Union Hand-Roasted Coffee (formerly Union Coffee Roasters) is a privately owned British

coffee roasting Roasting coffee transforms the chemical and physical properties of Coffee processing, green coffee beans into roasted coffee products. The roasting process produces the characteristic flavor of coffee by causing the green coffee beans to change ...

business based in East London, United Kingdom. The company was founded in 2001 by Jeremy Torz and Steven Macatonia. ''Coffee House'' says the company "effectively bridges the definitions of independent and mainstream" as they work according to craft principles while still selling their products in supermarkets. Hand roasted coffee is made in small batches with the direct intervention of a master coffee roaster. The master coffee roaster watches over the batch as it's roasted to make sure it's done to perfection.

History

Working at

Peet's Coffee & Tea Peet's Coffee is a San Francisco Bay Area-based specialty coffee roaster and retailer owned by Dutch multinational coffee and tea company JDE Peet's. Founded in 1966 by Alfred Peet in Berkeley, California, Peet's introduced the United States to ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in the early 1990s sparked the interest in coffee in Jeremy Torz and Stephen Macatonia, both from the UK. In stark contrast to the country's local coffee scene, which was at the time essentially nonexistent, they discovered a bustling coffee environment in the Californian metropolis. Macatonia worked as an immunologist and Torz as an optometrist before founding the business. Both of them, however, were drawn to the coffee roasting scene and decided to stay for four years even though they had only intended to visit for six months. Over the course of four years, they learned a lot about the local coffee sector and the craft of growing and roasting coffee. In 1994, when they were back in the UK, they decided to leave their day jobs and found Torz and Macatonia, a tiny coffee roasting business. They didn't have any prior expertise in the retail area, so they started a wholesale company. In 1995, they became the main supplier for the Seattle Coffee Company, the first major coffee shop chain in the UK. Torz and Macatonia eventually merged with The Seattle Coffee Company in 1997 which was then acquired by

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

in 1998. After some time, Jeremy and Steven left in 2000. In 2001, they founded private company Union Coffee Roasters and in 2007, it was rebranded to Union Hand-Roasted Coffee. By 2005, the company was producing 11 different lines, four of which were special editions and seven of which were for sale in

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...

Asda Asda Stores Limited (), trading as Asda and often styled as ASDA, is a British supermarket and petrol station chain. Its headquarters is in Leeds, England. The company was incorporated as Associated Dairies and Farm Stores in 1949. It expanded ...

, the

Co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

and

Somerfield Somerfield ( ) was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The business started life in the 19th century as grocers J. H. Mills, and after a series of buyouts and mergers, the company became known as Gatew ...

. In 2015, Union refreshed their brand to help "share the joy of good coffee". As part of this, they created a new company logo, revamped and rationalised their coffee range for

Waitrose Waitrose Limited, trading as Waitrose & Partners, is a British supermarket chain, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. In 1937, it was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership, the UK's largest employee-owned b ...

and

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and launched a new coffee subscription service known as CoffeeClub.

On The High Street

Union Coffee supplies wholesale

specialty coffee Specialty coffee is a term for the highest grade of coffee available, typically relating to the entire supply chain, using single-origin or single-estate coffee. The term was first used in 1974 by Erna Knutsen in an issue of ''Tea & Coffee Trade ...

and

barista A barista ( , ; ) is a person, usually a coffeehouse employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks and other beverages. Etymology and inflection The word comes from Italian, where it means a "bartender" who typically works be ...

training

Gail's Gail's (styled "GAIL's") is a British bakery and coffee shop chain headquartered in London, England. History The bakery opened its first shop on Hampstead High Street in 2005 and its 100th in East Sheen in 2022. In 2021, all Gail's branches were ...

Artisan Bakery, Brasserie Blanc and Peach Pubs.

References

{{Coffee Food and drink companies established in 2001 Coffee companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in the London Borough of Newham