Coffee Roaster Introduction: CLO Coffee

Best Coffee's roastery guide is a compilation of the very best, tried & tested coffee roasters from around the world. We’ve hand-selected a small collection of amazing coffees for you to sample. Not all coffees are created equal, and not all coffees make it into our shop. So we’re starting a series of articles shining a light on our chosen roasteries to explain why we picked them for your drinking delight.

CLO Coffee

Where: Leeds

Who: Husband and wife team Linda and Nick Castle.

Since when: 2008

Why: We like CLO for their simple, transparent approach to coffee. Taking time to enjoy a good coffee is so often forgotten in our busy schedules, but CLO remind us to do just this. Their coffee is always tasty and their team (and customers) are always smiling – the sign of a job done well, we think.

What’s the story: CLO began after Co-founders Linda and Nick decided to swap career dissatisfaction for community. Connection with people is behind everything they do at CLO, from the producers and importers they work with, to how they run their 4 cafés.

Sustainability credentials:

CLO purchase their green coffee via long-standing arrangements with estates and specialty exporters. They make sure to pay farmers above Fairtrade prices for their coffee.

To give back to the community; CLO supports the NOTDEC orphanage in Uganda, which is committed to loving and caring for orphaned children; providing a home, education and nurturing their talents.

The coffee bags and packaging from CLO are either fully home-compostable or carbon-neutral recyclable.

Our favourite coffees:

Uganda recyclable coffee pods - A coffee washing station was opened in the Kalingwe region of Uganda to help process the quality coffee being growin in small amounts in people’s back gardens. Farmers are now being paid better than ever and the coffee is only getter better and better. Tasting notes of stonefruit sweetness, orange citrus