Journal — March 2024

Spring has officially arrived here in North Carolina, and we’re loving it. Everything is feeling fresh, new, and exhilarating (except the pollen). It’s outdoor brewery hangs, iced coffee in the sun season. So it feels right that we’re bringing a new roaster onto the subscription for March. London’s first carbon-negative roastery, Kiss the Hippo, has sent us 4 really incredible coffees.

According to their founders, “We opened our roastery in 2018, and from day one it’s been a hub of sustainable innovation. Since then, we won the UK Barista Championships twice, which is a humble reflection of our perfectionist ethos. We roast organic, planet-friendly coffee at our state-of-the-art roastery in London, then send it out to discerning coffee drinkers across the UK and beyond.”

Since opening, they’ve devoted themselves to planting trees with each bag (or pod) of coffee they sell, and have helped reforestation efforts in Nepal, Madagascar, Zambia, Colombia, and even in California.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure at first how you all would feel about Kiss the Hippo. At first glance, they don’t feel as cool as other London roasters like Assembly or Workshop, both of whom we’ve featured over the years and love. But where those companies feel like small, exciting brands for people in the know, KTH feels positioned to actually bring new people into the world of Specialty Coffee in a way I haven’t seen done before.

By focusing on sustainability and explaining each part of their process without assuming everyone already knows all the coffee industry jargon, KTH invites people in and then seriously delivers on quality.

All 4 coffees they sent us taste great and are processed in innovative, exciting ways. I tend to be a little wary of experimental processing and the coffees that rely heavily on them. But when done right, they sing. And boy do these sing. Both offerings from Luis Anibal Calderon especially are exceptional, and I’m officially a Kiss the Hippo convert. Enjoy them!

I’ll leave you with a final quote from their team:

“We believe that coffee is only as good as the goodness that goes into it: as good for those who drink it, as good for those who make it, and as good for the planet that provides it. That’s why we nurture our coffee and the farmers who grow it from the ground up, sourcing ethically, roasting responsibly and going above and beyond to protect our people, and our planet.”