Whether you like to drink Fairtrade, or support female coffee growers, your morning coffee (and the rest) can support a whole range of issues plus the choice of coffee that can be delivered to you door has never been bigger.
There’s no need to settle for second rate coffee just because you’re at home.
These are our favourite brands to order ethical coffee beans or ground coffee to your door, so you can crack on with your day, without worrying where your coffee has come from.
If you’re still not sure what you should be looking for in your coffee (like are sustainable coffee pods a real thing?) check out our discussion on whether coffee is ethical.
And don’t forget you can use the coffee grounds to make an amazing zero waste body scrub! Scroll down to the end of the feature for the recipe.
The Best Organic & Ethical Coffee Brands In The UK
Check out these amazing British roasters and their organic & ethical coffees.
1. Beanberry Coffee
Beanberry Coffee is a specialty coffee roaster, where you can order up to 500g of a range of organic coffees of your choice online. They’ll then roast it and deliver it to your door, spurring you on as you WFH.
2. Alpaca Coffee
Alpaca Coffee are a proud plastic free coffee company that deliver direct to home. They’re focused on reducing the 23 millions of tonnes of waste the global coffee industry produces. The use plant based packaging, from wood pulp and bio plastics. And the organic coffee’s pretty good too!
3. Barista & Co
Coffee is Barista & Co’s world. They don’t just sell the beans but also all the tech to go with making great coffee at home, from milk frothers to plastic free cafitieres.
In terms of the coffee, they buy direct, pay fairly, support ethical and organic coffee growers and roast the beans in small batches and is in your home within 72 hours. We love their Full of Funk single origin coffee from Uganda.
4. Pact Coffee
Pact really are aiming to go above and beyond when it comes to delivering planet friendly, ethical coffee to your home.
We love their flexible coffee plans so you can place an order once, forget about it and never run out of coffee. Choose from 13 different rotating coffees, nine + different origins, five different grinds – they’ll even do a decaf version.
They pay their farmers direct, and between 25-125% above the fair trade price, buy from eight countries and really care about making the coffee industry a much more transparent, equal place to work.
Related: Is Coffee Bad For The Environment?
5. Apostle Coffee
Apostle Coffee are a family run roastery producing award-winning organic coffee, with beans sourced from farmers who uphold sustainable practices and who are ensured a fair price.
Roasted in Shropshire, they’re one of a few roasteries that send nothing to landfill, as all of its packaging is biodegradable throughout the supply chain.
The roastery is also ‘off-grid,’ powered by wind, solar and natural gas which means your coffee isn’t just looking after farmers, it also looks after the planet – this is carbon neutral, plastic free coffee that’s delicious.
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6. Lost Sheep Coffee
Lost Sheep Coffee, Kent’s favourite speciality coffee roastery, is offering free delivery on orders over £19.
All Lost Sheep Coffee is made using the world’s top speciality grade 100% Arabica coffee beans which are single origin and direct trade from Brazil, hand roasted in Whitstable.
7. Kiss The Hippo Coffee
Kiss The Hippo believe in transparent and fairly traded coffee supply chains, they have an organic certified roastery which was the first to be designated carbon neutral in the UK.
Their Stay At Home pack contains coffees and donates to the charity, Meals for the NHS. You can order everything as beans or ground coffee.
8. Yallah Coffee
Worried about carbon emissions from your coffee? Get it shipped in by sail boat thanks to Yallah Coffee.
This Cornish roastery has started shipping Colombian coffee by wind and use a small network of producers in Colombia who are paid higher than average prices for their beans. They also use a carbon neutral courier service to get it to you.
9. Percol
Percol was the first ground coffee brand to achieve Fairtrade status decades ago and it’s now a proud plastic free coffee company as well. It’s also Rainforest Alliance and the Soil Association certified and the beans are roasted here in the UK. It’s available in all of the major supermarkets to add to your online deliveries.
Related: What Does Ethicall Sourced Mean?
10. Cafe Direct
Not just sold in Oxfam, Cafe Direct, has rebranded and opened a roastery in East London.
It now offers a range of single origin Fairtrade ground coffees as well as delicate blends and small batch roasted coffees from across the world. 50% of its profits go into Farmers Direct, a charity that invests directly in growers and farmers. Available in all of the major supermarkets to add to your online deliveries.
11. Extract Coffee
One of Bristol’s best exports, Extract Coffee, know how to roast a mean espresso and their seasonal coffee blends take this as their base and run with it. We love their 50s-retro packaging and focus on supporting women.
You can also sign up for a weekly, fortnightly or monthly coffee to your door subscription.
Sustainability is a huge part of Extract, from recycling coffee waste into bio-fuels to supporting a range of charitable causes. Their new coffee, Inner Strength, donates £1 to those causes.
12. Good Coffee Project
Working direct with farmers to ensure their organic coffee is ethically grown and sustainably sourced, The Good Coffee Project is making waves despite only being founded in 2020.
Founder Chantel Daniel wants to see more representation in the coffee industry and celebrate the rich culture that surrounds coffee.
Choose from five specialty beans in 200g pouches that don’t harm the planet, or set yourself up a subscription so your cuppa has a clear conscience.
12. Chimney Fire Coffee
Chimney Fire Coffee have been delivering responsibly sourced coffee to home since 2016 but their new Discovery Coffee is a surprise each month.
They donate 25p from every small bag and £1 from every big bag to Re-Cycle who recycle unwanted bikes and ship them to rural communities in Africa. Packaging is biodegradable and their supply chain is transparent.
13. Blossom Coffee
Manchester based Blossom Coffee Roasters are focused on sourcing and roasting the highest quality coffee with the lowest possible Environmental Impact.
As a certified CarbonNeutral® Company and B Corp Pending, you can rest assured they place sustainability at the centre of everything they do. Free shipping on orders over £20.
Related: What is a B Corp?
14. Old Spike Roastery
Old Spike Roastery, the UK’s first social enterprise and specialty coffee roaster will now plant a tree with the Eden Reforestation Project, every bag of coffee sold online, in-store and wholesale.
Plus you they now offer bottles to refill your beans and ground coffee to cut down on packaging.
Old Spike Roastery pride themselves on their coffee quality, social impact and environmental sustainability.
65% of their profits directly support people experiencing homelessness through training and employment at their dedicated barista school.
How to make your ethical coffee go further by turning into a body scrub
We didn’t forget.
Don’t throw out your coffee grounds, use them to create a gorgeous body scrub. Here’s the recipe.
Have you tried any of these ethical coffee brands in the UK? Let us know you favourites in the comments below!
