Society Café was founded in 2011 by Jane and Adrian, who set out to run “a beautiful and friendly coffee shop serving… Speciality Coffee, that was then pretty hard to find”. The first shop opened in Bath. There are now seven, in Oxford, Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Cheltenham, and the Oxford café is in the city centre.
The house coffee is sourced and roasted by Origin Coffee Roasters in Cornwall, a partnership of eight years. Behind the bar in every Society shop is Donas de Café, a natural-process espresso from four women producers in Sul de Minas, Brazil, with notes of apricot, hazelnut and milk chocolate. A seasonal filter changes quarterly; the current one is a washed Kenyan from Murang’a County with notes of blueberry, lemon and marzipan. The decaf, Atlas, is a sugarcane-process Colombian from Caldas.
Guest roasters rotate through the shops, more than forty names in all, among them Sweven, Round Hill, New Ground from Oxford, Dark Arts, Assembly, Calendar, Manhattan, Dak, Morgon and Kawa. Milk in Oxford comes from Estate Dairy, and the tea is from Teahouse Emporium in Bath. The group sells its coffees, subscriptions and brewing equipment online.
Coffee on the shelf
- Origin Coffee Roasters house roaster, from Porthleven in Cornwall
- Society Café guest roasters the guest roaster list
Photograph: Society Café