It is well documented that the coffee we know and love today, was first cultivated in Yemen and traded in Arabia during the 15th century. Pilgrims to the region discovered this 'Wine of Araby' and by the 17th century, coffee houses were prevalent throughout the UK and Europe. Not everyone though, was so enthralled with the 'magical elixir'. It was only by the intervention of Pope Clement VIII did it lose the infamous title, ''bitter invention of Satan''.

Idle River Coffee is a family run business that is passionate about delivering excellence and quality. We care deeply about operating responsibly, ethically and sustainably. We respect the environment, buy responsibly and endeavour to inspire change in our people, partners, customers, community and our business.

Responsible

We have strict social and environmental practices, and our business is guided by clear principles including consistency of quality, customer service, integrity, value for money and honest hard work.

Ethical

We do everything possible to make sure that every business partner, from our team in the UK to suppliers on the other side of the globe are treated fairly.

Sustainable

We want to minimise environmental impacts in the areas of waste, water, energy and air quality, we are constantly innovating to help solve modern day problems by investing in recyclable packaging. Our coffee is roasted with an eco-friendly coffee roaster cutting the use of natural gas and CO2 emissions.

At Idle River Coffee we advocate buying whole roasted beans. The reason for this is simple - Freshness. Our roasted coffee is absolutely packed with aroma and flavour, with no added artificial flavourings or enhancements. Our packaging is designed to keep it that way. However, the second you open a bag, coffee begins to degrade. At that point it’s a simple question of surface area - ground coffee has more surface area than whole beans by several orders of magnitude and will therefore lose aroma and flavour much faster. Grinding a small amount of whole beans and immediately brewing them is going to ensure you get to taste as many of these compounds as possible, bringing out all the wonderful complexity coffee has to offer.