likes a coffee it wants to know where it comes from and who grows, picks and processes it. The team travels through the year to visit the producers it buys from, and the relationship it looks for with grower and exporter is sustainable, fair and equal trade. It buys small lots, so the counter changes as each one runs out, roasts Monday to Friday, and sends its decaf to Descamex in Mexico for Mountain Water processing. Some coffees carry organic certification.

The shops sell whole-bean and ground coffee, with every coffee available to sample, alongside ceramic filter cones and papers. Filter is brewed with 22 grams of coffee and espresso with 19 to 21. Since March 2022 Monmouth has used no paper cups: coffee is served in ceramic to stay, or to take away in your own cup or in a Monmouth loan cup against a deposit. Pastries and sweet things come from Little Bread Pedlar, Notting Hill Bakery, Babelle and Chocolarder, the milk from Ivy House Farm, with Oatly as the non-dairy option. The shops take card payments only. Monmouth runs no public classes, and the roastery is not open for tours. The current retail range is listed below with the roaster’s own tasting notes.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Monmouth Coffee Company