When it comes to coffee, sometimes it’s difficult to find somewhere that stands out and produces consistently great quality coffee. Especially in a place like Cornwall. Why? It’s out of the way from most of the country and being the small place it is it’s hard to find some of the best coffee in the great land of Kernow. It’s one of the UK’s biggest coastal holiday destinations so I’m here to help you all find the best speciality coffee shops in Cornwall, so you don’t have to do the searching yourself.
I’ve come up with a list of my absolute favourite independent speciality coffee shops in Cornwall. These are the stops for my go-to coffee: great quality coffee, a cosy, relaxed atmosphere, friendly baristas, a beautiful interior and all-around great vibes. I’ll be sure to keep this list updated for any more that I find along my travels across Cornwall.
The Roasting Room
Newquay, Cornwall
Credit – The Roasting Room – Via Instagram
The Roasting Room Coffee is a Newquay-based coffee roastery with two cafes. One in the roastery based in Lanteague Studios in Zelah, which is where the magic happens, one vintage roaster with magical vibes of a chilled laid-back environment and the main café overlooking the beautiful Towan Beach in Bank Street Newquay.
The Roasting Room began with the Owner Olly Jones learning to roast speciality coffee in Raglan, New Zealand. And as you probably know New Zealand is one of the best countries in the world for speciality coffee. So from his experience in New Zealand, he was bound to create something special and that’s exactly what he’s done.
The quality of their coffee is superb with an ethos of coffee how it’s supposed to be, a great process, nothing too funky, high-quality green beans from ethically sourced farms around the world and roasted delicately and perfectly and when brewed right is an absolute gem. I highly recommend this amazing coffee roastery the next time you’re headed towards Newquay.
Check them out at www.theroastingroom.co.uk
Origin Coffee – The Roastery Cafe
Porthleven, Cornwall
Origin Coffee is probably the most well-known on this list due to being around for over two decades. The roastery café is a perfect place to sit, relax and enjoy perfectly brewed coffee and a one-of-a-kind brunch. The interior is beautiful with a bonus of having a huge window behind the café bar where they roast all the coffee.
They offer a wide variety of great coffees from regions around the world and amazing feature coffees every week. Something I found amazing about Origin is their dedication to becoming as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible, as well as keeping close ties with their farmers. They pay well over the coffee market for their green beans and they tell you how much they pay per pound of green coffee, very transparent and open about their practices and this is something I admire. Located in the quiet village of Porthleven, just outside of Helston, it’s the perfect spot for your daily caffeine fix. With two cafes within a mile of each other. One in the main roastery and one in Porthleven village, which overlooks the beautiful seafront. Go check it out.
Dark Pony Coffee
Falmouth, Cornwall
Credit – s.shea.photos | dark pony coffee via Instagram
This coffee shop is an absolute gold mine. Based in the heart of Falmouth, a beautiful town on the south coast of Cornwall.
Dark Pony offers up some amazing lunches, brunch all handmade in their kitchen by their lovely owners and staff, and of course next-level coffee.
This is one of my favourites because they offer a wide range of coffee roasters from all over the world which mixes it up. Every time you visit be prepared for something new and exciting, one week it could be scenery coffee, the next it could be ripsnorter or Dak coffee roasters for their filter and espresso offerings.
They have also just started to roast their own blends so a win-win for us all. They have immense knowledge of speciality coffee, starting out working in other businesses in the speciality coffee industry and after a few years three friends came together to create the work of art which is Dark Pony Coffee. They definitely know their stuff when it comes to brewing and it shows in their service, coffee preparation and latte art. Next time you’re in Falmouth, you’ve got to check Dark Pony Coffee out.
Check Dark Pony Coffee Out on the Moor in Falmouth just next to Wetherspoons
Ol Factory Coffee
Falmouth, Cornwall
Credit – Ol Factory Coffee – Via Instagram
With a small roastery in Penryn just outside Falmouth and a beautifully designed café in Falmouth Ol Factory Coffee is another speciality coffee shop which brings you amazing brews in a chilled-out comfortable environment.
Ol Factory’s name is inspired by the building where the roastery building was built, and the sensory which perceives smell ‘olfactory’ which is such a cool name for a great coffee roastery.
Their values are ones that still stand strong today – quality, transparency and ethical trading. In those values, they have created consistently tasty roasts of coffee, and now they have their Falmouth cafe where they can showcase their roasts and immense knowledge of coffee brewing.
The coffee offerings are lovely, with great filter and espresso options (as you probably know already I’m a sucker for a fruit bomb on filter and they offer just that. Amazing pastries and homemade cake options, and very friendly staff. One of the best! Another Falmouth Gem.
Yallah Coffee
St Ives, Cornwall
Credit – Yallah Coffee – Via Instagram
Yallah Coffee is based in the main high street of one of the best Cornish tourist towns of St Ives.
A roastery situated in Penryn, which is just outside of Falmouth where they also have a second café.
Their St Ives café overlooks the beautiful seafront and offers some great food options and of course some great hand-roasted and brewed coffee. My favourite recently was a Burundi espresso which had the aroma and taste of honeydew melon.
A definite go-to when you’re trying to escape the busy high street in the peak of summer.
They also offer their roasts as retail purchases but something very unique about Yallah Coffee is a lot of their green coffee is shipped by sailing boat, which keeps their environmental impact low. Great Coffee that cares about you and the planet. One of my loves for Yallah Coffee is the fact that they’re working on keeping their environmental impact as low as possible by implementing this shipped by sailboat and giving back to the 1% for the planet program where they donate 1% of annual profits to environmental improvement resources. They also only produce single-origin coffees from some of the best farms in the world. A real go-to for your brews next time you’re down south.
www.yallahcoffee.co.uk
That’s it for now.
I hope you found this guide helpful for when you’re next in Cornwall. I’ll be sure to add to this list when I discover more great Speciality Coffee Shops but for now, try and visit these, trust me they’re all worth it and all offer unique takes on speciality coffee which at the end of the day that’s what makes it special. The experiences, the ideas, the service and most importantly the great tasting coffee.
I’ll catch you on the next one – this time London! Stay tuned.
