Bell’s Beans, Micro Coffee Roastery
Bell’s Beans is a little, family run specialty coffee roastery based in Westfield of Woking, Surrey. The roastery was setup by Chris after deciding he wanted to do something different from engineering and playing with roller coasters, so he followed his passion for coffee, built a massive shed, cleared the garage and made Bell’s Beans Roastery a reality on the side of his house.
Chris has been playing with home roasting for many years on his little Gene Cafe coffee roaster. He loves the science behind roasting along with the unpredictability of every bean being different, having to pay attention to so many variables in the quest to do the bean justice in the long process from the coffee farms to a cup of delicious coffee.
Every step has so many variables that can have a massive impact on the final cup and this is where Chris’ geeky engineering mind loves to get lost in what to do with the next coffee.
Bell’s beans uses a 10kg Roastmax drum roaster imported from Australia. Every batch is hand roasted with Chris at the controls, watching, smelling and tracking every roast to bring the best coffee to you. We only use speciality grade coffee with a score of 80+ and only from producers/importers/traders that pay the farmers fairly and help the farmers further their coffee and communities by putting back in.
The Next Moves for this Micro Coffee Roastery
3 years on from opening in October 2021 there are some clear goals of where Bell’s Beans want to head. There are no dreams to take over the coffee roasting world! staying modest and small is the way forward.
With a target of roasting 6 – 8 tonnes of specialty coffee a year, 2023 we roasted 2 tonnes and 2024 we are on for between 3 and 4 tonnes. This is a far cry from many other specialty coffee roasteries. At this level Bell’s Beans can stay as a solo venture without having to add staff and overheads which then drives more volume to keep up with costs.
There is no desire to enter the mass wholesale market, its a very competitive market and again drives the need for volume. We are still open to very selective wholesale opportunities, with people that are passionate about delivering amazing coffee to their customers and want to offer something different through the year or looking for “guest roasts” to add alongside their staple offering. Feel free to get in touch if you think this is what you’re looking for.
To carry on working with the importers and producers that we have been and look to carry on adding interesting seasonal specialty coffees as well as some super niche one off coffees.
Look at adding some specialty Robusta coffees to the line up. This looks to be an emerging wave with some exciting developments happening to get away from the traditional harsh and dark flavour tones. Robusta is also seen as a more “sustainable” coffee crop as it is easier to grow, faster, less susceptible to disease and grows are lower altitude.
Find better packaging! Finding a low volume solution to this is very very hard. There are lots of expensive options on the market that potentially don’t live up to their eco credentials when really researched or they are doomed for the bin once a sticker has been added. The quest continues to solve this problem!
Fantastic coffee delivered to my door. Tried the Uganda Bugonzo dream, Brazil cascavel and decaf Colombian tumbaga so far. All have created wonderful espresso..
The coffee beans roasted by Bell's Beans are very satisfying every time, their price is reasonable, and the delivery is efficient, which is the reason why I order again..
