Roasted on Thursday,on your shelfby Friday morning

Every bag leaves the drum with a ticket: the batch, the farm and the minute we dropped it into the cooling tray. Nothing stays on our shelf longer than three weeks — after that it becomes the counter's batch brew.

This week's beans

Batch ticket 214

Farm
Gatare washing station, Rwanda
Process
Washed, dried on raised beds
In the drum
12 kg, 11 min 40 s
Dropped
Thursday, 7:52 am
In the cup
Blackcurrant, cocoa nib, brown sugar
Freshly roasted beans pouring from the drum into the cooling tray

Batch 214 leaving the drum. The tray stirs it cool in four minutes.

On the shelfThis week250 g bags, roasted Thursday

Five coffees, each roasted for the way it tastes best. Ask for it whole or ground for your brewer — we grind at the counter while you wait.

  1. Kivu

    Rwanda · washed · for filter

    Blackcurrant, cocoa nib and brown sugar. Bright in a pour-over, round in a cafetière.

    £9.50Add to bag

  2. Guji

    Ethiopia · natural · for filter

    Strawberry, bergamot and honey. The one people come back for by name.

    £10.50Add to bag

  3. Huila

    Colombia · washed · for anything

    Red apple, panela and almond. Easy in every brewer, good with milk.

    £9.00Add to bag

  4. Cerrado

    Brazil · pulped natural · for espresso

    Hazelnut and milk chocolate. Our house espresso, pulled at the counter all day.

    £8.00Add to bag

  5. Marcala

    Honduras · sugarcane decaf

    Toffee and orange peel. A decaf we drink after six without missing anything.

    £9.00Add to bag
A small bowl of roasted beans sunk in a sea of beans, seen from above
Roasted beans in a clear glass bowl
A cup and saucer filled to the brim with roasted beans
A darker espresso roast turning in the round cooling tray
Close view of evenly roasted beans

Thursday isRoast dayFour steps, one ticket per batch

Every batch gets a paper ticket when the green coffee is weighed, and a stamp at each step until it is bagged. The ticket stays pinned above the drum until the last bag is sold.

  1. Tuesday

    Weighed out

    Green coffee comes off the pallet in twelve-kilo lots. We pick out broken and pale beans by hand on the back table.

  2. Thursday, 7 am

    Into the drum

    The drum is charged hot and each batch takes eleven to thirteen minutes. We listen for first crack and drop every coffee by its own clock.

  3. Four minutes later

    Stirred cool

    The tray's arms turn the beans until they are cool to the hand. Fast cooling keeps the sweetness the drum built.

  4. Friday

    Bagged and dated

    Each bag gets the batch number and the roast date. The beans rest a day on the shelf, then they are yours.

Batch 215Huila · washed

Weighed
12 kg
Roasted
7:04
Cooled
4 min
Bagged
Fri
Hands holding ripe red coffee cherries over a woven basket

Bought directThree farmsThe same growers, year after year

We buy from three places we have visited, at a price agreed before the harvest and paid before the coffee ships. Most of our shelf comes from them.

  • Gatare

    Nyamasheke, Rwanda · since 2019

    A washing station on the hills above Lake Kivu, run by a cooperative of six hundred smallholders.

  • Hambela

    Guji, Ethiopia · since 2021

    Natural coffees dried whole on raised beds for three weeks. The fruit is where the strawberry comes from.

  • La Esperanza

    Huila, Colombia · since 2020

    A family farm at 1,800 metres. We buy their whole washed lot every spring.

At theCounterEspresso, filter and cake

  • Espresso2.40

  • Macchiato2.60

  • Flat white3.30

  • Filter of the week3.10

  • Batch brew, free top-up2.80

  • Iced filter3.40

  • Cake of the day3.00

Oat milk at no extra cost. Every drink uses this week's roast, and any bag on the shelf can be brewed as a filter while you choose.

Pour-overs being made at a white tiled counter
Six seats at the counter, two outside on the bench.

Bring theTin backRefills on every opening day

Buy a Little Drum tin once and bring it back whenever it is empty. We fill it from the shelf, write the batch on the lid and take a tenth off the price.

Get a tin
The tin, once
£6
Every refill
10% off
Bags saved last year
4,120
An open tin filled with roasted beans, seen from above
Refill
A cupping spoon lifting coffee from a white bowl
Free

First SaturdayCuppingTen till half eleven

Once a month we set out every coffee on the shelf, side by side, and taste them the way we choose them: slurped from a spoon. No experience needed, just a free morning.

Two peopleOne drumKelham Island since 2019

Little Drum started as a five-kilo roaster in a garage on Neepsend Lane. The drum is bigger now; the two of us are the same.

Tom and Hana in their aprons behind the counter

Tom Ashworth

The counter

Ten years behind other people's espresso machines before this one. Knows every regular's grind by heart.

Hana Pryce

The roaster

Roasts every batch herself on Thursday mornings and visits the farms each harvest.

Asked atThe counterFive things people ask

Can you grind for my brewer?

Yes — tell us what you brew with, from espresso to cafetière, and we grind on the spot. Whole beans keep longer, so we will always offer that first.

How long do the beans keep?

They are at their best from a few days to five weeks after the roast date on the bag. Keep them sealed, cool and out of the fridge.

Do you post beans?

Orders placed by Wednesday night go out on Friday with the new roast. UK postage is free over two bags.

Can I have a regular delivery?

Every two or four weeks, whichever coffee you like or the roaster's pick. Pause or stop it from the email we send before each roast.

Do you supply cafés and offices?

We roast for a few cafés and offices in Sheffield, delivered by bike in returnable tins. Ask at the counter or send us an email.

Come toThe counterKelham Island, Sheffield

Address
1 Example Street, Kelham Island, Sheffield S3 0ZZ
Hours
Tue–Sat 8 am – 5 pm, Sun 9 am – 2 pm, closed Monday
Phone
0114 000 0000
Email
counter@little-drum.example
Get directions Wholesale enquiries
Behind the counter on a quiet morning, drinks being made
Thu