The Roastery

The home of Costa Coffee

Fast forward nearly forty years, as Costa Coffee continued to expand across London, the UK and eventually the globe, we needed to find another new home to accommodate demand once again.

In early 2017, after two years of construction, we opened our doors to a brand-new state-of-the-art roastery in Basildon, Essex.

Our roastery is one of the biggest roasteries in Europe and allows us to produce 45,000 tonnes of coffee a year, quadrupling our coffee roasting capacity compared to our previous home in Lambeth.

Not just content with being the biggest, our roastery is also one of the most sustainable buildings in the world and in the UK we responsibly source all our raw coffee beans from 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms, where they are then ready to be transported to Tilbury Docks, Essex, located just 14 miles away from the Costa Coffee Roastery!

Inspiring the world to love great coffee

We have always worked hard to bring new coffee experiences to our customers. From the opening of the brothers' first coffee boutique in the 1980s, innovation has flowed through every aspect and era of Costa Coffee.

We were the first coffee providers in London serving our coffee in porcelain cups; we were the first coffee shop chain to introduce the Flat White in the UK and, with our Express machines, we were the first to bring coffee shop quality coffee to convenience stores and roadsides across the UK.

And we're not stopping there. Our signature blend has stood the test of time and we're proud to have been voted the UK’s favourite coffee shop* for the 14th consecutive year!

From crop to cup: what happens next?

Once the coffee cherries ripen and have been harvested, either by hand or by machine, the pulp around the seed is removed and the seeds dried and turned into green coffee.

The green coffee beans are then carefully quality checked, organised by size, and bagged into breathable fibre sacks to make sure they remain dry and clean until it can be exported. Read more about the way we responsibly source our coffee beans here.

All the coffee we serve in our shops, at Costa Express machines or from your favourite mug at home has gone through this process until it reaches our own Roastery.

So, next time you’re able to sit down and relax with a great cup of coffee, it’s worth taking an extra moment to appreciate all the time and careful attention that’s helped make it perfect.