This Month’s Coffee Subscription Picks: Assembly Coffee & Two Chimps Coffee Feature in Our Festive RISE Box

If you're searching for the best coffee subscription in the UK or looking to discover incredible independent roasters like Assembly Coffee and Two Chimps Coffee, this month’s RISE Coffee Box curation is a real treat. December brings festive flavours, sustainable sourcing, and stories from two of the UK’s most exciting ethical roasters, all wrapped up in our most celebratory box of the year.

Whether you're a seasoned speciality coffee lover or gifting a subscription to someone new, this month’s coffees showcase everything we love about small-batch roasting: craftsmanship, community, flavour and impact.

☕ A Quick Hello from Alice & Ben and How We Choose the Coffee for RISE

Hi! We’re Alice and Ben, the founders of RISE Coffee Box. Our mission is simple:
to curate the UK’s best independent coffee and deliver it fresh to your doorstep, sustainably.

Every month, we taste around 10–25 coffees from small roasters across the country. We look for:

• Outstanding flavour

• Ethical sourcing and transparency

• Sustainability credentials (shade-grown, organic, regenerative farming, B Corp )

• Roasters doing good in their communities

• Unique seasonal profiles our subscribers will love

Then we handpick the coffees that truly stand out and pick the ones with a story, a purpose, and a flavour profile we can’t stop talking about.

This month’s winners? Assembly Coffee and Two Chimps Coffee.

🎄 Meet This Month’s Chosen Coffees

1. Assembly Coffee – Mió, Brazil

Assembly Coffee, based in London, is one of the UK’s most respected speciality roasters  and we’re thrilled to feature them in this month’s box. Not only are they B Corp certified and carbon neutral, but their approach combines innovation, sustainability, and deep collaboration with producers.

About the Roaster

Assembly hand-roasts on energy-efficient machines in West Norwood, cutting emissions by up to 80%. Their ethos?
Flavour, community and transparency.
They work closely with producers, championing regenerative agriculture and long-term relationships.

About the Coffee

This collaboration between Assembly and Brazilian producer Fazenda Mió is a celebration of flavour and sustainability. Grown in Minas Gerais, this coffee delivers a silky, full-bodied espresso bursting with:

• Milk chocolate

• Caramel

• Hazelnut

It’s festive, rich, and perfect with your Christmas oat latte or simply enjoyed black.

A Coffee with Impact

Fazenda Mió and Assembly work together on the Sombra Project, an agroforestry initiative reforesting 60,000 trees to restore biodiversity and soil health. Assembly has already invested £85,000 into the project — proof that ethical sourcing can drive real environmental change.

Coffee Specs

• Roast: Medium–Medium Dark

• Process: Washed

• Altitude: 900–1,100m

2. Two Chimps Coffee – Better Than Socks (Burundi)

Our second feature is from Two Chimps Coffee, an independent, carbon-neutral roastery based in Rutland. Fun, approachable and sustainability-led, they’re a roaster our subscribers always love — and this month, we co-created a festive coffee together.

About the Roaster

Earlier this year, Ben spent the day with Laura and the Two Chimps team tasting coffees to find the one that tasted most like Christmas.
Their selection was voted on by their whole team and the name “Better Than Socks” won — because honestly, what gift isn’t better than socks?

Two Chimps roast with precision, passion, and a firm commitment to:

• Fair wages

• Sustainable farming

• Low-impact production

About the Coffee

This festive coffee may taste like Christmas magic, but its story starts on Shikankoni Hill in Burundi, a region famed for ideal coffee-growing conditions. Produced by a Belgian-Burundian couple committed to fair, sustainable farming, this is a sweet, warming, comforting seasonal cup.

Expect flavours of:

• Christmas pudding

• Rich treacle

• Cherries

Coffee Specs

• Roast: Medium

• Process: Washed

🔥 Ben’s Day at Two Chimps: Choosing & Roasting the Festive Coffee

One of the most exciting parts of this month’s curation is that Ben didn’t just taste the Two Chimps options he actually spent the day at their roastery helping to roast the final coffee.

Earlier this year, he joined Laura and the Two Chimps team in Rutland for a full hands-on roasting session. Together, they:

• Sampled a wide range of coffee options looking for the most festive. 

• Discussed flavour notes, processing and origin stories

• Tested different roast profiles

• Narrowed down the coffees that tasted most like Christmas

• Voted as a team on the final choice: Better Than Socks

The final roast curve — the one you’re drinking this month — was developed on the day, standing side-by-side with their roasting team, adjusting timing, airflow, and temperature to bring out those festive notes of Christmas pudding, rich treacle, and cherries.

It’s rare for a subscription company to be so directly involved in the roasting stage, but at RISE, that connection matters.
It means every bag of coffee in your box is chosen with intention — and in this case, literally roasted with our own hands.

Why It’s Named Better Than Socks

During Ben’s visit to the Two Chimps roastery, the team held a light-hearted vote on what to name the festive coffee. After sampling the different coffees and settling on the one that tasted the most like Christmas, the team began throwing around festive name ideas. In the end, Better Than Socks was the clear winner, because let’s be honest, coffee is always a better gift than socks. The name captures exactly what we wanted this coffee to be: joyful, fun, memorable and undeniably more exciting to unwrap on Christmas morning than yet another pair of woolly socks.

🔥 Behind the Scenes: Roasting This Month’s Festive Coffee

For this special release, Ben visited Two Chimps to roast and taste alongside the team — searching for the perfect festive profile. It was a day full of sensory testing, tweaking roast curves and learning from true artisans.

Here’s a snapshot of the roasting journey:

Coffee Roasting Explained

• Green Bean Stage: Beans begin green and grassy.

• Drying Stage: Heat removes moisture, changing colour and aroma.

• First Crack (196°C): Beans pop — bright flavours emerge.

• Developing Flavour: Sugars caramelise into chocolate, nutty, and caramel notes.

• Cooling: Beans are rapidly cooled to lock in flavour.

We love giving subscribers a peek behind the curtain — because great coffee is an art, a science, and a story.

🌙 Decaf Picks of the Month

Assembly Coffee – Brazil (Decaf)

• Roast: Medium–Medium Dark

• Process: Natural, sugarcane decaffeination

• Notes: Milk chocolate, hazelnut

A smooth, chocolatey decaf from the same farm as the caffeinated option — perfect for any hour.

Two Chimps Coffee – Phishing with Dynamite (Colombia)

• Roast: Medium Dark

• Process: Sugarcane decaffeination

• Notes: Chocolate, toasted nuts, maple syrup

A rich, flavour-packed decaf with golden syrup sweetness and toasted nuttiness.

☕ Craft a Perfect Festive Latte (MOMA Oat Edition)

Our partners at MOMA created the Salted Maple & Hazelnut Oat Drink, which pairs perfectly with both coffees this month.
Froth it, pour it, dollop it into a snowman your festive latte awaits.

⭐ Ingredients (Serves 1)

• Double shot of espresso (use Assembly Coffee or Two Chimps for best results)

• 180–200ml MOMA Salted Maple & Hazelnut Oat Drink

• Optional garnish:

  • A drizzle of maple syrup

  • A pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg

  • Crushed hazelnuts

  • Festive sprinkles

🔧 Equipment

• Espresso machine, Moka pot or AeroPress

• Milk frothing jug

• Steam wand, electric frother, or handheld whisk

• Latte glass or cup

🎄 Method

1. Brew your espresso

Brew a double shot (around 40–50ml) of your favourite RISE coffee into a latte cup or glass.
A Brazilian or Burundian coffee works beautifully here thanks to their chocolate, caramel and festive fruit notes.

2. Prepare your oat milk

Pour 180–200ml of MOMA Salted Maple & Hazelnut Oat Drink into your pitcher.
Top tip: Use cold oat milk straight from the fridge — you’ll get the best microfoam.

3. Steam the oat milk

• Steam to 55–60°C — oat milk needs less heat than dairy.

• Avoid overheating; it will split or lose its sweetness.

• You want a silky, glossy texture with fine microbubbles.

If using a handheld frother, warm the milk gently before frothing.

4. Tap and swirl

Tap the jug on the counter to pop any large bubbles, then swirl to create a smooth, shiny texture worthy of your favourite café.

5. Pour your festive milk

Slowly pour the steamed oat milk into your espresso, holding back the foam with a spoon at first, then finishing with a thick, creamy layer on top.

6. Make it festive

Choose your finishing touch:

• A drizzle of maple syrup

• A dusting of cinnamon

• A pinch of nutmeg

• Crushed hazelnuts

• Or… build a mini foam snowman on top (yes, really)

7. Sip, enjoy, repeat

Your perfect festive latte is ready.
Sweet. Silky. Nutty. Christmassy.
And 100% dairy-free.

✨ Perfect Pairings

This latte tastes incredible with:

• Assembly Coffee (Mió, Brazil) — chocolate, caramel & hazelnut

• Two Chimps Coffee (Burundi) — Christmas pudding, treacle & cherries

Both coffees complement MOMA’s salted maple and hazelnut notes beautifully.

💬 RISE Community Spotlight: A Chat with Krissie

We caught up with long-time subscriber Krissie, who joined RISE after meeting Alice at the London Coffee Festival in 2022. Since then, she’s become a loyal member of the RISE community always exploring new coffees, new moments and new rituals. Here’s what she had to say…

🌍 What’s been your favourite coffee you’ve discovered through RISE so far, and why?

“Old Spike Sumatra Permata Gayo completely blew my mind. The flavour was unreal — dry fig, grapefruit, walnut… it was out of this world. I was still thinking about it days later. So beautiful.”

🧘 What does your perfect coffee moment look like?

(Morning ritual, weekend treat, mid-afternoon escape?)

“I recently stayed in an unyoked cabin in the woods in Chithurst and brought my RISE box with me. Honestly, nothing beats a fresh cup of coffee in the forest — sitting still, listening, birdwatching. Pure calm.”

💬 If you could share a coffee with anyone (dead or alive), who would it be — and what would you ask them?

“Someone who has never tried coffee before! I’d love to see their reaction — that moment when their whole world shifts and they realise what coffee can taste like. So cool.”

🎄 What’s your go-to brew or coffee during the festive season?

“Does mulled wine count? 😂 If not, almond cortados have become my new obsession. I’ve been loving them lately.”

✈️ If you could teleport to any coffee-growing country for a brew, where would you go and why?

“Ahhh, hard to choose! I’d probably say Brazil. Mostly because I’ve listened to Frank Sinatra’s The Coffee Song far too many times. I’d sit with a fresh cup and play the song on repeat.”

🎁 Christmas Gifting Sorted; With a Coffee Subscription

If you're looking for the perfect gift for a coffee lover, a RISE coffee gift subscription is a winner.

Why?
Because it’s:

• Delicious

• Sustainable

• Thoughtful

• And keeps giving long after the wrapping paper’s gone

Choose a one-off gift box, a prepaid multi-month subscription, or a long-term coffee adventure.
Either way, it’s the ultimate festive treat. Check out our coffee gifts here

At RISE, we believe in coffee that tastes good and does good.
By choosing a RISE Coffee Box subscription, you’re supporting:

• Independent UK roasters

• Sustainable farming

• Ethical sourcing

• Our Friendly Coffee Fund, which now supports 100+ children in Uganda

And you get incredible coffee — like this month’s Assembly Coffee and Two Chimps Coffee delivered fresh, every time.

Ready to join the journey?
👉 Explore our coffee subscription options here