Coffee Common

As part of the build-up to TED, we’ve asked that each of the participating roasters write a brief introduction for one of the others. This would typically be a tough exercise, but the mutual admiration shared by these companies is really amazing.

By Trevor Corlett, Madcap Coffee, Grand Rapids, MI

Although I’ve never been to London to have the opportunity of experiencing Square Mile first hand, that hasn’t stopped the impact of their work in coffee from reaching around the world.

Square Mile was started by James Hoffmann and Anette Moldvaer - both being award winning coffee professionals, who have made a conscious effort to share their education with anyone who will listen. Their coffee has been the coffee of choice by three separate world barista champions and the work they do as individuals outside of Square Mile is respected by all within the industry.

Square Mile’s focus as a company is in wholesale but their dedication to spreading coffee education is evident in everything they do. For example, they most recently launched a temporary retail space in London called Penny University which focused on filtered coffee and by foregoing espresso entirely, they exposed London to a side of coffee to which they were not accustomed. The overall goal of their project was to display how filtered coffee can be beautiful, accessible and delicious.

In terms of coffee buying, simply looking at Square Mile’s website you are immediately struck by the intentionality of what’s being offered, from the estate in Tanzania that they’ve worked with for a couple years and express excitement in working with for years to come, to the offering of multiple processing methods of the same coffee from Aida Batlle’s estate. Square Mile is obviously invested in their farmers and telling their story.

So if you haven’t yet, visit Square Mile’s blog and website, read about the coffees, about the work they’re doing with baristas and farmers alike, and look at their maps of where their coffees are from. They’ve made their story very accessible and are just waiting for you to experience it.