Category Archives: Retailers

Retailers of coffee beans and coffee equipment

Toi Moi & Café

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Toi, Moi & Cafe | Cafe TorrefacteurToi Moi & Café (“You, me and coffee” for those who don’t speak French) is a micro-roaster with its own café, located conveniently just around the corner from my friend Adam’s apartment, where I was staying in Montréal. It’s the last of the Coffee Spots from the visit I made to Montréal back in March and rounds off an excellent visit. I came to Montréal with no expectations and left having found a wonderful coffee scene, with a wide variety of places.

Toi Moi & Café doesn’t fit the bill of the third-wave coffee shop: as well as serving coffee, which it roasts itself, it’s also an excellent breakfast, lunch and dinner spot in a residential part of Montréal. And it has lots of cake. In short, it does pretty much everything, and, being around the corner from Adam’s, I found myself a fairly regular visitor, heading there for both breakfast and lunch, as well as coffee and cake!

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Pumphrey’s Brewing Emporium

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The Pumphrey's Coffee sign: 'Pumphrey's Coffee Served Here'Pumphrey’s, the coffee and tea merchants, is something of a legend in the North East and in Newcastle in particular. A family firm which can trace its roots all the way back to 1750, it’s still going strong. As well as wholesale roasting and distribution, Pumphrey’s has a retail arm, Pumphrey’s Brewing Emporium, right in the heart of Newcastle’s Grainger Market.

Regular readers will know that I have a thing for markets. So you can imagine my delight on not just finding a market, but on finding one with a top-notch Coffee Spot in it as well. Newcastle, I think I love you!

Pumphrey’s Brewing Emporium sells coffee beans and all manner of coffee equipment, as well as tea and other hot beverage sundries. Not only that, but it also dispenses coffee wisdom to those who wish to learn it and, to top it all, you can get a great cup of coffee, either from the espresso machine or brew bar. What more could you ask for? A bright, sunny day? In Newcastle? Yes, I had that too!

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Gimme! Coffee, Mott Street

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An espresso in a proper gimme! coffee cup, on the bench outside the Mott Street branch.Gimme! Coffee is both a roaster and a regional coffee shop chain with four branches in upstate New York, two in Brooklyn and the solitary branch in Manhattan on Mott Street. It’s been around since 2000, while the Manhattan outlet opened in 2008, making Gimme! Coffee a comparatively long-established player in the New York coffee scene (unless you compare it to somewhere like Caffé Roma!).

The Manhattan branch is essentially a takeaway place, although I got lucky with the weather and had a chance to sit outside while savouring my espresso. At a pinch, you could stand inside and drink your coffee, but when I tried that (while chatting to the staff) I found that I was constantly getting in the way of other customers.

For somewhere so small, Gimme! Coffee packs a lot in though, including bags of charm and character. As a result, instead of just being somewhere to grab a coffee to go, it’s established itself as a real asset to the neighbourhood. It’s the sort of place I’d make a point of going to if I lived in the area, even if it was only for a couple of minutes a day.

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Workhouse Coffee, Oxford Road

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The exterior of Workhouse Coffee Company on the corner of Oxford and Edinburgh RoadsWest Reading is not somewhere I’d automatically associate with fine coffee, but I’d heard good things about the Workhouse Coffee Company, so when the basketball club had a game against the Reading Rockets, it was the perfect excuse to check it out. It was also just after Workhouse was named in the Independent’s Top 50 independent coffee shops list, so I was keen to see what the fuss was all about.

What I found was a delightful little coffee shop, perched on a corner at the end of a row of shops. Inside it is wood and white paint, which, coupled with the large windows on two of the four walls, give it an amazing sense of space. As well as being a fabulous place to drink coffee, it’s also very serious about its coffee, being a roaster as well as a coffee shop, with beans on sale and a range of drinks, including a cafetiere for two and a pour-over filter.

There is a small but lovely-looking range of cakes, along with the usual pastries. Finally, there’s a range of sandwiches, Panini and filled croissants, along with pasties and sausage rolls in case you get hungry.

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House of Coffee

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Hidden away down a little alley in the centre of Leighton Buzzard is the appropriately-named House of Coffee. Well, I say appropriately, but really, it’s not a house and it sells tea as well! However, in light of what’s to come, I shall overlook these little faux pas.

My minor quibbles aside, the House of Coffee does coffee. It’s a coffee bean roaster and retailer, with a side line in coffee-making equipment and the aforementioned tea. It’s not huge, just a small, two-roomed shop, with the coffee roaster in the first room and the coffee making gear in the back (sadly the roaster wasn’t running when I was there, but you can, if you’re lucky, catch it in action). Opposite the roaster is the House of Coffee’s eponymous range of beans.

The best thing, apart from the excellent coffee, is the owner, Nick, aka Hectic Hamster. Here is a man with a true passion for and knowledge of coffee. I had a lovely time chatting away with him, which made the visit worthwhile by itself. However, if you can’t get to Leighton Buzzard, then never fear: all The House of Coffee’s excellent wares are available on-line through the website.

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Coffee Charisma

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One of the great things about living in Guildford is the North Street market every Friday and Saturday. It’s my weekly haven from the supermarkets and the only place (other than the supermarkets) where you can get fresh fruit and vegetables. However, the North Street market is also the home of the excellent Coffee Charisma, where I get the bulk of my coffee beans.

The owner, Trish, is a Kiwi with a real passion for coffee, and it shows with the wide range of beans that are on offer. I have a couple of favourites, plus a decaffeinated variety, that I take on a regular basis, but Trish is always tempting me with various different beans. All her beans come from two local roasters and since she has fairly small deliveries, it means the beans are always fresh.

It also means that Trish occasionally runs out of my favourites, which is when she tempts me with an invariably lovely alternative. Well, she says she runs out. Personally, I think it’s just a ploy to sell me more coffee…

July 2014: Coffee Charisma now sells tea! Read all about it in the Coffee Charisma Update!

November 2019: I’ve learnt that Trish has returned to New Zealand and, as a consequence, Coffee Charisma is no more.

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Algerian Coffee Stores

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Algerian Coffee StoresI’m not going to say it’s the best, since I know there are very many fine purveyors of coffee beans in London, but put simply, the Algerian Coffee Stores on Old Compton Street is my (London) coffee retailer of choice. It has a massive range of coffee, plus various types of tea and an interesting selection of confectionery. If you don’t know what you want, just ask: the staff are very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable.

The Algerian Coffee Stores also serves take-away coffee, which, naturally, is of the highest quality. It also happens to be one of the cheapest cups of coffee you’ll find in London. The only downside is that the coffee can only be served in takeaway cups, so if you’re going to have an espresso, don’t forget to bring your own cup.

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