Coffee roasters in Dorset

Dorset has 12 independent coffee roasters, a strong concentration for a county better known for its coastline. The geography splits between the urban south coast (Bournemouth, Poole, Weymouth) and rural North Dorset, where roasters work from farms and small business parks far from the seaside crowds. The slower pace shows: there are roasters here who have been roasting for over twenty five years and others who started with a wok in their kitchen.

Reads Coffee has been roasting in North Dorset since 1999, operating from Limekiln Farm near Sherborne with views across Honeycombe Wood; founder Giles Read started with a Turkish American 15kg Ambex roaster, and that original machine is still in use today. Bird & Wild, founded in 2017, is unusual in roasting exclusively to the Smithsonian Bird Friendly standard, which requires 100% organic farming and a tree canopy that protects migratory bird habitat. FINCA opened its first coffee shop in Dorchester in June 2014 with the very first Genesis CBR1200 1kg roaster sold in the UK, and has since grown to six specialty coffee shops across Dorset and Somerset.

Bournemouth and Poole are the easiest visitor stops, with Bad Hand in the Triangle and Pearhaus on the Nuffield Industrial Estate both open to the public. Inland, Sherborne (Reads), Shaftesbury (918 Coffee, Eco-Roast) and the New Forest fringe (Fuel and Fable) reward more deliberate routes.