Our coffee-loving director, John Filinski, came from a proud Italian household where coffee drinking was a huge part of his life. There was something about this sweet-scented, black liquid that brought people together.

As a child, there was something mind-blowing to John about his family’s coffee-drinking tradition. People would come and visit his family, and out would come this strange, two-part metal pot. You’d basically add a tiny bit of water and a decent heap of soil-like substance, and wait for the coffee to seep into the top section of the pot. Next, you’d serve the coffee into small cups.

As John grew up, he came to realise that coffee drinking was a massive part of many people’s lives. It was this notion that ignited his coffee passion.

At Rossetti Coffee, we’ve taken a long time to perfect our coffee so we can provide you with the perfect cup, each and every time. Our love of coffee comes from the old Italian saying, “Miscele, Macchine da Caffè, il Mano” which translates to: “The Coffee blend, The Coffee Machine and The Hand of the Barista”.

John spent some 15 years in the coffee business, running and owning numerous train station coffee shops. After many years spent tasting just about every big-name coffee brand on the market, John felt it’d be rude not to make his own blend, as he felt there was something lacking in the many commercial brands on the market.

John knew if he really wanted to serve and make delicious coffee, he’d have to go on a bean-hunting quest to find the perfect coffee flavour. So his search for coffee beans began. First, he headed to Africa, home to some of the finest coffee beans that money can buy.

So, starting with Africa, John did some digging and after travelling around Africa for a while, he heard about an amazing coffee plantation in Uganda producing just what he was looking for. Bugisu AA an Arabica bean.

John was then introduced to another plantation producing Robusta, two species of coffee bean notorious for their use in Espresso coffee blends and used pretty much by anyone and everyone who steps foot in the coffee trade.

If you’ve had coffee, you’ve tasted Arabica or Robusta coffee beans – or both at some point. Nevertheless, after establishing close ties with the coffee bean plantations down in Uganda and an introduction to a farmer in Ethiopia and working directly with the plantation owners, hey presto. John knew it was these beans (Bugisu AA, Robusta Screen18 and Limu Kossa from Ethiopia) that would form the base of what is today’s Rossetti Coffee. Ethiopia’s coffee beans are perhaps one of the best in the world – and it was this long-awaited bean that completed John’s bespoke blend.

Four years later, after quite a few experimentations with the UK finest coffee roaster, John still wasn’t 100% happy with the way they roast in the UK – the roasting techniques didn’t quite match up to those of the roasting houses in Italy.

John had to keep his dream alive, so…

… It was time to go to Italy to find a roaster, the espresso-drinking capital of the world! Here, he met an old family member and longstanding coffee roaster, learning the intricacies of what was required to take his coffee blend to the next level and create the roast he so desired.