We currently accept the following methods of payment:
Credit Card – we currently accept all Visa, MasterCard, American Express.
Debit Cards – All debit cards with a Visa or MasterCard logo may be used.
Paypal - please click on the icon at the checkout page and follow the instructions.
We currently use Royal Mail tracked 24 or 48 and Parcelforce for expedite deliveries. For more information please refer to our Delivery Information Page
DUE TO THE CURRENT GLOBAL SITUATION, ALL INTERNATIONAL SHIPMENTS ARE SUSPENDED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Yes, we do! We ship worldwide and the price varies according to weight. This will be calculated during checkout using Royal Mail International Signed for. Only orders under 2KG can be shipped via Royal Mail. We also ship via UPS, if you would like a quotation, please send us a message listing what you would like to order along with your full shipping address, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
You will receive an email confirming that your parcel has been dispatched. In the email you will find the Royal Mail Tracking Number. If it is not contained in the email, please do get in touch and we can send it to you.
We are a small office with a small handful of lovely hard working people processing and packing your orders. We endeavour to process all orders within 24 hours from receipt, but this is not guaranteed. During the busy periods, please allow up to 72 hours. From the moment of dispatch, your order should take 24 or 48 hours according to the shipping choice made, however, once it has left the premises, we cannot guarantee these timescales, it’s up to Royal Mail/Parcelforce to fulfil the timescale.
Please note that Royal Mail consider the weight of the parcel in its entirety including packaging. Therefore, if you order 1KG of coffee, your parcel will be over 1KG including packaging materials hence the shipping bracket will be higher.
Yes! We still like to talk to our customers but due to the current situation, we ask that you keep our lines free for our elderly clientele that can not order online.
You can call us on 0207 437 2480 from Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.
If your voucher doesn’t work, please check to ensure it is still valid and that you have met the voucher criteria (i.e if the voucher is for purchases over X amount) If you believe that your order qualifies and is still not working, please contact us here for assistance.
Please contact us on 0207 437 2480 as soon as possible. If the order has not yet been processed or shipped, we will be able to apply the voucher manually (if applicable).
Once your order has been dispatched, we will send you email containing your Royal Mail Tracking Number. If the email did not contain the Tracking Number, please contact us and we will send it to you.
Free shipping is applied on all orders over £40 (after applied discounts only). Rather than increase the price of our products and offer free shipping across the board, we have made the decision of being 100% transparent on our costs. You can be reassured that as a customer you are paying the true value of the product itself with no inflated prices.
Please note that free shipping is not applicable to our Wholesale bags.
Under United Kingdom Distance Selling Regulations, you have the right to cancel the contract for the purchase of any item within seven days of delivery. However, this is not applicable to the supply of food & beverages. Please note that you will be responsible for the cost of returning the goods to us unless we delivered the item to you in error or the item is faulty. Returned goods remain the customer's responsibility until they reach our store. Returned goods must be in 'as new' condition and in the original box and packaging. We will refund returns postage for an item which is faulty, damaged or sent to you in error.
All refunds will be made to the debit or credit card on which the original purchase was made within 30 days of the cancellation of the order or return of the goods. If we are unable to credit your original method of payment, you will be contacted by a member of our team to arrange an alternate method of refund. Exchanges are considered on a case by case basis, please contact us to know more.
If you’d like to amend your order, please call us asap on 0207 437 2480 and, if it has not yet been processed and packed, we may be able to amend. We will be able to amend the shipping address, or order, only if the parcel has yet to leave the building.
Our offices are open from Monday to Friday and orders are processed and dispatched until Friday morning.
All orders placed from Friday late morning to Sunday will be processed and dispatched from the Monday.
Generally, orders placed on Monday will be dispatched on Tuesday. By Tuesday we’d have cleared our weekend orders and orders should go back to 24 hours dispatch.
Please note, during busy period, please allow up to 72 hours.
We are a very small friendly office and we try our very best to dispatch all orders quickly but sometimes this is not possible, please bear with us!
If you have an urgent need for our coffee and tea before for the weekend, our shop is open on Friday from 10am to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am to 5pm.
We are a small business and work hard to get all your orders out within 24 hours. From time to time there may be slight delays during busier periods. If you have ordered over the weekend, we’ll endeavor to get your order out on the Monday but it may be slightly delayed. We appreciate your patience and understanding throughout the process. Sometimes we will hold your order to send you the freshest coffee available after roasting.
If you have noticed that something is missing from your order and we have not advised you of any reason as to why, please contact us at your earliest convenience. We will get the missing item shipped out as soon as possible. Please keep the packing slip contained within the package.
If you have received a wrong item, please get in touch with us at your earliest convenience. Please keep the packing slip contained within the package.
Some things change but generally most of our products are available all year round, aside from seasonal confectionary. If you can’t find what you are looking for, there is a search button on our website, you’ll find it next to your basket, it has a little magnifying glass icon. Alternatively, check through our menu categories. We’ve tried keeping the categories the same as our old website for ease of navigation. If you still can’t find what you are looking for, please give us a call on 0207 437 2480
There are two main types of coffees: Arabica and Robusta
Arabica was first cultivated in Ethiopia in the Arabian Colony of Harar, Robusta is mostly cultivated in Africa.
ARABICA: The finest coffee variety. It grows higher above sea level than other varieties and like high grown tea bushes, these slower growing and maturing beans have the time to produce a more refined flavour.
ROBUSTA: It is far more disease resistant with a less refined flavor than Arabica but when well-produced adds attractive and useful boldness to blends.
The various types of roasts you will find on our website are defined by their roasting times. The darker the roast the longer the roasting time and vice versa. As a guideline, your beans will look as follows according to how they are roasted:
MEDIUM- The beans are medium brown in colour and their surface is dry.
FULL – The beans are chestnut brown in colour
LIGHT ITALIAN – Slightly darker with patches of oil
HIGH – Almost black with a shiny, oily surface.
We roast our coffee twice a week and have the freshly roasted coffee delivered on Tuesdays and Thursdays, this guarantees that the coffee shipped out to you is always fresh. If we sell out of any coffee, you will be contacted, and you can either choose to have your order sent out when the fresh coffee arrives, or we can refund you for the item.
Every month we do a promotion on one type of High Roast and one type of Medium Roast. The minimum purchase for the promotional price is 500g of either coffee.
We have chosen to do this monthly promotion as it gives the opportunity for all to try out our various coffees every month at a convenient price. To find out what the coffee of the month is please refer to our Coffee and Promotion Page. We will announce the new coffees on our Social Media pages every 1st of the month also.
Yes, we can grind the beans, so you don’t have to! Just ensure you select which brewing method you use when ordering.
We know that lifestyles can be quite hectic therefore we can grind your beans so you don’t have to, however, grinding your own beans is the most significant thing you can do to improve the taste of coffee.
There are three basic types of home grinders: the hand grinder, electric grinder and burr grinder. To find out which ones we stock, please refer to the Grinders product page.
Every machine is different, and the grind varies accordingly. We ask you to specify your brewing method to ensure the coffee we send to you is suitable for your machine. The grind ranges from a very fine, powder like grind which is suitable for Turkish Coffee Pots to a coarser grind more suitable for a cafetière.
If you make a mistake on your order, please call us immediately on 0207 437 2480 to get it corrected. If the order has already been processed, we will no longer be able to amend the grind.
Of course, it is all up to personal taste but in general terms we recommend you use Full, Light Italian and High roast for espresso machines and Medium, Full roast for cafetières and filter machines.
House Blends are blends created and tested by us. Most have withstood the test of time and have been our customers favourites for decades. We have blended a selection of beans and roasted them, or even have blends with different roasts. All the recipes are closely guarded secrets.
Single Origins are beans that come from a specific country or area. They will be named by their country of origin and have not been mixed with any other bean.
Yes, we do sell raw coffee beans which you will find on our Raw Coffee Beans product page.
Please note, do not attempt to grind the raw beans prior to roasting. We will not be held responsible for any quality issues when home roasted as we have no control over roasting times or method used.
Coffee doesn't go off but it will loose it's flavour if not stored correctly. See below our storage recommendations:
- In Algerian Coffee Stores Air tight sealed bags: When unopened, coffee in our foil bags can last up to a few months. Please store them in a cool dry place away from direct sunlight.
- Opened bag: We recommend you transfer your coffee into an airtight container and store it in a cool dry place away from direct sunlight. We recommend you use coffee that has been opened within a few weeks.
We do not recommend putting coffee in the fridge or freezer as this does not do anything to maintain its freshness.
Following concerns and queries from several clients we would like to share the following statement in respect to the Corona Virus and tea.
There are four distinctive types of tea: White, Green, Oolong and Black.
White Tea: Rare and expensive, this is the tea made only from the newest leaf tip which is covered with a silvery fur.
Green Tea: Once the leaves are gathered, they are withered and dried immediately. This preserves colour and means the tea will have a definite taste of vegetation. Originally this drying or firing was done by hand in very large woks, and some of the highest grades are still finished like this: they are known as pan-fired teas and the process can also shine the leaf (hence Gunpowder). They are graded according to the size and shape of fired leaf. The highest grades of the rolled leaves (sometimes helped into shape by steaming) are the smallest and called pin head.
Oolong Semi Fermented: Most common Formosa and China. Tea leaves are slightly crushed, and the exposure of the interior juices begins the fermentation or oxidation of the leaf. Oolong teas are allowed only to part-ferment, so the leaves are fired whilst still part-green, part-brown.
Black: The withered leaf is crushed, fully fermented and then fired.
The basic grades of tea are leaf and broken:
Broken teas are graded: Broken Orange Pekoe, Broken Pekoe, and Fanning.
Leaf teas are graded: Orange Pekoe and Pekoe. There are also some Tippy or Flowery grades.
There are five period of growth.
First Flush: Between March and early April. This is a “newly grown” tea and has a very green leaf and astringent (light liquoring) taste.
Second Flush: May possibly into June. This is the finest quality with a Muscatel flavour (Grape). Unfortunately, this only occurs probably per season in 2 or 3 Gardens.
Third Flush: During end of June/July when quality is still good and before the Monsoon comes up from the plains.
Fourth Flush: is during the heavy rains in August to early September when, due to the weather, the bushes grow very quickly.
Fifth Flush: or Autumnal (End of October). This happens when the weather becomes cold at night and there is good sunshine during the day. A good autumnal tea has a brownish leaf but has a round, full fruity flavour (peach/plum).
If tea is brewed incorrectly it will taste different and may not be as enjoyable. The main things that can impair your tea are:
Water: The quality of the water you use can impair the final flavor of your tea. If your water is hard and mineral rich, this could bring a harsher tasting brew as it will extract more astringency from your tea. If the water used is too soft however, the opposite can happen, and your tea may result weak due to its less astringent properties. To ensure the perfect cuppa, we advise you use filtered water that can be created by using a simple carbon filter.
Water Temperature. Depending on the type of tea you are drinking, different water temperatures are recommended. For more delicate teas such as green, white and oolongs, we recommend using water off the boil that has been cooled down slightly. If you use water at 100c, this may burn the leaves and leave you with a very bitter cup. For black, herbal and dark oolong teas, the ideal temperature is 100C, this allows for the flavours and properties to be released. We never recommend using water below 80C as this will leave you with a weak cup and does not allow for all the lovely properties to be released. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can leave the freshly boiled water in the kettle for 3 to 4 minutes, this should bring the temperature down to 80c.
Brewing Time: These also vary according to the tea you are brewing. For most black teas, the optimal brewing times are 3 minutes for a weaker cup to 5 minutes for a strong brew. If you leave it any longer it may be too bitter. For white tea, the brewing times can vary from 2 minutes for a light brew to 7 minutes for a stronger cup. For Japanese green teas the optimum times are much shorter and range from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Green tea can be reused so the less you brew it for the more times it can be re-brewed. Chinese green teas are best when brewed between 2 and 3 minutes. Herbal tea brewing times vary accordingly, please refer to individual product page.
Quantity: The amount of tea you use per cup is important as this will change the strength and flavor of your brew. If you use too little tea, you will get a weak cup and by using too much you may end up with a cup that is too bitter and strong. Generally, we recommend 1 teaspoon of tea per cup, which is approximately 4-5g. Please note that some teas are heavier or lighter than others so do bare that in mind when deciding what quantity to use.
As an additional note, it’s important for the tea to have enough space in your brewing vessel as tea tends to unfurl and grow when in contact with hot water. The more space it has to brew, the better the cup!
Of course, everyone’s palate is different, so these are general guidelines to be used according to preference.
We sell high quality fresh tea and we recommend you store your tea in an airtight container in a cool dry place away from direct sunlight. When stored correctly, tea will remain at its peak freshness for 6 months. Some teas that contain fruits and nuts should be used within 3 months.
The tea can be kept for 6 months upwards however, its recommended you consume the teas following these guidelines for optimum freshness.
Back in December 2018 we moved over to this new website. We moved over all our customer files and sent activation emails. If you did not receive this, it may have gone to your Spam/Junk folder. To reactivate your account, please just send us a message stating your full name and postcode and we can send you a reactivation email. Once received you will just have to enter a new password and check your details to ensure they are all correct.
If this is the first time you order on the new website, you will notice that all your historical orders are not on your account. Sadly, we could not move this data over but if you wish to know what you previously ordered, just send us a message and we can send you a list. If you have already placed an order on the new website, you will be able to find it in your account. If this is not the case, please send us a message so we can investigate.
Sadly, despite our best efforts, the new platform we use does not allow for re-ordering. However, you will be able to reach your favourite products by having a look at your historical orders on your account. All the products you previously ordered should be linked to their product page so you would just have to click on the links for a quicker way to order.
If you wish to reset your password on your account, please contact us and provide your full name and postcode. We will then send you an email link where you will be able to make the change. If the office is closed it will be quicker for you to click on the “forgot password” link when logging in to your account and creating a new password that way.
You can set up a subscription with us where you can choose to receive coffees and teas on a weekly, monthly or bimonthly basis. This saves you from having to order online or running out of coffee. We’ll just need to know what you’d like to receive, how frequently and we will set up a recurring order and send you a direct debit mandate which, once you approve, will automatically recur as and when your order is ready to be processed.
Now you can sit back, relax and never worry about running out of coffee and tea again!
Yes, when you fill in the Subscription form you can choose if it is a gift and add the recipient’s details. We will ensure that the order form attached to the orders are Zero balanced and if you wish to leave a message in your first order, just add it to the comment box. We do not offer gift wrapping at the time.
Yes, you can cancel your subscription at any time, you will just need to give us 30 days' notice. We will not be able to cancel any orders that have already been packed, that have already been shipped or that are due before the 30 days. Please call us on 0207 437 2480.
Yes, if you would like to change, extend or add to your order, please let us know immediately. We will not be able to cancel, change or refund orders that have already been prepared and shipped.
Direct debit requests will be sent out a few days before the date of the invoice. You should receive an email with the invoice. Please note, if a direct debit has been set up, you will not be required to pay the invoice received.
When you fill in the Subscription form online, you will be asked from which date you would like to start receiving your orders. Please note that it takes from few days up to a week for the direct debit mandate to be set up. Once we’ve received payment we will process and ship your order immediately.
The first date in which your first order was shipped will be how we calculate when your next order will be shipped. For example, if you have a monthly order and your first order was shipped on the 5th, all orders will be shipped on the 5th of every month thereafter. Should the date chosen to fall on a weekend or bank holiday, the order will be brought forward to the Friday before, or held until the Monday after.
If you’d like to try our various coffee’s without being tied down to just the one, we recommend you try our Coffee of the Month promotions. This will allow you try our different coffee’s on rotation.
If you’d like us to amend your shipping date, please get in touch with us immediately to let us know when you would like it shipped. We cannot change any orders that have already left the building.
Of course, just get in touch and we can pause your subscription for as long as you want. If you already know when you’d like to start it again, please let us know.