It started with a coffee cart
Eighteen years ago, in West Dulwich, our founder Kurt Stewart showed up with a vintage Italian Piaggio Ape cart, serving his Full Steam Espresso from the footpath off Rosendale Road. All Kurt wanted to do was introduce more people to better coffee (he knew what that was, being a Kiwi as well as a seasoned chef). They kept coming, so Kurt kept going — and he hasn’t stopped. Today, Volcano Coffee Works has a London coffee roastery, a café, and a team of 30 people on a mission to build the best coffee company we can, bean by bean. And the first batch of the day is still roasted by Kurt.
Drink Different
To make something better, you need to explore new ways of doing it — without the fear of breaking a rule or two. So that’s what we’ve been doing since day one. Buying the best beans, not the cheapest ones. Paying our farmers above fairtrade. Roasting coffee in small batches. We were the first to put speciality coffee into a coffee pod, and one of the first coffee companies to become a B Corp. If there’s a way to make speciality coffee better for the people who grow, brew and drink it, or for our planet, we’ll be working on it. Because great coffee can change more than just your morning: it can change the world, too.
Obsessively ethical coffee from independent farms, hand-roasted at our home in Brixton. That’s our idea of great coffee. We hope it’s yours, too. Volcano Coffee Works. Independent Works.
Independent Works
To make the kind of coffee we wanted to make, we simply had to be independent. We’ve always surrounded ourselves with people who share the same spirit of independence and changing things up — whether they’re a farmer in Brazil, a barista in an independent café, or someone enjoying a cup of Volcano at a WeWork space. Being independent works for us, it works for the people we partner with and serve — so that’s how we will stay.
Love People, Love Coffee
If there’s one thing we know, it’s that great things happen when you bring people and coffee together. Every cup can make someone’s life a little better, and everyone deserves a fair shot. That’s the belief behind every decision we make. We want our coffee to make things better for those who grow it, ship and package it, brew it, and drink it. After all, coffee doesn’t make much sense without the people who love it.
5 million cups of Volcano coffee are downed, sipped, savoured, or otherwise enjoyed every year.
Flavours That Get Fan Mail
What happens when a chef starts experimenting with coffee flavours? The answer is: Volcano Coffee Works. Years spent in the kitchen gave Kurt a different perspective — or even an unfair advantage, some would say. Coming from the culinary world, he is forever fascinated by coffee’s incredible depth of flavour and all the opportunities to combine, layer and blend coffees to create a landscape of flavour much like a sauce, a meal, or a wine. Serving a cup that makes someone stop in their tracks is the best feeling — and we never grow tired of hearing from the fans of The Mount Blend or our decaf coffee.
Speciality Coffee Without The Snobbery
We think exploring coffee should be fun. We want more people to get to know and love great coffee — so why make it harder than it needs to be? Instead of complicated jargon and snobbery, we go for a more welcoming approach: like flavour descriptions that are more tempting than technical, and human-friendly tips for brewing like a pro with any equipment. We love what we do and we want you to love it, too — and if you’re not sure where to start, we’re always there to help. Come say hello at our café and roastery in West Norwood or our Brixton HQ — our doors are open, and we’d love to meet you.
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