Nottingham’s coffee scene is built around local roasters and the cafés that grew up near them. Stewarts has roasted in the city since the 1980s and supplies the three Blend coffee shops. 200 Degrees started in a garage in 2012 and now roasts by the River Trent for coffee shops across England and Wales. Cartwheel roasts in Sneinton and runs a café in Beeston, where Greenhood has poured coffee since 2015. Effy pairs coffee with a viennoiserie bakery, and BEAR, a Staffordshire brand that roasts its own coffee, runs a glass-roofed store in Hockley.

200 Degrees, off the Market Square and in West Bridgford

The 200 Degrees coffee shop in West Bridgford, a brick building with a glass-fronted rooftop terrace strung with lights

200 Degrees began in Nottingham in 2012 with three men standing around an old roaster in a garage. The name was originally the temperature in Centigrade at which the green beans were slowly roasted, and the ideal brewing temperature in Fahrenheit. Most of the coffee is now roasted at the Roast House on the banks of the River Trent: more than 200 tonnes a year for the shops, the online store and more than 500 wholesale customers. The Roast House takes drop-in visitors on weekdays for questions and beans, gives tours by arrangement and holds open days through the year.

The flagship coffee shop opened in October 2014 in a 17th-century coaching inn tucked off the Market Square, with a barista school and a meeting room for up to 12 people. Another Nottingham shop sits in a Victorian railway hotel a few metres from the station, a third opened opposite the Victoria Centre in May 2022, and the West Bridgford shop, opened in July 2023, was the first 200 Degrees with a rooftop terrace. The house espresso, Brazilian Love Affair, is the coffee served in every shop, and the roaster’s notes for it are chocolate, caramel and hazelnut. Beyond Nottingham there are shops in cities from Cardiff and Chester to Leeds, York and Lincoln, and seven barista schools in all.

Cartwheel Coffee, Beeston

The slate-blue corner building of Cartwheel’s Beeston café, with the CARTWHEEL sign over the door, a covered terrace with planters and a cyclist passing

Cartwheel Coffee is run by Alex, who grew up working in The Bean, his mother’s coffee shop in Beeston: he was clearing tables at eight and had done every job in the café by fourteen. He fell for coffee while his family lived in Canada, trained across the UK and qualified as a Q-Grader, then opened his first café in Nottingham city centre with his wife, Becci, designed around an attached roastery. Since 2018 the roasting has been done on a Probat Probatone 12 in Roden House in Sneinton, a building of independent businesses, studios and rehearsal rooms, where a bakery now makes the café’s bakes and where Cartwheel runs home brewing and espresso workshops and a roastery tour with a cupping.

The Beeston site has been a coffee shop since 1998. Cartwheel took it on in 2021 and reopened it that July after a refurbishment, and it now serves Cartwheel’s own coffee with a seasonal brunch and lunch menu seven days a week, including vegan and gluten-free dishes. There is a part-sheltered, heated terrace and seating over two floors, with a quieter upstairs suited to laptop work, and dogs are welcome. Most of Cartwheel’s coffees are named after the farm or cooperative that grew them, and the range runs from Kenyan and Ethiopian lots to a Costa Rican black honey and a decaf from Popayán.

Blend, Sneinton Market

The red-brick corner front of Blend in Sneinton Market, with green window frames and the blend name in the window

Blend opened in 2017 in Sneinton Market, a revamped 1930s fruit and vegetable market whose units have since filled with artisans and independent businesses. There are now three Blend cafés: Sneinton Market, a café at Nottingham Contemporary in the Lace Market, and Blend East West at City Gate East. The espresso blend comes straight, with dairy or alternative milks or as an iced latte, beside a batch brew that changes regularly. The kitchen serves its “famous grilled-cheese toasties” alongside brunch, pastries and handmade cakes, with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options.

The coffee is roasted close by in Sneinton by Stewarts Coffee Roasters, whose beans and brewing kit are on Blend’s shelves, ground to order. Stewarts goes back to the 1980s, when its founder, Stewart Falconer, came home from travelling with a taste for better coffee than he had known and began roasting by hand in small batches. Its range includes Escape Espresso, a Great Taste Award winner in 2024, and a Ltd. Batch series that opened with a Pink Bourbon from Huila.

BEAR, Hockley

Customers at a window counter inside BEAR Hockley, framed by red doors and windows, with small wooden tables and globe lamps

BEAR Hockley is the Nottingham store of BEAR, which two friends, Craig and Michael, started on a supermarket espresso machine in Craig’s dad’s shed before opening the first store in their hometown of Uttoxeter in February 2016. Hockley opened in 2023 as the seventh of what are now nine stores. Behind a small red frontage among Hockley’s colourful shopfronts, the rooms open out under a glass roof, with coffee and cocktail nooks. The all-day menu moves from coffee and brunch to small plates and cocktails in the evening, and Hockley alone serves plant-based soft serve, in sundaes and affogatos. BEAR blends and roasts its own coffee; most drinks in its stores are made with its first blend, the Hometown. Tables can be booked, dogs are welcome, and the Hockley Coffee School is a room for hire.

Effy, Hockley

The burgundy-walled interior of Effy in Nottingham, with a wooden bench, a black stool, red shelving and an orange poster beside a panelled door

Effy is a modern coffee store and viennoiserie bakery, founded and grown in Nottingham in 2019. Like BEAR, it is in Hockley.

Greenhood Coffee, Beeston

Greenhood’s owner standing outside the white Greenhood Coffee shopfront in Beeston, with a green tiled pillar and autumn leaves on the pavement

Greenhood Coffee is a neighbourhood coffee house in Beeston, established in 2015. Its owner, Rors, has worked in coffee for 16 years and run Greenhood for 11; after a year mostly behind the scenes he is back behind the bar. The coffee comes from NewGround, the Oxford roaster, which credits Greenhood with silky flat whites and “a first class filter menu”, and the menu board offers a guest bean alongside matcha, chai and cold brew.

What you need to know about Nottingham specialty coffee

Which Nottingham coffee shops roast their own coffee? 200 Degrees roasts at its Roast House by the River Trent, Cartwheel Coffee in Sneinton, Stewarts roasts for the Blend cafés, and BEAR roasts its own coffee for its stores, Hockley among them.

Can you visit a roastery? The 200 Degrees Roast House welcomes visitors on weekdays, gives tours by arrangement and holds open days. Cartwheel’s Sneinton roastery is open by appointment and runs a roastery tour with a cupping.

Where is the coffee in the city centre? 200 Degrees has shops off the Market Square, by the station and opposite the Victoria Centre. Blend has cafés at Sneinton Market, at Nottingham Contemporary and at City Gate East, and BEAR and Effy are in Hockley.

Where can you learn about coffee? 200 Degrees has a barista school in its Flying Horse Walk shop, with classes from coffee fundamentals and latte art to SCA Barista Skills courses. Cartwheel runs home brewing and home espresso workshops at its roastery, and Stewarts runs 30-minute workshops and barista courses.

What about Beeston? Cartwheel’s Beeston café has been a coffee shop since 1998; it is walk-in only, welcomes dogs and has an upstairs room suited to laptops. Greenhood, in Beeston since 2015, serves NewGround coffee with a filter menu and a guest bean.

Photo credits

Photographs belong to the businesses and are reproduced from their official websites with attribution.