An online back-issue library of Coffee House magazines does exist; this file goes back to 2009, but we think we can probably go back to 2003!   

In the meantime, if there's anything you need to find in a previous issue, feel free to contact the editor and we'll do our best to trace it.

Clicking the image should get you the PDF version.     These files are all 1Mb / 2Mb and maybe 3Mb, so please give them time to load; to receive a file by email, just ask the editor. (For technical reasons, the PDFs are not entirely perfect with regard to illustrations - we tend to create the PDFs from the artwork which was given to the printer, which means the pics are TIFF files, not JPEGs.  We'll try and make time to put this right one day!)

Coffee House 71, May 2013

Everything does rather tend to stop at Caffe Culture preview time, and much of our magazine is devoted to the show... but we still managed to cover the interesting situation in which the London Coffee Festival drew a reported 16,000 visitors (ten thousand consumers, six thousand trade) and enquire whether this means the public interest and enthusiasm for speciality coffee is actually still going up.  We reported on two London coffee-house guides being published at the same time, and discussed the implications of the national barista championships... in which, for the first time, a barista from a contract caterer made the top six in the country.

Coffee House 70, April 2013

This issue led with a story which the rest of the beverage trade hadn't noticed (as usual). This is the proposed re-running of Independents' Day, a celebration of independent traders on the high street - and surely, that must be a terrific prospect for the high street cafe trade?  We reported on JD Wetherspoon's big step into the filter coffee sector, using Lavazza and a vast investment in Bunn equipment.  Our preview to the London Coffee Festival included an intriguing interview with Andronicas, the company which actually does offer certain coffees at well over a hundred pounds for half a kilo (!) and in cafes, we reported on De Wynn's in Cornwall, HMS Belfast on the Thames, and the Attendant, the coffee-shop sited in a subterranean Victorian public loo in London.

Coffee House 69 March 2013 - tenth anniversary issue!

The lead interviewee on the centre pages was Jon Money of Cream Supplies - probably a 'first' to get him pictured, too!  We questioned some 'boutique' tea brands, and in a big training feature, we reported the extreme curiosity of the City and Guilds course having been 'pirated' by another training operation!  We reported some neat ideas using flavours from Paul Meikle-Janney and Da Vinci, and took a look at the claims about compostable cups.

Coffee House 68 Feb 2013

We led with the extremely bizarre story of the coffee house owner who had gone to Uganda for charitable work, and found himself pilloried by an anti-gay activist site, for no good reason at all - we again highlighted the problem of onlline 'reviews' of your character and business. We reported on the meeting in Italy in which baristas told the Ceado grinder brand what was what, and we were lucky to have a fine centre-page interview in which Tracey Bovingdon of Tea Monkey said what she thought about certain trade suppliers. We reviewed the book by Andrew Rugasira on exporting Ugandan coffee - with which not everyone agrees.

This was another challenging issue, in its way - we are the first to realistically preview the barista championships, making the point that three previous champs are in it again. Why? So they can play for another crack at the world finals in Australia, that's why!  One very serious feature was a review of the book by Rick Peyser of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, in which he revealed the scandal of 'Los Meses Flacos' - the 'thin months' in which coffee farmers, even those working on Fairtrade terms, starve.

Coffee House CH66 Nov 2012

We had not intended this issue to be so eco-relevant - but heavens, it certainly went that way.  We were able to report from the Salone del Gusto in Milan on the remarkable meeting which brought together Lavazza, the founder of the Slow Food Movement, and indeed the founder of the Rainforest Alliance as well !  This was doubly fascinating - because we had the Slow Food Movement saying what the big coffee brands really should be doing, which is working on the ground at origin, and praising Lavazza for doing so.  We also had Dan, founder of Rainforest Alliance, telling us directly how he reckoned that the world is not dead yet.  We were able to put this beside the horror story of the possible extinction of wild arabica by 2080, but then we had - exclusively - a front page report on the speech by Dr Peter Baker in Costa Rica, where he effectively said that the worldwide coffee industry really doesn't know what the situation is at all!  Elsewhere, we reported the invention of the Cakewich, the commercial potential of chai, and the launch of Atkinson's roastery 'visitor centre' in Lancaster

Coffee House CH65 Oct 2012

The front page of this issue highlighted a story we really liked - the tale of how a deaf girl had become a Starbucks barista in the States, and handled the job effectively with sign language.  Just our luck that we came up with a story that praised Starbucks in the same week as their tax scandal erupted!   We looked at Littles, and their claim that top-quality flavoured coffee can exist in an instant soluble format; our main interview was with Clipper, a tea brand which makes many claims to its ethical standing but which briefly lost its way, and is now under new ownership.  We debated the issue of coffee wasted through inefficient grinders, and the possibility of the perfect mocha through a super-auto.  Our features cafes were Street, Jack Craggs, Sellers (as in the late actor) and Boscanova of Boscombe. 

Coffee House CH64 Sept 2012

This issue included several interesting items. Martin Carwardine, the roaster, put forward the story and the reasons for being deeply involved in reconditioned espresso machines, and Nicola Pearson of Cafedirect gave a very candid interview on the brand's situation.  Jarrod Normie of Regency spoke about the company's distribution of the Ghirardelli chocolate brand and his plans to create the role of 'chocolate barista trainer', and regretfully, for the second year in succession, we had to question the Rainforest Alliance's promotional work for its awareness week. We didn't want to... but we do wish they would ally themselves with the trade a lot more.  

Coffee House CH63 Aug 2012

This was one of those issues which sorts the men from the boys in trade-paper journalism!  We love it when 'real news' happens, and we were, by a long way, the first in the catering trade press with the news that tesco, of all people, was to link up with an artisan coffee-house operator, Taylor Street Baristas, to bring top-class coffee to provincial high streets. Our newsflash produced the biggest online readership our newsfeed has ever had!  We also spoke to Christine Cottrell, author of the Barista Bible, about the problem of barista trainers who do not work on sound educational principles, and we discussed the importance of a good frappe base with Robyn Hawkins of Big Train in California, and others. We debated with the head of Coeliac UK whether the gluten-free market is indeed 'a market going begging' for coffee houses. We looked at this year's Great Taste winners in beverages... including an all-robusta blend!

Coffee House 62, July 2012

We really enjoyed this issue.  The front page lead was on the cafe in Edinburgh which beat the government-backed WRAP scheme with the first real action on bringing back packaging... it has created a loyalty card activated by the return of takeaway cups and the like.  Curiously, our inside story was on another new kind of loyalty card - in this one, Caber Coffee of Scotland are supporting community schemes.  The main interview was with the UKBC champ, Max Colonna-Dashwood, and was an illuminating explanation of why true 'speciality' coffee needs a different kind of customer service from 'everyday' coffee.  We took a look at the new mechanisms by which cold frothed milk can be used from super-auto machines for speciality drinks, and we enjoyed the novel argument from Melitta than first-class coffees can now be put through super-autos, and that users of automatic machines can really promote the fact that they are serving the world's best coffees.  We also enjoyed James Hoffmann and Josh Dick's experiments on whether customers can taste the difference in drinks from a dirty machine.

Coffee House 61, June 2012

It was of this issue that a reader wrote - "We enjoyed reading this month’s Coffee House... not that we don’t always, but this month was extra good!"  The interesting thing is - we thought so, too!

We led with three strong news stories - the Clonebusters campaign, in which the independent retails of the town of Totnes are campaigning together against the arrival of Costa; the work by a professor in Edinburgh who wants cafes to display the caffeine content of their drinks; and the remarkable work of Sandra Hoj in Copenhagen, who has done something that neither the coffee trade nor local authorities could do, and created a collection mechanism for discarded takeaway cups. Our major interview was with Johnny Richardson of the Coffee Boys, who argued that although many coffee houses are still experiencing  quite basic management problems, they are nonetheless 'the saviours of the high street'. Elsewhere, we looked at the interesting book written by a Starbucks barista, on how to interpret the chain's drinks, and we visited the LJs coffee house in Soho.

You don't get content like this in any other trade paper!

Coffee House 60, May 2012

It is Caffe Culture show time, so this issue was given over largely to the show preview, although we highlighted some of the interesting new products - the new 'anti-clumping' grinder from Drury, for one.  The main interview was with Jeremy Rogers, founder of Beyond the Bean, whose company celebrated its 15th birthday.  We also looked at the interesting developments in reusable takeaway cups, and showed Jorg Muller's new idea for takeaway tea - a business which has never taken off, because of the problem of what to do with the bag.

Coffee House 59 April 2012

The April issue had one of our favourite cover pictures - the one of Rohan Marley, son of the reggae star, launching his Jamaican coffee in the UK.  Inside, we took up the remarkable subject which had been raised at a Tamper Tanrtum (the baristas' get-together) about whether the London scene has stopped progressing, and is now 'stalled'. We looked at iced tea, and the forthcoming London Coffee Festival.

Coffee House 58 March 2012

The March issue led, as usual, with an exclusive - another regional coffee festival to be coming up in September. We looked at the latest bizarre coffee story to make the dailies (the idea that Starbucks will start asking customers' names), we reported on how the UKBC had progressed, and we took a detailed look at the new BSA awards. The featured interviewee was Tom Sobey of Origin coffee, who had a few points to make about the need for coffee-house staff to actually know what to do with coffee. We looked at the latest edition of the London Coffee Guide, and takeaway cups - and the re-usable KeepCup.  And we found some more interesting new cafes... including one which celebrates northern gangsters!

Coffee House 57 Feb 2012

The February 2012 issue led with the continuing question of the survival of the national high street. We didn't bother with a preview to Fairtrade Fortnight, because advance information about the event is always now so sketchy - despite our encouragement, very few people seem interested in it any more.  However, we edited a few diaries of the travels to origin of coffee importer Simon Wakefield, which made a very interesting feature, and we interviewed James Roberts of Peros, who argued that growth in Fairtrade is still to come.  We previewed the coffee-related items to be seen at Hospitality show... including, we were fascinated to see, exclusive reports on the arrival of the new Synchro and Rocket espresso machines.  John Taylerson, the flavoured syrup maker, gave an entertaining interview on promoting the flavoured-coffee sector and Barbara Croce of Coffee Latino spoke to us about her work in creating mobile trading carts.

Coffee House 56 Dec/Jan 2012

We were extremely busy in December, and realised that if we mailed a magazine, it would get lost in the Christmas rush - so we didn't. The main news was the closure of Coffee Kids' UK office, with the trustees going off to form a new coffee-themed charity, the launch of the new Scanomat machine from which all that is seen above the counter is the pouring tap, and we tested a curious new brew-in-the-bag filter coffee, and Kimbo's new idiot-proof milk frother. The big interview was with Elliot Gard, director of the Caffe Culture show, and we interviewed Chris Salierno of La Marzocco.  There were features on creating a brew bar, on 'healthy' foods and drinks in the coffee house, and the featured cafes were the Old Stables of Hay on Wye, and the Real Eating Company.

Coffee House 55, November 2011

This issue had several important features - the Coffee House interview with Gerry Ford, head of Caffe Nero, included some fascinating observations about how he does not see the trade from a corporate point of view, and there was a good two-page feature on Miko, and how its hands-on work with rainforest conservation can be used in consumer-facing promotion by the trade.  The news was l;ed by another5 coffee-cup scare, this time the importance of using the right lids on takeaway cups - the wrong ones can be insecure.

Coffee House 54 Oct 2011

This was an issue led with acquisitions - the Welsh brewer SA Brain took over the chain Coffee#1, and Bewley's of Dublin took over Darlingtons of London.  We think we are correct in saying we put both pieces of news out to the trade first.  We carried a challenging piece asking if the UKBC, the UK Barista Championships, would succeed this year in reaching the masses, our main interviewee was the multi-lingual Lina Chiodo of Bunn, who gave some entertaining insights into doing cross-cultural business, and we reported on a visit to the La Cimbali factory. There was a story on the more unusual prospects of printed giveaway sugar packs (round ones!) and we discussed the use of chai on the winter tea menu.

Coffee House 53 Sept 2011

Yes, a very interesting issue - we lead with the fairly sensational news that Kopi Luwak coffee is now the subject of factory-farming, and that there is a revolt against it from those in the coffee trade who believe that this novelty coffee actually supports animal cruelty.  We have the first news of Cafe du Monde's interesting experiment on selling sachets of speciality coffee into the domestic market through an interesting cross-marketing route that comes from its existing hotel-sector business, the interview is with Elaine Higginson of United Coffee on customer service, we report on the new cool, hip tea-shops of Manchester, and in chocolate we both report on the fascinating Chocolate Cafe business in Ramsbottom, which is pioneering the move towards single-origin chocolate, and we review the fascinating history of Cadburys, told in a new book.  And... what's the 'syrupodic table'?  You can find out in this issue !!!! 

Coffee House 52, August 2011

This is the kind of issue we enjoy - lots of talking points. Peter Kirton of Esquires Coffee Houses takes the star centre-page interview spot, talking about the importance of customer service now that coffee quality is a 'given' (or is supposed to be!)  There's a fascinating two-page spread on Tamper Tantrums, which is the online coffee work by roaster Steve Leighton of Has Bean, and a report on his Live event, with a couple of attention-getting speakers.  We have a feature on the return of Gaggia as a main brand, and product features on the printing of takeaway cups, which we still consider an under-used art , and in which we discovered that you can now use 'random printing' techniques, which can change the whole game for an imaginative user.   We had a feature on the Great Taste Awards winners in coffee and tea, and our news stories included a report on why Town Centre Managers are on the side of coffee shops, and on the curious lack of any advance publicity for Rainforest Week.

Coffee House 51, July 2011

Another one we're proud of.  The front page lead highlighted the fact that nobody in the trade has yet thought to make a submission to the Mary Portas report on the state of the modern high street.  We looked at the practicality of iced teas, asked what was wrong with the soft-drinks offer from suppliers to the cafe trade (a big feature on Breckland Orchard), our centre pages interview was with Andrew Moyes, MD of BB's Coffee and Muffins, talking about the re-birth of a chain which nearly crashed. We devoted several pages to a discussion of the bakery and snacks trade in cafes, debated with Coopers of Jersey the curiosity that well-roasted coffee must have a forgiving nature to overcome bad brewing at the point of sale, discussed the theory of the advertising table-top... and wondered why there had been no Brits in the world tea championships!

Coffee House 50. June 2011

OUR 50th ISSUE!

A stormer of an issue.  A nothing-held-back review of the latest book by Howard Schultz, top man at Starbucks, a feature on what really is needed with water boilers, a four-page look at our independent coffee roaster community with a particular highlight on Union Hand Roasted, a report on the imaginative seminar when coffee baristas were invited to learn the secrets of tea, a report on Soho's Secret Tea Room, and two great coffee-houses - St Ali and Look Mum, No Hands!

Coffee House 49, May 2011

Once a year, the Caffe Culture show preview does rather tend to dominate the issue, and we have picked out some highlights - notably, the 90-second cooked breakfast for the cafe!  We also look at the two cafes in Exeter run by the ex-CEO of Coffee Republic, the Soho Coffee Company, the reason why some baristas went into a cowshed before the Bath festival (to learn about milk!), and the new social networking website run by a coffee chain director.

Coffee House 48, March / April 2011

A look at the barista championships, and what the average coffee shop can take from them (the winner, who goes to the world championship, is John Gordon of London for the second time).   A look at the capsule concept - that is, the one originally devised by Nespresso, and now copied or adapted by many other players. A look at dangerous times in the coffee trade - it's all very well to bang on about how wonderful the new hip and cool scene is, with so many coffee bars opening up... but the truth is, what to do when so many cafes are actually closing? A talking shop with various brands making comments on aspects of the tea market, and our featured cafe is the wonderful Ace Cafe, the bikers' joint on the north circular out of London.

Coffee House 47, Jan Feb 2011

An interesting issue - we lead with the remarkable news that Caffe Culture is to give a lot of attention to tea, and the exclusive news of an espresso engineer giving up his steady job to become a 'competent person', the man who can give an espresso machine its annual certification - which, of course, most cafes ignore.  We look also at Fairtrade Fortnight, in a more challenging way than most magazines do.

And we report on the first folding coffee cup!

Coffee House 46, Nov Dec 2010

A very full issue, this one. We still seem to be the only magazine daring to approach the subject of espresso-machine safety and pressure-vessel testing. We give the first news of Lavazza's unusual new flavour-essence product, and we have features on the UK barista championships and on Fracino, the UK's only espresso-machine manufacturer.  We report on a visit to Monin, the French flavoured-syrup maker, and report on the Allegra European summit in Rome, where the star speakers were Tim Wendelboe of Norway and Kaspar Basse of Joe and the Juice. There are features on the English tea shop at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome, and on Specialitea of Exeter.

Coffee House 45, Sept/Oct 2010  

* I don't know why, but clicking on this issue brings up a message saying the link is broken. It isn't, and the PDF does appear after a moment or two - but if it doesn't, I'll send one by email on request. - Ian B

A terrific issue. A look at the many problems surrounding takeaway cups, and a genuinely interesting look at snacks for the cafe sector - including the first story of Single Source's new saucer-side products. Plus chocolate, tea, and whoopies... and details of what the Pope drinks!

Coffee House 44, July/August 2010

A particularly interesting issue. We have dared to take up the matter of whether everyone was satisfied with Caffe Culture, even though it became the biggest coffee exhibition in the world. We are probably the first magazine to report from inside the judging room at the Great Taste Awards.  A deep look at flavours in coffees including (unusually) an interview with Kerry.  A look at the matter of pressure-profiling, and a report on the 'new breed' of artisan roasters.

Coffee House 43, May-June 2010

Largely a preview to the Caffe Culture show and world barista championship. The front page lead story highlighted the growth of filter coffee in the trade.

Coffee House 42, May-June 2010

In this we looked at several extremely significant issues - we questioned recent research on the amount of the UK population which was claimed to go into coffee shops, we looked at the first UK consumer event in coffee, the Bath festival, reported on the debates over quality at the Allegra summit, and dared to report in depth on the bizarre story of the big chains' competition to launch a flat white.   And we devoted several pages to really new product ideas.

Coffee House 41, March - April 2010

In this we looked at the progress of the barista championships, we reported (first!) the amazing news that First Choice had acquired distribution of the Nuova Simonelli range, and in our tea feature we reported on new ideas for tea in takeaway cups, and also the remarkable invention from Australia which suggests that we Brits may have our tea-brewing traditions all wrong...   and we visited Atkinsons, the craft roastery in Lancaster.

Coffee House issue 40, Jan/Feb 2010

In the first issue of the year, we have the exclusive news of the formation of the AIEE, the Association of Independent Espresso Engineers. We report on cafe redesigns from Starbucks, Coffee Republic, and the new Lavazza Espression concept. In our Fairtrade Fortnight preview, we look at the theme for the year, which is 'swap your usual cuppa for a Fairtrade one', and we ask if this is likely to work.  We report on the 60th birthday of the great Bar Italia, one of the very first espresso cafes in Soho, and we are probably the only magazine which bothers to report the results of the BSA's Bev-e cafe awards.

CH39, Nov/Dec 2009

In this issue, we are probably the only magazine in the world to give a full report on the Allegra coffee summit in Vienna - and that featured a quite astonishing debate on ethical sourcing in coffee, which turned into an all-out attack on the Fairtrade concept.  Elsewhere in the same summit, there was an intriguing discussion on the future of coffee houses - which may not be what you expect.   Whatever the cliche saying says, it may not be 'all about the coffee' at all!    We also take a look at what modern barista training really means, and what is needed beyond the obvious milk-frothing skills.

CH38, September/0ctober 2009

In this issue, we break the news of the world's greenest coffee roaster, being launched in Europe in early October; we break the news (again) of the first British coffee festival, set for bath in spring of 2010; we report the curious aspects of Starbucks going all-Fairtrade and the latest set of rows between cafe owners and local councils.  We report the return of a barista championship under the Brasilia name (not entirely the same as the great events of six years or so ago, run by a different organisation, but still a very welcome addition to the calendar).  We report the extremely exotic coffees from Sea Island, and the first commercial roasting operation down in the south-west of Cornwall.

We look at the problems of paper cups for the takeaway trade, and the many curiosities of the flavoured syrup market.

CH37, July/August 2009

In this issue, we began our campaign to remind everyone in the trade about the possibilities of the great promotional year of 2010, when the world barista championship comes to Britain, to coincide with the Caffe Culture show.

We reported the interesting items from the Allegra conference, such as a debate on the Australian influence in our London coffee shops, and the importance of such drinks as the flat white.  We reported in depth on the problems that cafe owners have with councils over such things as outside seating permissions, and we demanded to know who is going to speak up for the cafe trade if the existing associations aren't doing so.

We enquired how good the UK and Irish roasters are, when compared to the rest of the world, and featured such names as Square Mile, Peter James, Lincoln and York, James Aimer, Gala, Drury, Johnson Bros., Bewleys, Union, Capital Coffee, and Java Republic.

We looked at snacks, and the limited-edition concept from Byron Bay Cookies.

We do not, of course, write only for our own magazine.  We are probably the most active writers promoting beverages in the country!

For some years we produced a curious little magazine for the Beverage Service Association - this was 'In The Cup', and we have to say that along the way, we produced some very good issues which concentrated on certain subjects.  They still remain a pretty good instant introduction to each subject.

Here's a typical one -

Click the pic to read 'working the modern cafe trade'.   It gives some very unusual but helpful viewpoints on running hospitality businesses.

Same with this one - milk, such an important subject, is very rarely featured in the beverage trade press!

Other subjects featured in 'In The Cup' included:

Chocolate

Coffee (in general)

Fairtrade

Tea

Espresso

Customer service

We may not have time to upload them all - but contact the editor, and he'll be happy to send you a PDF of any of these issues.