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The best coffee in Yorkshire, UK (expertly tested and picked)

Alice and Ben founded RISE coffee box in 2020 as they knew there was better coffee to be enjoyed than what you find in the high street or on supermarket shelves. RISE set out to tour the UK to find the best coffee roasters they could find.
Before we delve into the best coffee in York and the surrounding areas, we wanted to share a bit more about our process for selecting coffee. So, what do we look for when we choose the best coffee to go inside The RISE coffee box? First and foremost, every coffee roster we work with has to fill out a RISE sustainability and sourcing questionnaire which is reviewed directly by Alice and Ben, we then look out for these factors.

Criteria	What we look for
Coffee bean quality	We have a 4 step process of determining the quality of the coffee bean. We blind taste test all coffee in a cupping session alongside a variety of samples. We have a head roaster gives their approval We have a taste test panel of customers who try the coffee before it makes the box Alice and Ben select the coffee that has the highest quality.
Responsibly Sourced coffee	Each coffee roaster fills out a RISE questionnaire so we can understand how they source their coffee and whether the farmers are getting a fair price. We look at which importers they are using or whether they are sourcing via direct trade.
Reputation	How well respected is the roaster and how well known are they in the coffee scene? Reputation matters and we work with partners that have credible reputations in the coffee world. We look at what awards they have won (including Great Taste) and what reviews they have from past customers. Recent partners include Dear Green coffee, North Star coffee, and Danelaw. See all our partners here
Sustainability practices	We look at what sustainability practises the coffee roaster has in place. This includes their packaging choices, how they handle waste, and whether they are B-Corp. We look for what accreditations they have including being Organic Certified, Fair Trade or Rainforest Association.
Uniqueness	At RISE coffee box we are all about variety, discovery and uniqueness. We look for roasters that have a variety of coffee to offer from wonderful and different places.

In summary, does Yorkshire have good coffee?

Yes! Yorkshire has a buzzing cafe scene with a number of fantastic coffee roasters. We have recently featured roasters including the B-Corp awarded North Star Roast and thought it was time to write about the best coffee in Yorkshire. Yorkshire has an abundance of coffee roasters from cities including Leeds, Hull and Huddersfield.

There are dozens of other reasons to visit, other than just for the coffee, including seeing the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors. Let's now take a look at the best coffee in Yorkshire to explore and enjoy.

Limited Time Offer: If you order from RISE coffee box today, you'll get 35% off your next order with code BLOG35. This means you can have a cup of coffee that's roasted to order, taste tested by Alice and Ben and definitely the best coffee from around the UK. Don't wait, order today here!

Below is our top 10 guide to the best coffee shops in Yorkshire, some of which have featured in our RiSE COFFEE BOX or we've visited in person. If you're looking for recommendations for further afield, head over to our blog to read all about coffee roasters across the UK here

1. Danelaw Coffee

What makes Danelaw Coffee one of the best coffee roasters in Yorkshire? For us here at RISE, we love everything about Dave and Danelaw. Dave is a 2-time UK 'Coffee in Good Spirits Champion', a Q-Arabica grader (licensed professional coffee taster) and he coached the 2017 World Coffee in Good Spirits Champion! Dave has also judged the World Barista Championship and has been the master of ceremonies for coffee championships across Europe. He is a World Coffee Events AllStar and has made coffee on 5 continents. Talk about an impressive coffee CV!

The name Danelaw links back to the area that David grew up in (Yorkshire and Lincolnshire), and is the 9th century name for this part of the world. It represents his connection to the farmers and local produce in this area, which David is so proud of. Dave then took his skills and started his own coffee company, Davelaw! Danelaw are based on Holmfirth.

Where to find Danelaw Coffee

📍 Danelaw Coffee Roasting Ltd, Unit D11, Gate 4 Meltham Mills Industrial Estate,, Meltham, Holmfirth, HD9 9FG

We featured Danelaw coffee in our RISE coffee box subscription in early 2024. We loved their 'Rosely Hernandez', Honduras - and had incredible feedback from our coffee members. The coffee is perfect for those who enjoy their coffee with some body, structure and intensity - it forms the backbone to many of our espresso blends, and it’s the ideal platform for coffee with a touch of milk.

On its own, you’ll taste dark chocolate, red grape and caramel with a walnut finish. You can buy it again online here

2. Rounton Coffee Roasters

Rounton Coffee Roasters are a Yorkshire-based roastery, and one of the most recognised and reputable coffee roasters across the UK. Their mission is to bring more accessibility to the world of specialty coffee. As with most things Yorkshire, they're a pretty straightforward bunch at Rounton Coffee Roasters. As they say, "we don't need to be the coolest, or take ourselves too seriously, so long as we're roasting dead good coffee". Their dynamic little team is fiercely passionate about coffee, people, and making positive change in the world around them. Throughout their 10 year history, they have forged close relationships with producers, and now have direct links to some of the most exciting coffee producing regions in the world. They believe that doing justice to the coffees they roast isn't just about making them taste great – it's also about giving back in a meaningful way to the places they're from. Since 2021, Rounton Coffee have paid an additional premium for each kilo of coffee they source. Rounton are another coffee company that have featured in The RISE coffee box. Our members enjoyed their 'Kalingwe' coffee from Uganda.

This coffee has notes of Blood Orange, Strawberry and Honey, with a sharp orange and strawberry vibrancy and a creamy body, followed by a sweet finish. 60p from each kilo sold goes directly to the ACE2030 project in Uganda’s Rwenzori mountains - which we love as this is the same region that the first project with our Friendly Coffee Fund is set up.

3. Dark Woods Coffee

Dark Woods Coffee is an adventurous Yorkshire coffee roaster. But it doesn't stop there. They are also a Barista school and a pop-up café! Their coffee is roasted on their coffee by hand on a 1950's Probat drum roaster in a beautifully refurbished Victorian textile mill beside the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and River Colne! It is a must visit if you are in the area. The dramatic, windswept valley inspires the mood and flavours of our exceptional seasonal coffees.

Dark Woods are an award winning coffee roaster with 16 Great taste awards! That's right, 16! The range of awards cover a range of their products from single origins to seasonal blends so you can see how good the quality is across the entire range.

Dark Woods coffee don't through sustainable words around willy nilly and let their B-Corp score of 99.6 do the talking!

Dark Woods Coffee Roastery is located in Huddersfield:

📍Unit 3, Holme Mills, W Slaithwaite Rd, Huddersfield HD7 6LS

Dark Woods have three ranges of coffee:

1. Core Range

2. Producer Range

3. Reserve Range

Depending on what you are looking for Dark Woods coffee have something for everyone. The producer range changes every few months and our favourite coffee of this range is the El Salvador - 'Johny Lemus' - Finca San Antonio. This is a sun dried natural coffee which gives it some funky flavours and a deep winey taste. If you want something safer we would go for their medium roasted Good Morning Sunshine coffee which has notes of Stone fruit, cocoa, cinder toffee and a full body character. Dark Woods do have a few dark roasted coffee for those that like their coffee that way. At RISE we stick to the medium roasted levels to enjoy the flavours these coffees have to offer.

4. The Yorkshire Coffee Roasters

We can't write about coffee roasters and not mention The Yorkshire Coffee Rosters!

Located in Hoyland, you can find them here:

📍 4 King Street, Hoyland, S74 9JP

These guys have a cafe you can enjoy their coffee in or buy their coffee beans online. They have an amazing selection of cakes, brownies and hot food too. They also serve tea, Yorkshire tea, obviously.

One reason we absolutely love them is that they are dog friendly. And Dog friendly is an understatement, they prefer dogs over most people, apparently!

Their house coffee is called 'The Yorkshire Blend' (obviously!) and is a blend of Brazil, Ethiopian and Colombian coffee which gives it notes of Chocolate, Apple, and nuts and is roasted medium dark making it a good espresso based drink. Online you can also buy a variety of other coffee from regions. If we were to buy some coffee online from Yorkshire Coffee Roasters we would go for the Limited Edition Indian Ratnagiri - light nut, Ferrero Roche and honey! Yum! It has an SCA rating of 87 and only 125 bags available (as of April 2024, time of writing).

This unwashed bean is great for milk based drinks as it retains the natural sweetness of the cherry in the drying process.

5. River City Coffee

Located in Hull, you can find them here:

📍Unit 5, Factory Estate, English St, Hull HU3 2BE

River City Coffee are an old RISE favourite, featuring in one of our first ever RISE coffee boxes! Based in Hull, River City have a range of really high quality, freshly roasted coffee. Our firm favourite, is their Ugandan coffee from the Rwenzori Mountains. Its profile is very similar to our RISE Uganda House coffee here

River City describe this coffee as "an espresso paired with milk this coffee turns into strawberry ice-cream in a cup...we're not kidding, it's mind bending"

6. 200 Degrees coffee

Located in Yorkshire and the North, you can find them here:

📍75 Mosley Street, Manchester, M2 3HR

They have opened 15 distinctively independent coffee shops (with more to come) where coffee lovers can drink 200 Degrees Coffee, served by their team of highly skilled baristas.

The atmosphere is one of relaxed comfort, the Wi-Fi works and our food is prepared fresh everyday in each shop. Takeaway is available for our coffee and fresh food and we serve a range of vegan and gluten free sandwiches, salads, cakes and pastries.

They have stores all over Yorkshire and the North of England.

6. Bean Brothers

Bean Brothers are a small batch - artisan - speciality coffee roasters based in Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

Located in Huddersfield, you can find them here:

📍Britannia Mills, Huddersfield, England HD1 3ER

Established in 2012, the Bean Brothers Coffee Company is a small batch, artisan, specialty coffee roasting company. They are based at Fairfield Mills Huddersfield, an old textile mill on the outskirts of the town centre, firmly seated in the picturesque valleys and wild moorlands of West Yorkshire - a must visit if you are in the area! Bean Brothers are experts in sourcing the finest quality coffee beans from around the world, they are carefully selected and profiled by their head roaster who ensures the roasting process brings out the very best in every beans potential. They have a small dedicated team of hard working individuals who roast, blend and pack in-house daily by hand ensuring attention to detail and quality control comes second to none. Their passion is in single origins although they do produce their own house espresso blends which are sold and served in many coffee shops nationwide and you can buy online.

Our favourite coffee we tried of theirs was the 'Captains Grog' - vintage rum infused coffee. this was something really interesting and different to try! And you know us at RISE we love variety! How good do the tasting notes sound? Dark rum, marzipan and dark chocolate.

It has actually also won 3 stars in the national gold standard Great Taste Awards two years in a row - 2022 and 2023! Congrats team.

bean brothers coffee

7. Chipp Coffee Co

Chipp Coffee Co. was started in 2016 by Zach as a company to run coffee roasting consultancy and his own one off small batch roasting projects.

After 3 successful years working with coffee brands around the world and setting up a new base in his hometown of Leeds, Zach decided to go full-throttle with his own speciality coffee roasting business. Learn more about Chipp Coffee Co here.

Where to find Chipp Coffee Co in Yorkshire:

📍37, Crossland Court, Czar St, Holbeck, Leeds LS11 9PR

Chipp coffee co featured in our RISE coffee advent calendar in December 2023! The coffee we selected for the advent calendar and which you can buy online is the 'Finca Las Fles' from Honduras. This coffee is from Las Flores, Marcala, La Paz, and is grown at 1550 masl. It is naturally processed with Zesty, Honey, Milk Chocolate and Cinnamon tasting noted. Here's what Chipp have to say about it: 'We sourced this coffee from our friend Suita at Casa Spiral in Honduras, we first started working with Suita back in 2017 when we purchased a coffee from her fathers farm. It's been amazing to be working with Casa Spiral again and this particular coffee was a standout on the cupping table when we received the pre-shipment samples.

Our favourite brewing method for this coffee has been with the Aeropress:
Inverted method
12G Medium grind
200G filtered water just off the boil
Leave to steep for 4 min
Break crust
Add plunger and extract the brew fully.'

8. Foundry Coffee Roastery

Where to find Foundry Coffee Roastery in Yorkshire:

📍Cutlery Works (upstairs) 79-101 Neepsend Lane, Sheffield, S3 8AT

Foundry's mission is to improve coffee drunk by at home baristas!

Exceptional speciality coffee is the result of many years of hard work and they are constantly in awe of what skilled farmers and mother nature are able to produce.

Foundry coffee see themselves as the link between the fruits of their labour and you, the discerning at home coffee lover. They specialise in sourcing exceptional speciality coffee and roasting it in small batches to high quality standards, so that you can drink amazing coffee at home.

Foundry have over 600 verified reviews, and an overall score of 4.83 out of 5.

Their latest coffee is a Rwandan coffee called Gitega Hills. It is a red washed bourbon coffee. It is a slightly darker coffee which has a very intense flavour. The desert sticky toffee pudding comes to mind.

One customer review said "This coffee reminds me of sticky toffee pudding and bonfire toffee. It has that dark, and sweet quality that just keeps me coming back for more. The epitome of comfort coffee."

9. North Star Roast

A certified B-corp, North Star was founded by Holly and Alex in 2013 and was the first roastery in Leeds! They are super passionate about coffee and in particular the global supply chain and how they can improve the issues it faces, despite all the odds. This came out of an initial relationship with farmers in Kenya, where they saw first hand the challenges the farmers faced. Today they have a thriving business and 4 cafes! Do check them out if you are ever in the Leeds area.

Where to find North Star Roast in Yorkshire:

📍North Star Coffee Roasters, Unit 10, 280 Tong Road, Leeds, LS12 3BG

You spoke, we listened! Many of you asked us to increase the number of juicy filter coffees we include in the box, and this one is a particular banger! This balanced washed lot is from 'La Bolsa' in the coffee growing region of Huehuetenango in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. La Bolsa stands for ‘handbag’ and is aptly named due to its position nestled between two mountains, which provide a very stable, humid microclimate. This coffee is about as sweet as they come! Beautifully well balanced, it’s such a versatile brew that is suited to both espresso and filter, but we refer to it as a filter without milk. The packaging is also 100% home compostable, which we're thrilled about.

10. Smith Street Coffee

Where to find Smith Street coffee roasters in Sheffield:

📍30 Scotland St, Sheffield, S3 7BS

Roasted in Sheffield and founded in 2014 by two brothers - Trev a barista and coffee roaster and Dave, a chef and obsessed coffee drinker. Following a trip to Australia, Smith St. was born out of a desire to emulate the style of coffee that the boutique coffee scene Melbourne had to offer (the name Smith St. comes from a street in the Collingwood area of the city). Great tasting, small-batch lighter roasted beans bring out the individual flavours and character of single origin coffees, they also have delicious blends roasted a shade darker to make the perfect milk based drinks.

One of their recent additions is the Finca Los Angeles which is a light roasted 85.5 scoring SCA cup of coffee from El Salvador. This coffee has a crisp apple acidity, blackberry fruit bouquet in abundance with a hit of honey on the finish. The semi washed process used for this coffee is a novel hybrid 2 staged fermentation process, the cleaned coffee cherries are pulped before a relatively short 24 hours in the fermentation tank. This accelerates the fermentation process, dials back the funk & elevates the complexity while maintaining clarity of flavour. In this coffee you will find notes of fresh apple, blackberry and black tea. You may also taste a touch of sweet honey.

Frequently asked questions about coffee in Yorkshire:

We love to answer any questions you have on coffee in Yorkshire, so do get in touch any time!

What is the Best Coffee in York And Surrounding Areas?

This is a tough question. One of our favourite roasters is North Star Roast. We wouldn't say they are the best (but they may well be!) as there are so many great coffee roasters including Danelaw, Dark Woods, Chipp Coffee Co and more! York has an abundance of great coffee roasters, in our opinion. North Star and River City have featured in the RISE coffee box and you may well find some of the others inside our RISE coffee box soon!

Are Coffee Roasters in Yorkshire Sustainable and Ethical?

The majority of specialty coffee roasters we came across in our travels and research are committed to delivering sustainable coffee through sourcing beans ethically via fair trade or direct trade, and ensuring environmentally friendly roasting processes. North Star and Dark Woods are both B-Corp. All coffee that features in the RISE coffee box subscription goes through vigorous testing to ensure they follow ethical practices.

Where Can I Buy Coffee Beans in Yorkshire?

You can buy coffee beans from a variety of coffee roasters and cafes, but the best ones are from Dark Woods, Smith Street coffee roasters. There are also other cafes such as 200 Degrees and Foundry which offer great coffee options.

How Do I Choose the Best Coffee Roaster from Yorkshire?

Choosing the right coffee beans to buy online involves thinking about things like the bean quality, how the coffee has been roasted, whether the roaster is sustainable We would recommend looking at reviews from customers too. At RISE, you can order coffee beans in the comfort of your own home, knowing they will be premium quality, sustainably sourced and delicious because they have gone through the RISE taste testing - taking the hassle away from you having to source your own with the risk it may not be good quality.

How Much Does a Bag of Coffee Cost in Yorkshire?

Price of coffee can vary considerably when it comes to buying coffee from Yorkshire coffee roasters. Buying a bag of coffee online can prices, a bag of coffee can costs between £7 to £15 for a 250g bag. Some rare coffees can be upwards of £25 per bag. But you should remember that the cost of a pack of coffee in York, like in any city, can vary greatly depending on a number of factors including quality, origin etc. At RISE our 4 bag box is £38 making it exceptional value.

Can I Buy Coffee Beans Directly from Coffee Roasters in Yorkshire?

All coffee roasters there offer coffee beans online to buy. Many are delivered via letterbox friendly boxes or you can discover new coffee from Yorkshire and other cities inside your RISE coffee box.

At RISE coffee box subscription we travel the UK to find the best cup of coffee and I hope you enjoyed our guide on the best coffee roasters in Yorkshire UK.

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Best coffee roasters in Glasgow
Best coffee roasters in London
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