Coffee roasters in Tyne and Wear

Tyne and Wear has 8 independent coffee roasters, with Newcastle the centre of gravity, Whitley Bay and Tynemouth on the coast, and Blaydon down the river. The county holds two of the oldest continuously operating tea and coffee businesses in the UK (Pumphreys, founded 1750; Ringtons, founded 1907), alongside a younger generation of specialty roasters that have grown the modern North East scene.

Pumphreys Coffee traces its origins to 1750, when the business was established in the Flesh Market in Newcastle, and has been based at Bridge Street, Blaydon since 1983; the current site is family run and includes a warehouse, roastery, training room and coffee showroom open to the public. Ringtons was founded in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1907 by Samuel Smith as a door to door tea delivery service and remains a family business, now producing 45 million drinks per week from its Newcastle factory. Pink Lane Coffee, which opened on Pink Lane near Central Station in 2012, is structured as a collective: all Pink Lane managers hold a stake in the business.

Newcastle has the highest density: Pink Lane near Central Station, Ouseburn Coffee in the Ouseburn Valley, and Pumphreys' showroom a short trip out to Blaydon. The coast (Tynemouth Coffee Company in Tynemouth, Relish in Whitley Bay, Baristocracy in North Shields) extends the radius for a coastal route.