Spring Valley Coffee - Best New Coffee Shop 2026

LCF Awards Spotlight Q&A

1. Congratulations on your win! Can you tell us a little about your business and what makes it special?

Spring Valley Coffee opened on Camden Passage in Islington in June 2025, our first café outside Kenya. Everything we serve in London is grown in Kenya and roasted by our own team in Nairobi. Our name comes from the neighbourhood on the outskirts of Nairobi where one of Kenya’s first coffee estates was established in 1905 – Spring Valley. We’ve been roasting there since 2009, and we now have eight cafés across the city alongside London. For generations Kenya has exported its coffee green, and much of the value has left with it. We do it differently: we source and roast specialty coffee at origin, so Kenyans get to enjoy the exceptional coffees their country produces, and more of the value stays in Kenya, along with the skills and jobs. We’re Kenya’s first B Corp-certified specialty coffee roastery and café, and a founding member of the B Corp Coffee Coalition.

2. What award did you win, and what does that recognition mean to you and your team?

We won Best New Coffee Shop at the 2026 awards. We’d been open less than a year, in a city full of cafés that have been perfecting this craft for decades, and we were still learning. Winning meant considerably more than an award for our London café. For a long time, “specialty coffee roasted at origin” and “world class” were assumed to belong in different worlds. This award confirms our long-standing view that the opposite is true: being as close to the producers as possible, roasting at origin and competing with the best in the world do belong together. That’s why it isn’t really an award for one café in Islington. It belongs to every producer, every coffee factory (washing station) and every roaster who has spent years proving that there is more to the “from origin” story than green coffee.

Q3. What inspired you to enter The London Coffee Festival Awards?

We entered to find out whether the coffee community and our guests believe what we believe: that specialty coffee roasted at origin, served with Kenyan hospitality in a Kenyan-inspired, design-led café, can stand alongside the brands we have looked up to for many years. London was the natural place to ask that question. It is home to some of the best roasters in the world and many of the industry’s thought leaders. A few people thought we were crazy to open here, but the coffee community could not have been more welcoming. Winning told us the answer was yes.

4. What do you think helped you stand out and secure the win?

A few things. First, our people: the producers we work with, our roasters in Nairobi and the team on the ground in London, led by Gemma and Sam. Second, the authenticity of our story and the provenance of our coffee: specialty, roasted at origin, brewed in London. Finally, the space we have created, inspired by the natural materials found at origin. Half our London team are Kenyan, and most of the others have been to Kenya, walked the farms during harvest, stood in the washing stations and spent time in the roastery. When one of our team talks you through a coffee, they know exactly what they’re describing. You can feel that across the counter, and it’s very hard to manufacture. Every cup we pour in London can be traced directly back to a producer we know and the roastery we own. It isn’t a claim printed on a bag; it’s how we roast every batch, small and by hand. And then the space itself. Everything in it is intentional, from the brickwork to the Kenyan artists on our walls and the African makers on our shelves. No laptops at weekends either, because we think the best seats here are for talking, reading and drawing.

5. Tell us about the journey behind your business. What has been your proudest achievement so far?

We’ve gone from a single café and roastery in Nairobi in 2009 to eight cafés across the city, and one in London. Each is unique, but each pays homage to where our coffee comes from and showcases a different Kenyan artist. Alongside that, we have grown a wholesale business supplying over 250 partners in Kenya and further afield. Our first hospitality partner started working with us sixteen years ago and is still one of our largest customers! It is all underpinned by our roastery, housed in a building almost a century old, where we roast 2½ tonnes a week. We also represent some of the world’s leading coffee equipment brands, including La Marzocco, Mahlkönig and Modbar. The recognition we’re proudest of: – Winning Best New Coffee Shop at The London Coffee Festival Awards 2026 – Monocle: 25 exceptional brands that are leading the coffee industry (June 2026) – The Economist: Kenyans are starting to drink their own coffee (April 2021) Q6. What impact has winning had on your business, team or community since the awards were announced? Weekends have gotten a lot busier and specialty cafes have reached out to serve & sell our coffee. The energy in the café has shifted too. We’ve gone from being the new kid on the block to a team that works with quiet confidence in what we serve, who we serve it to, and how.

7. How important is it to receive recognition from the coffee community?

It matters a great deal. The coffee community is made up of the people we’ve learned from and looked up to, so their recognition carries a credibility we couldn’t claim for ourselves, both for us and for origin-roasted coffee more broadly. It has also made our café a destination for that community: they come to see which Kenyan coffees we have on, and many are regulars at our cuppings.

8. If someone was visiting your coffee shop for the first time, what’s the one thing they absolutely shouldn’t miss?

Go behind the green curtain. That’s our cupping room, where we host cuppings several times a week, and it is always open to the coffee community. While you’re here, try a coffee flight, to taste the same coffee prepared in different ways or several coffees side by side, and take in the art: we showcase emerging Kenyan artists across the café. Our CEO’s favourite is the picture of Mohammed, our Head Roaster, behind the coffee bar.

9. What’s next? Are there any exciting plans, projects or ambitions on the horizon?

We’re not chasing growth for growth’s sake, and we’re not chasing a store count. Our focus remains on sourcing exceptional coffee, roasting it with precision in small batches, and giving our guests a memorable coffee experience. What London taught us is that we can hold our own internationally without losing what makes us who we are. The mission hasn’t changed: catalysing change, one coffee at a time. Whatever comes next – more UK sites, being served by leading UK hospitality partners, being stocked by premium retailers, or exploring new markets – has to pass the same test as every decision we make: are we doing the right thing, are we making incredible coffee, and are we delighting everyone involved? If it doesn’t clear that bar, it isn’t worth building.

10. What advice would you give to businesses thinking about entering The London Coffee Festival Awards in the future?

Apply – we almost didn’t. We were delighted just to make the shortlist. We can’t say how grateful we are to the customers, neighbours, partners and industry colleagues who came out to support us. They are all part of our community, and they’re the reason we won. We do it for them, and we couldn’t have won without them.

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