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Our Story

PLOT is a speciality coffee roastery and coffee school in Woolwich, South East London. We source distinctive coffees from producers we know, roast them with precision, and share what we learn with the cafés, home brewers and coffee professionals we work with.

How we started

Matthew founded PLOT in 2019 after a decade in speciality coffee, including co-founding a café group in Brighton. It began as a one-person roastery, and launching just before a global pandemic tested everything. We came through it by doing the basics well: buying carefully, roasting consistently and looking after the businesses that trusted us. Today we’re a team of seven coffee professionals, roasting for some of the UK’s most quality-focused cafés.

What's in a name?

People often ask us about our name and logo. We chose the word PLOT as it actually evokes a few different elements of our business...

  • PLOT (noun)

    A Small area of planted ground

    The plot of land where coffee is grown is an important contributing factor to its unique characteristics. Variety, altitude, soil composition, nutrition and climactic conditions all converge to form the first part of the story.

  • PLOT (noun)

    The sequence of events that make up a story

    A plot links all the elements of a story together and each stage of the coffee's journey shapes the final result. We source through long term relationships and roast our coffees respectfully, so that you can taste the story in every cup.

  • PLOT (verb)

    To locate (a curve) by plotted points

    Plotting temperature over time forms the basis of any roast profile. Each profile is carefully designed to emphasise the best qualities of each individual coffee, and is used to ensure that each roast is executed consistently, time after time.

Knowing who grew it

Traceability is the starting point for everything we buy. For every coffee, we can tell you who grew it, which farm it came from, and when it was harvested. We build long-term relationships with producers, paying directly wherever we can, so both sides can plan, improve and trust the process. Each product page tells that story in full, from the producer and cultivar to how the lot was processed and when it arrived.

How we roast

Every coffee is roasted on one of our Loring Roasters here in Woolwich. We chose them for the control it gives us over every stage of a roast, and for its energy efficiency. Each coffee gets its own roast profile, designed around its physical properties and taste profile.

ICON: our rare coffee series

In 2021 we launched ICON, a monthly subscription showcasing some of the rarest coffees we can find: competition lots, unusual cultivars and experimental processing from Yemen to Panama. Over 70 releases later, it remains one of the things we’re proudest of. [Explore ICON →]

Pushing coffee forward

We’re interested in where coffee is going, not just where it is. Our annual Future Coffee collection, developed with collaboration from coffee growers and researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, presents climate-resilient species and new hybrids, and included the first public presentation of Coffea × libex. [Read more →]

Coffee school

Education is at the heart of what we do. We teach the full SCA Coffee Skills Program, from Foundation to Professional in Barista Skills, Brewing, Sensory, Green Coffee and Roasting, plus the Q Grader course and our own masterclasses. Our trainers are Q-Instructors, SCA Authorised Trainers and include the 2024 UK Cup Tasters Champion. [See courses →]

The people behind PLOT

We’re a small team with backgrounds in cafés, kitchens, sales and competition, with decades of combined coffee experience. [Meet the team →]

Work with us

We supply cafés, restaurants and offices with coffee, equipment and training, treating our wholesale partners as collaborators rather than accounts. [Apply for wholesale →]

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