Caravan Coffee Roasters

Caravan's founding structure matters for understanding what they built. Three people from New Zealand, with restaurant backgrounds rather than coffee-industry backgrounds, opening in London in 2010 — that combination produced something different from what the barista-centric third wave was building at the same time. The restaurant approach prioritised the full-service experience: coffee as one well-executed component of a broader offering, rather than coffee as the entire proposition.

The B Corp certification is consistent with Antipodean specialty coffee values that tend toward social and environmental accountability as operational commitments rather than brand add-ons. The Female Producer Programme is a specific, named initiative within the sourcing structure — it's a signal that the sustainability language is attached to something real rather than being used as marketing language.

The house roasting style is restaurant-optimised: bright and fruit-forward, approachable enough to work alongside food without needing quiet concentration. That design decision is one reason the wholesale operation has grown alongside the restaurant network.

For Cuppd users, Caravan is a useful roaster to compare against more single-minded specialty roasters like Assembly or Square Mile. The same origins and processes produce different results when a roastery's primary audience is a restaurant table rather than a home brewer with a V60, and understanding that difference is useful for building a more precise sense of your own preferences.