Winter in Tokyo is bright and dry. We’d gone to Japan from New Orleans. Before Katrina flooded St. Charles and destroyed the Ninth Ward. We’d been in Tokyo, in the bright lights of the world’s biggest city for two years when we came across it. At the time we were living in Yoyogi-Koen, next to the park which you leave along Harajuku bridge ogling the rockabillies dancing in boots held together with insulating tape.

It was a Sunday and we’d come back from Meiji shrine and the secret back path where you could, for a brief kilometre, imagine you were not in the middle of thirty five million people.

Looking back it seems stranger now than it did then. We’d seen coffee roasters before – on Decatur in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Kaldis, they were called, but they’re gone now. The shop was small and as we stepped in we saw one side was taken up with jute bags full of unroasted green coffee. The back left corner held the roaster – a big steel box the likes of which I’ve not seen since and the young owner encouraged us to choose from the green, which we did. Then we chose a roast degree. He took the money and said it would be twenty minutes.

Really?

He said, really. So we kicked our heels and went to the supermarket to buy oil which turned out to be cheap Sake. Sake is useless for frying steak. When we came back it was ready and he passed it over with both hands and a deep bow and we went back to the flat and brewed it up. It was great, really great.

You see, it’s not just about the quality of the green, it’s also about the freshness. No coffee roaster drinks two week old coffee, none. So we created the business around freshness and quality and have been doing that ever since. Our priority is that final cup, on your table, on your desk.

We've been doing this for thirteen years now. In Bristol. As foodies we care about flavour and provenance, but mostly flavour. Check out the blog, it's about food and grew from a thousand conversations with our customers about taste. Who has the best bread, the best beer. The best short rib recipe. It’s all about flavour.

You have to. You’ve got to care about where your coffee comes from and that your partners in the chain, that spreads around the world, are doing well. We always have. How do we do that? By using the best importers like Mercanta and Falcon speciality. We pay much more for the coffee you drink than Fair trade, much more. It’s ethically sourced and transparent – read about the farmers in Our Coffees and be reassured that we are all doing right by them.