With coffee being such a large part of our day to day offering, we wanted to partner with an ethical, and award-winning coffee brand – we found one right around the corner!

Moon Roast is a family business, run by enthusiastic people. A small batch coffee roastery based in the heart of rural Hampshire. Inspired by family heritage in the coffee and tea trades spanning four generations.

In 2012, Francis Bradshaw commissioned a Probat coffee roaster in a barn in his backyard. Roasting began at night after work. Moon Roast began selecting coffee and developing roast profiles, supplying freshly roasted coffee to local people and businesses.

Following steady growth, in 2017 grade 2 listed outbuildings were converted into a purpose built roastery two miles up the road on a working farm. An additional Probat roaster was installed as well as barista training facilities, provision for roastery tours and a retail shop where coffee enthusiasts now enjoy visiting and collecting their beans. The move facilitated increased production and efficiency, enabled further development of products and improved customer support.

They always source coffee as directly from origin as they are able, and their high-grade, 100% Arabica beans comes straight from small farms in coffee-growing countries like Rwanda, Kenya and Guatemala. Moon Roast coffee is seasonally selected at the roastery through the process of sample roasting and cupping when shipments of new season coffee have landed.

Speciality Grade – Moon Roast coffees are graded >80+ by the Specialty Coffee Association  (SCA), Q grader (which is a standardised international quality score), this means their coffees are always of consistent high quality.

Roasting – the team roast at least twice a week; this ensures that their coffee is always in its freshest form. They balance temperature, time, airflow and drum speed to highlight the best flavour notes of the coffee. During the roasting process, close attention is paid to detail, focusing on cupping post-roast to ensure a consistent profile. They also make sure that the roast date is on their bags for all to see.

Moon Roast Coffee Infographic

Quality control is something Moon Roast takes very seriously, and they have methods in place to help discover the tastiest roast profiles and ensure consistency. In the roastery, they use moisture meters, refractometers and coffee roast colour analysers to make sure they always get it right. Bean density is taken into account too. Roasts are cupped every week to ensure consistency, to fine-tune roast profiles and blend components.

Sustainable/Ethical – Moon Roast source speciality graded Arabica coffees. This ensures that the small-holder farmers receive the right price for their coffee and that their farming practices remain kind to the environment. From the roastery they:

  1. compost used coffee grounds from our roastery shop
  2. supply compostable take-out coffee cups and lids
  3. provide packing boxes and tape are compostable
  4. aim to use all sustainable packaging and are exploring recyclable and biodegradable coffee bags

At the Northbrook Arms we’re ready and waiting to poor you perfect coffee of choice using the very finest coffee beans in the UK. For more information on Moon Roast, please visit their website.