About Us

Cannon Coffee was born in 2021.  It was a relatively painless birth and there was no anaesthetic nor a Caesarean needed.  Chris and Lewis, having spent the previous few years working for a different roastery, realised that they would like to do things differently, authentically and better.  It took a few months but they saved their pennies and suddenly they had enough to buy their very own small, coffee roasting machine. 

Some of us looking a bit uncomfortable in front of the camera ... as usual

So, in the back of a garage Cannon Roasters started with a 1kg roaster. What did we want to do differently and better?  Well, for a start we wanted to roast coffee the way we feel coffee should be roasted. That is to say - with care, and with the particular coffee being roasted in mind.  Too often coffee is roasted too darkly.  It easy to roast coffee to a dark, oily husk and call it "Italian roast".  However, dark roasts removes all the nuanced flavours and aromatics that makes coffee great.  

At Cannon, we spend a lot of time figuring out how to roast coffee to get the best out of it.  Actually we probably spend too much time working out the optimal roast times and temperatures - however that’s what makes this job fun!  At the end of the day we wanted to make sure that any coffee we put out is the best version of that coffee that we can make it.

 

Our old unit - Lewis roasting coffee

Secondly, we wanted to offer coffees that are consistent.  Coffee roasting is an art rather than a science. Temperature gradients, first cracking point, second cracking point, bean and drum temperatures - there's a lot of variables.  Not managing these variables across each roast means inconsistency - and so your perfect coffee this week might not be the same next week.  We want to be proud of our roasting process.  We audit each roast to ensure that the Gunpowder blend you buy this week is the same as the Gunpowder you will buy next week. We do that through some clever bit of software that enables us to track and match each roast to the agreed roasting profile.

But hey, back to us.  As our 1kg roaster performed admirably through 2021 and into 2022 - it was becoming clear that we needed a bigger roaster.  Our retail sales - to online Customers were growing - but our wholesale business was also growing.  Cafes and film studios and festival sites need more than 1kg at a time.  So we then bought a 6kg roaster.  This still gives us small batch control - but allows us to satisfy larger orders without having to spend all day roasting 50 small batches.  In 2022 we were able to move into a larger location which served us well - up to now.  

Our coffee roaster in all its glory

We are currently roasting between 200 and 250 kilos per week. Compared to some roasters, this is actually a small comparative amount. Around a third of what we roast for Customers who buy online - individual customers.  The rest is mainly to our wholesale Customers, cafes and businesses and film studios. We also roast coffee for our "sister" company - well, it's more of a "step-sister" company - called Events Tree.  Events Tree is dedicated to bringing artisanal, speciality coffee to festival goers across the country. If you see our coffee van and anywhere from a single day "school sports day" events or "full on 3-day weekenders" such as Leeds festival.  Storm is our festival specialist and rarely a weekend goes by without her venturing out into the wild and only returning, exhausted on a Monday morning.

We are, and are proud to be, a small, artisanal, authentic coffee roaster focused on our customers, on the quality of our coffees and being as sustainable as we can. Everything we do we take into account our impact on the environment.  Our aim is to bring authentic, quality, sustainable coffee to people who want to explore the world of coffee, who appreciate the nuances and differences between various coffee roasts and who are tired of being offered over-roasted, burnt coffee inside buckets of flavoured, seasonal syrupy milk.  If that's you - we salute you and welcome you to Cannon!  

Storm, Lewis, Alan and Chris - gosh, we don't like selfies ... (or some of us don't)

From Our Customers

Jamie

Jamie

Amazing set of coffees, bought for my partner for his birthday and he has loved them all! Great quality, quick delivery and beautiful packaging! Definitely buying again🤍

Adam L

Adam L

Banging coffee and I'm usually a tea guy

Abby

Abby

Thank you so much, my husband is a real coffee snob and he is obsessed with this, you'll be getting a repeat order very soon! Great product, great communication and fast delivery :)

Lukasz

Lukasz

Fantastic coffee loving people. It was a big pleasure to visit your shop and learn more about your business and coffee. The Brazil Mio Peaberry is epic, thank you!

Will

Will

Tried Canon after searching on maps for a local coffee roaster. First order was their Brazil Mio Peaberry medium dark and from first pull it was an obvious step up from other beans I'd been using recently (and they were not bad by any means). Will continue to work my way through their selection but imagine I will regularly return to the Peaberry.

Adam B

Adam B

Chris gave us a tour around the coffee roastery. We felt right at home. The coffee tastes fantastic, and the brand prioritises the well being of the farmers. I really like this local business.