About Us
Our story
Established in 1978
Hawkins Coffee was established in 1978 by Richard Hawkins who started roasting coffee in Kingsbridge in the South of Devon. He was driven by a determination to get the best taste out of the best coffee beans. We took over the business in April 2001 and with the same determination and obsession with quality which has enabled us to grow the business from 5 tonnes to 80 tonnes of roasted coffee per year by the end of 2021.
Partners
Our Partners
Over the years whilst we have maintained a in house roasting facility (now used for blend creation, batch testing, and low volume bespoke coffee orders) we decided in 2006 to work closely with our roasting partners to enhance the roasting techniques to ensure our coffee is uniquely great! In order to offer the broadest spectrum of roasting profiles, alongside the larger capacity Lilla, they have twostate-of-the-art, semi-continuous production Neo-tech roasters plus a small-batch 5kg Neo-tech for product development, in addition several micro-batch roasters of various capacities. With 20+ packing lines producing every format of sachets, bags, bag-in-bags, vac-packs, capsules, hand packing and so much more, a totally bespoke service is available to us delivering individual batch roasting and blending to order. We still take pride in considering ourselves the ultimate “family” roaster, the only difference now is we are not limited by capacity and we can ensure consistency, quality and most importantly great tasting coffee. We are 100% confident that, when an experienced barista pulls a shot of espresso made withour fresh hand roasted beans, you will get a true sense of what coffee should be: a concentrated, dark and almost sweet flavour that delivers on the promise of its exciting aroma. This is also true for the home Barista who may use different coffee producing apparatus.
Achievements
The Spiller & Tait Story
Spiller & Tait was a Devon-based online coffee company co -founded by Simon Spiller and David Tait (of Hawkins Coffee) with the mission of providing high-quality, fresh, and great-tasting coffee. The company was launched in 2014 to meet the growing online demand for coffee and was sold to Cinchona Limited in August 2021. The company continues to trade today. At the time we focussed on selecting high-quality beans and roasting them to create balanced, rich flavours without bitterness. The business model evolved from selling exclusively on Amazon to include its own e-commerce website, and they emphasise freshness, flavour, and customer service.
Sourcing
Maintaining Our Standards
At Hawkins Coffee we have invested a great deal of time and money developing some of the world’s finest coffee varietals. That’s why we work to maintain our standards right up to the point where you serve our coffee to your customers or make coffee yourself at home. It is very true to say that even ifwe produce the best coffee in the world, you can ruin our reputation in minutes by serving/making just one bad coffee. That’s why we have a complete service and training package for all our wholesale customers and bespoke guides for ourat home customers to ensure everyone enjoys “The Hawkins Coffee Experience”.
our Coffee
Coffee for Every Palate
We produce a full range of coffees suitable for all types of application including filter and cafetiere, however we never forget that the heart of any coffee business is the espresso machine. We have fostered a relationship with some of Europe’s leading manufacturers to create a range of machines that meets the needs of any customer, from simple pour-over machines to fully automatic bean to cup work stations. More importantly, we run a maintenance and service programme with our European Partners that keep each machine working perfectly with minimal interruption to your business. Just contact David Tait for one to one advice.
Sourcing
Highest grade coffee Beans
Our coffee is good because we always start with the best green beans andwe only use Grade 1 Arabica green beans, sourced for us directly from specialist growers around the world. That’s why we are proud to advertise the grade and type of beans we purchase and allow any of our customers to scrutinise our roasting processes whether that be in house or with our roasting partners.
COntact us
Don’t hesitate, get in contact. We would love to hear from you and have a chat via phone or email.
Get in touch