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 beansBatch 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
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.
-
Kivu
Rwanda · washed · for filter
Blackcurrant, cocoa nib and brown sugar. Bright in a pour-over, round in a cafetière.
£9.50Add to bag -
Guji
Ethiopia · natural · for filter
Strawberry, bergamot and honey. The one people come back for by name.
£10.50Add to bag -
Huila
Colombia · washed · for anything
Red apple, panela and almond. Easy in every brewer, good with milk.
£9.00Add to bag -
Cerrado
Brazil · pulped natural · for espresso
Hazelnut and milk chocolate. Our house espresso, pulled at the counter all day.
£8.00Add to bag -
Marcala
Honduras · sugarcane decaf
Toffee and orange peel. A decaf we drink after six without missing anything.
£9.00Add to bag
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
- Sat 7 NovThe new Guji against last year'sBook a seat
- Sat 5 DecThree washed coffeesBook a seat
- Sat 2 JanEspresso blends, no milkBook a seat
- Sat 6 FebDecaf, honestlyBook a seat
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 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
