Londinium Espresso in London (called Londinium by the Romans in their own sweet fashion) describe themselves as "Bespoke coffee roasters".

Now call me a jaded and despairing old man, but that's a declaration I greeted with some cynicism.

Neverthless I got to know them because they are real enthusiasts about and happen to sell the Olympia Cremina lever espresso machine. They actually brought one to my house and demo'd it. And of course they brought some of their coffee with them.

In some ways this was more interesting than the Cremina demo, because the thing looks exactly as it does in the photos, is built like a Swiss watch (but doesn't tick), is physically a joy to use and by a happy coincidence produces delicious coffee. I'd have bought one form the lever action alone

The beans on the other hand were a surprise. All single origins. All nice and fresh. All very light roasts.

To cut a long story short, I started buying regularly from Londinium. Being a bit of a motormouth I also bored them silly about some of my favourite beans. The next thing I know they had ordered them and were experimenting day and night with roast profiles, sending me half a dozen bags in the post to try them and then compare notes over the phone, eventually settling on a wonderful roast profile.

That's not all. They do a very nice roast of a great typica SO from Cuba, believe it or not. Mr Motormouth let's slip that he wonders what it would be like if it was roasted a little lighter. The very next order that's how it comes for him to try. I loved it. I always have it like that now. Call me Mr -3.

So the thing is a Bespoke Roaster does exist and it's wonderful, especially for someone like me with even less time than sense.

I'm just wondering whether this could be the future of so-called "gourmet" coffee roasters. Frankly, I think it would be wonderful if it was, and it's something I find far more exciting than PIDs and all that on the machines. Let's introduce a few more variation in the roasting without having to invest in the equipment, space or... know-how. Yeah!

So.... Has anyone else encountered this kind of service?

I've found it brilliant and would certainly thank Londium for having done more than most to improve my quality of life recently

Cheers

Mike

Nice! It sounds like great service. As a consumer, I like it when businesses listen. Their prices seem very reasonable as well.

Bespoke roasting is totally the way to go in my view. I'd ring Londinium right away if I was still living in London. I've found a roaster here in the Land of the Swiss that starts at 5kg minimum order, slightly too much for me but a good effort nonetheless. I reckon there must be many coffee aficionados out there for whom home roasting is simply not an option, but who'd love to get the job done by someone else according to their instructions. It's the logical next step after upgrading from supermarket beans to beans ordered directly from the roasters.

I recently switched where I buy my roasted beans, from a rather high-profile coffee shop to a smaller coffee shop that follows this idea. I've asked them to tweak the roast a bit for my tastes, and they were happy to do it. They have a small roaster anyway and roast per order, so it wasn't a big deal for them. But it sure is nice to have something tailor made and to know that the owner is listening to you. To me, that's always a good business strategy.

Enrico75,

Londinium ship at cost worldwide.

I like some of the La Semeuse roasts in Switzerland, though there's no comparison with Londinium really, which are in a different class in my opinion.

Cheers

Mike