Rui P.
Roasting
Rui pulled shots at a café in Lisbon before he pulled them here, which is where Bica gets both its name and its shape: short, sweet, no apology for being small.
Since 2019
Two people, one address, and no plans to be more than a roastery.
Volta started as a market stall and a second-hand 5 kg roaster in a lock-up off Jamaica Street. It is still two people and one address: only the roaster got bigger.
Who is roasting
Ellen K.
Buying
Ellen came from the cupping table rather than the counter: three years buying green coffee for a roaster in Leeds before she decided the buying and the roasting should happen under one roof.
How we buy
Direct where we can, honest where we cannot.
Serra comes from a single farm in Brazil's Cerrado we have bought from since 2020, at a price agreed before the harvest rather than set by it. Norte is a Guji lot bought through an importer whose relationship in Ethiopia is older than ours, and we say so rather than pretend otherwise. Either way, the same question decides what goes in the drum: is this what we would drink ourselves on a Sunday?
How we roast
Small batches, roasted to order, not to a forecast.
The first roaster was a second-hand 5 kg drum, bought with the market stall in 2019; a bigger one joined it once wholesale started asking for a batch a stall never had to. Batches are still measured rather than guessed, and still go out only once they are ordered: Tuesdays and Fridays, with Mondays added through the busiest months so fresher coffee reaches more days without anyone further down the queue waiting longer for it.