THE COFFEE BEING USED BY OUR CONTENDERS WON'T BE REVEALED UNTIL THE COMPETITION KICKS OFF. HOWEVER, WE'RE EXCITED TO SHARE SOME DETAILS ABOUT THE REMARKABLE ROASTER BEHIND IT ALL – ASSEMBLY.

In 2014, established South London coffee roastery Volcano Coffee Works brought together the UK’s most progressive independent coffee shops and restaurants to share their experiences and define the ways in which a roastery could most effectively fulfil its role in the specialty coffee value chain.

After six months of conversations, there was a clear vision for a new roastery that would source the highest quality specialty coffees in the world through the lens of its customers. The roastery had to be innovative, responsive, dynamic and consistent in how it supported its wholesale partners as the specialty movement progressed.

In practice, this meant:
• The roastery would only source coffees that met the needs of its customers and never for its own gratification
• The offering would be informed by the continuous accumulation and evaluation of quantitative and qualitative data from across the coffee supply chain
• It would commit to always challenging existing mechanisms of value creation
• It would operate in ways that made it a sustainable business in the long term.

The foundation for these core promises was the belief that the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts – committed to in the very name of the new roastery – Assembly.

In 2024, closing in on a decade at the forefront of the specialty movement, a shared commitment to quality drives forward our long-term partnerships with pioneering producers, hospitality operators, scientists and academics. All of us working to advance speciality coffee as a fair, sustainable and impactful value chain.