11 best independent coffee brands that are worth getting up for

Batch works a little differently from other roasteries on our list. Think of it as a curated platform for the best single-origin beans from roasters across the UK and Ireland, including Rounton, Caravan, and Olfactory. Each is expertly reviewed in-house, before selecting those to showcase. Essentially, it’s taken the guesswork out of trawling individual websites, and guarantees top-quality coffee via its convenient coffee-club model.

If you’re a creature of habit, you can rely on its seasonal blend (from £7.95, Batchcoffee.co.uk) year-round, but its taster box – available in decaf and full strength – is a great place to start if you’re up for trying new brews. Our favourite of the selection was the Divino Nino from Oxford’s New Ground Coffee Roasters – a Colombian blend that resulted in the silkiest crema we’ve achieved at home, with a moreish, deep caramel flavour.

92 Degrees has come a long way since its humble Hope Street roastery, opening outposts in Liverpool, Manchester, Southport, Leeds and London. Despite this, its namesake espresso remains the same (and for that, we are forever grateful).

Best suited to those who prefer a richer cup, it’s full of ripe, red berries and salted caramel flavours, with a decadent dark chocolate backbone. Bright and lively in a long black, or moreish topped with milk. Though we love the ritual of brewing our own coffee from scratch, this is also available in convenient Nespresso-compatible, compostable pods (£7.50, 92degrees.coffee) for those time-short mornings. Better yet, 10 per cent of all bagged coffee revenue goes to Project Waterfall, to support its work with coffee-growing communities across the globe.

Roasted to order and delivered to our door within two days, Fireheart Coffee impressed from the off with its clear commitment to quality coffee. We tried three roasts, but found a firm favourite in Adola, a juicy Ethiopian blend with uplifting floral aromas and notes of honeycomb and vanilla.

The flavour profile is generous yet gentle, making it perfect for a mid-afternoon brew or for use in a cafetiere to appreciate the more nuanced aromas at play. Looking for something big and bold? Try the palace blend (£9.95, Fireheartcoffee.com), which adds washed Colombian beans to the natural Adola base for a richer cup full of candied orange, dark chocolate and cherry flavour.

With nine London sites (and counting), the Gentlemen Baristas is quickly converting the capital with its range of speciality coffees – all of which are named after old-school hats.

The most versatile of the lot is the deerstalker, using a 50/50 ratio of beans from Brazil and El Salvador. Flavour-wise, it offers malted milk chocolate, nougat and toasted hazelnut, which is why we recommend using a moka pot to enable each and every layer of flavour to shine through.

We were lucky enough to try the rest of the range: the floral-forward boater blend (£14, Thegentlemenbaristas.com) makes a stellar long black, while the bowler (£13, Thegentlemenbaristas.com), with its bright acidity and rounded, butterscotchy mouthfeel, took the crown for straight-up espresso.

The brainchild of brothers, Victor and Santiago Gamboa, Hermanos set out to create a stage for quality, single-origin Colombian coffee here in the UK. With a string of successful London coffee shops under its belt, we think it’s fair to say the brand has done just that.

Thankfully, you can now get your hands on its coffee outside the capital, via the convenient online store. Our front-runner from the 100 per cent Colombian line-up was hacienda el Calapo, which features an organic bean farmed on the eastern Andes. An excellent all-rounder, it’s sweet and balanced with tasting notes of malted milk chocolate, walnuts, and crisp apple.

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Choosing coffee based on brief tasting notes can be hit and miss, which is why we love Union’s helpful guide on picking the perfect beans for your palate. A brief questionnaire led us to this beauty: setamo, a washed Ethiopian coffee grown at 1,800m above sea level by a small cooperative in the Sidama region.

The higher elevation may sound inconsequential, but, in fact, it enables the coffee to ripen slower and develop more complexity in the process. In the cup, it has the same citrus lilt as earl grey, with a silky-smooth mouthfeel, light bergamot notes and mellow acidity. The perfect light roast for a mid-afternoon espresso.

We’ll be honest, Barista & Co’s bright colour-pop packaging was almost sufficient to wake us from our slumber before we’d had our caffeine fix. But, of course, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, so we’re happy to report its house darker roast delivered flavour in spades.

Synonymous with superb arabica beans, this Colombian blend is rich, smooth, and supremely well-balanced. The flavour profile is dominated by bittersweet dark chocolate and baked vanilla, which made for a delicious long black (though it would work just as well with milk or a non-dairy alternative for a creamier cup).

When it comes to supporting the environment, Modern Standard Coffee puts its money where its mouth is. As a member of One Percent for the Planet, it donates a minimum of 1 per cent of its annual sales to environmental non-profit organisations. The Scottish roaster, which is also one of the few female-founded coffee businesses in the UK, also donates post-roast coffee chaff as a fertiliser to community gardens and aims to be CO2 neutral by next year.

Of course, all that wouldn’t matter much if the coffee wasn’t tasty but it is – intensely so. This is a blend of 70 per cent Brazil Santa Lucia and 30 per cent Colombian el Porvenir, it brings smooth-drinking chocolatey and sweet caramel notes to your morning sipping ritual.

Coffee geeks living in London are sure to have stumbled upon Climpson and Sons, because this Hackney-based brand is known for turning out some of the finest flat whites in the country. The secret is down to its exceptional coffee, sourced fresh throughout the year, blind-tasted to ensure quality and roasted on-site at Climpson’s Arch.

All this brand’s brews are pretty top-notch, but the estate, a single-origin espresso, is a winner in a flat white as the milkiness brings out its orange, toffee and chocolate notes. As you’d expect of a quality Ethiopian coffee, it’s bright, complex and crisp. The carefully sourced beans come from the Kilenso Mokonisa Cooperation, where super-small growers work together to combine their hand-picked coffee cherries.

While based in the UK, Nørlo takes a page out of the Nordic style book with its smooth, aromatic speciality coffee, lightly roasted to let the natural flavours of the beans shine.

With beans sourced from farms across Ethiopia, Central and South America, the coffee’s floral, fruity and light notes give way to a pleasant pop of acidity near the finish – we believe Nørlo when it says its beans are in the top 1 per cent of quality worldwide. Other things we love? It’s certified organic, Fairtrade and all the brand’s coffee husks, a byproduct of roasting, are used to create biodiesel.

Long gone are the days when great coffee could only be found in the cosmopolitan centres. If ever there was proof of that, it’s Hinba, an independent roastery tucked away on the rural Isle of Seil.

Proudly Scottish, its mantra is: “pure air, pure taste, pure Hebridean”, which rings true on tasting the Carranza blend. It’s berry-forward, with prominent aromas of honeyed strawberry and a light floral lift of jasmine. We found it delivered best results when brewed in our trusty office Aeropress.