a person in a cafe holding a bag of coffee beans

Food

Meet Extract Coffee's roasters...

By BaxterStorey 27 Jun 2024

Do you know the story behind your morning coffee? Our house espresso, Cast Iron, is a single origin coffee from Ayarza, Santa Rosa in Guatemala, roasted on Betty, a 1950s Vintage Probat roaster by our incredible supplier Extract Coffee Roasters.

From smallholders working in a cooperative to larger farms that support entire communities, they believe in building long-term, sustainable relationships with coffee growers based on a quality-pays ethos. They pay quality based premiums and source and roast higher grade speciality coffee to ensure fair compensation that has a positive effect on growers, communities, the planet and exceptional coffee for you! Find out more about their mission to make coffee better (for everyone) here.

Swing by our cafés to find out just how delicious it is for yourself and read on to meet the roasters behind it all.

Built not bought to life

From starting to roast coffee in 2007 all from a garden shed and serving from a coffee cart in Bristol, to now having their own spaces in Bristol, London and Manchester, Extract Coffee have been roasting high-quality, sustainable speciality coffee for over 15 years. None of this could've happened without the teams' passion to recycle and restore.

Their built not bought approach to coffee is what makes them so unique (and their coffees so delicious). Over the years, from the very first roaster to today, the team have restored iconic vintage roasters and given them a new lease of life...and some pretty unique names!

Check out their rich history here.

Meet the roasters

Bertha: The big rescue

Poor Bertha, a 1990 decommissioned Probat roaster Extract found in Bosnia, was only a pile of parts when she was first discovered.

However after being brought back with Extract Coffee - and four years of restoration - Bertha has become the beating heart of the roastery. Cleaner and greener than ever, she now runs 60% more efficiently than when she was first rebuilt (almost 30 years ago now!)

Read the full story about the rescue of Bertha here.

Betty: Bertha's big sister

Meet Bertha's big sister, a 1995 vintage Probat roaster that was rescued in 2010. Taking 18 months to restore and having further modifications made in 2020, the consistency and efficiency of her roasts are now first-class.

To celebrate her 10 year anniversary, Extract Coffee even launched a new coffee in 2020 - the Betty Espresso that launches every year on International Women's Day, championing female coffee growers across the world.

Although she's over 65 years old now, restoration projects like this mean she can even outlive us all!

The Twins: The latest project

The newest project has seen Extract Coffee take on the rebuilding of two 15kg Probat roasters that includes converting them from electric to gas.

They are currently being altered for smaller batch-roasts for their most premium speciality coffees - fancy!

James: Where it all began

Extract Coffee's very first roaster, 2000s James, started as a 10kg Ozturk and now has a roasting capacity closer to 6kg after many restorations over time. Changing from convection to conduction and having his skin modded, James has had a glow-up to make his roasting more consistent for their tasty single-origin coffees.

Did you know that he was originally named after the little red engine in Thomas The Tank Engine?

The Prof: An old paint gun

Built in 2010 from an old paint gun, a popcorn machine and some reclaimed materials collected from old roasters, The Prof was the first test-roaster they had for new coffees.

Talk about unique upcycling!

Bertha 👇