October RISE coffee box
Costa Rica Meets Colombia: A Coffee Close to Our Hearts.
Written by Alice & Ben, co-founders of RISE Coffee Box, Great Taste Award judges 2026, B Corp certified, obsessed with finding the UK's best independent specialty coffee roasters.
This month's RISE Coffee Box features LIFT Coffee from London, a cafe turned roastery with a very similar story to ours, and Rise & Grind from Glasgow, a small-batch roaster who learned coffee living with farmers in Colombia. Two roasters, two volcanic-soil coffees: a Costa Rican from the volcano where Ben proposed to Alice, and an 86+ scoring Colombian from one-hectare smallholder farms. Plus two sugarcane decafs, the perfect mocha, and how to tell if your coffee is any good.
This box is a special one for us. It's the first time we've worked with LIFT, and their Volcancito comes from the slopes of Poás Volcano, where Ben proposed to Alice in 2025. Alongside it, Rise & Grind are bringing a Colombian that tastes like nutmeg, butterscotch and dark cherries. Let's get into it.
Two Roasters, Two Stories
LIFT Coffee
📍 London · Est. 2019This is the first time we've worked with LIFT, and wow, we're excited to feature them. They started as a cafe in 2019 with a similar model to RISE, showcasing great independent roasters they loved right inside their cafe.
LIFT went on to build their own roastery with an ethos around creating coffee that tastes like where it's from. They focus on the natural flavour of the coffee and its origin, and keeping it pure.
Rise & Grind
📍 Glasgow · Est. 2022We met Sam at the Glasgow Coffee Festival and loved his passion instantly. He joined the industry asking two questions: where does this come from, and who's it fair to? A year later he was in Colombia, living with farmers and learning coffee from the ground up. He's been going back ever since. That's him above.
Now his small-batch Scottish roastery runs tasting workshops, backs Los Osos and Mujeres de Giraldo at origin, and funds tree planting and school-building in Guatemala. He's a Roast Hero 2025 Glasgow Roasting Championship winner and a Great Taste Award winner.
This Month's Coffees
Volcancito
Costa Rica · Central Valley · WashedMedium
Filter: 15g → 240g water (92 to 94°C) · medium-fine grind · 2:45 to 3:15
The coffee: This one means a lot to us. Poás Volcano is where Ben proposed to Alice in 2025, so when LIFT sent over a coffee grown on its slopes, it was an instant yes.
It's grown in Costa Rica's Central Valley by Alejo Castro Kahle, a seventh-generation producer whose family has farmed here since the 19th century. At 1,500 to 2,000 masl, the volcanic soil gives this coffee its mineral depth. Across three farms and an on-site mill, Alejo has won multiple Cup of Excellence recognitions.
Expect chocolate up front, a hit of red fruit, and a smooth almond finish. Lovely black or with milk.
San Sebastián
Colombia · Smallholder growers · WashedScore
Filter: 20g → 320g water (94°C) · medium-coarse · 2:45 to 3:00
The coffee: This delicious 86+ scoring coffee from San Sebastián comes from smallholder growers in Colombia.
Farms here are small, typically just one hectare, tucked into volcanic-ash soil at 1,700 to 2,000 masl. Rise & Grind source this washed coffee through Cofinet, who work directly with the farmers. That direct relationship is what lets them trace the coffee back to the people who grew it and keep a close eye on quality.
Warm, spiced and sweet. Perfect for autumn mornings and a great base for the mocha below.
🌙 For the decaf drinkers
This fully washed lot is decaffeinated using the sugarcane process, a natural method that strips out the caffeine while leaving the coffee's real character intact. It's proof decaf doesn't mean compromise: the same sweetness, body and balance you'd expect from the caffeinated version, just without the buzz. Medium roast. Tasting notes: orange, caramel, almond, chocolate.
Jairo is a third-generation coffee farmer from Quindío and a pioneer in raising the reputation of decaf, processing high-scoring microlots with the sugarcane method. This natural processed, medium-dark decaf is a bold statement: you don't need caffeine to enjoy a vibrant, flavour-packed cup. Tasting notes: juicy cherry, silky chocolate, passionfruit. A combination you rarely find in decaf.
The Perfect Mocha
Coffee's wonderful on its own. We just happen to think it's a whole different game when chocolate turns up uninvited.
You'll need
- ✓ 1 espresso shot
- ✓ 22g Blendsmiths Dark Chocolate (1 sachet)
- ✓ 200ml Sproud milk, steamed
Method
- Pull your espresso shot and stir in the full sachet of Blendsmiths dark chocolate until it's properly dissolved, not just swirling around looking hopeful.
- Steam your Sproud milk until it's silky, then pour it over the top.
- Finish with a dusting of chocolate if you're feeling fancy, or skip it if you're drinking this standing up at the counter. We don't judge.
Blendsmiths and Sproud are our go-to picks for chocolate and alternative milk.
What to Look for on Your Coffee Bag
Our top three tips for reading a coffee bag and knowing whether you're drinking a good cup.
📍 Farm or region
"Single origin" just means one country. It doesn't tell you anything about quality. Look for the actual farm name or region, so you know someone can trace it back to real growers. Look for altitude too!
📅 Roast date
Not a best-before date, the actual day it was roasted. Coffee peaks in the first few weeks after roasting, so no roast date usually means it's been sitting around a lot longer than you'd want.
👅 Real tasting notes
"Smooth, rich, bold" tells you nothing, because every coffee claims that. Real notes like cherry, stone fruit or caramel mean someone actually tasted it and is describing what's really in it.
1,000 Sold. Don't Miss Out.
Pre-order our Coffee Countdown Calendar: 24 days, 24 whole bean speciality coffees from 18+ origins. It sells out every year. Scan the QR code behind each door to learn more about that day's coffee.
Pre-order the calendar →Win a Ninja Coffee Machine
We've upgraded our referral system to make it even easier to share. Don't worry, any credit from past referrals is still valid.
Refer the most friends, win a Ninja.
The prize is a Ninja Luxe Café Mini Plus. Every friend who uses your referral link and places their first order by 28 October counts as one entry. Whether you win or not, your friend gets £15 off their first box and you get £10 off yours.
RISE active subscribers only. Friends must be new, first-time subscribers. Closes 11:59pm, 28 October 2026. Winner contacted by Alice on 29 October.
New here? Start your RISE journey.
The UK's #1 specialty coffee subscription as voted by The Guardian. Two roasters. Every month. Cancel anytime.
Coffee With a Story.
October's box brings together two roasters who care about where their coffee comes from. LIFT, a cafe turned roastery making coffee that tastes like its origin, with a Costa Rican from a volcano that means the world to us. And Rise & Grind, a Glasgow roaster who learned coffee from the farmers themselves, with a Colombian from one-hectare farms you can trace back to the people who grew it.
Every cup you drink this month is part of something bigger. That's what RISE has always been about.
Enjoy every single cup. We'll be back next month with more.
Alice & Ben ☕
Share this
Perfect your latte art at home
Your Next Favourite
Coffee
Awaits.
Every month we blind taste hundreds of coffees so you don't have to. Two new independent roasters, freshly roasted, delivered straight to your door.
↔ Don't love your first coffee? We'll swap it.
We're so confident you'll love our coffee picks — we'll swap a bag for free if you don't enjoy it T&Cs apply. Click here to get your first box.
Choose your plan
Start your subscription.
Two coffees from two independent roasters
Two bags from each roaster
Prepaid 1, 3, 6 or 12 months
Pick your box
2 or 4 bags
Choose grind
Bean or ground
Set delivery
Change anytime
Leave a comment