BlendingRoom

BlendingRoom Blending Room are coffee roasters based in Hull, East Yorkshire. Visits to the roastery are welcome.

24/09/2026

Need a coffee gift for someone who wants great coffee without the faff?

I’d choose one of these two:

☕ **AeroPress** — compact, versatile, and brilliant at home or away.
☕ **Clever Dripper** — simple, forgiving, and almost impossible to mess up.

Both make genuinely good coffee without weighing every gram or learning a dozen brewing techniques.

Which one would you give?

BlendingRoom · Hull

23/09/2026

Making espresso at home? These are the three coffees I’d choose.

If I were brewing espresso at home today, these are the three coffees I’d reach for from The Blending Room in Hull.

Want something traditional, full-bodied and lower in acidity? **Docker**.

It’s made with Brazil Fazenda Pantano and Guatemala La Bolsa, then roasted a little darker and longer for body, chocolate and sweetness—not sparkle.

Prefer something more modern and fruity? **Jones**.

It uses the same two coffees, but a lighter, shorter roast keeps the cherry and brightness in the cup.

Want the dependable middle ground? **Pantano**.

Brazil Fazenda Pantano on its own: nuts, chocolate and, with milk, a bit like Ferrero Rocher. It works beautifully as espresso or filter—and it’s the coffee I’d recommend if you just want your morning cup to taste brilliant every time.

I’m James Wilkins, Q Arabica Grader and owner of The Blending Room. We roast in Hull for home brewers and cafés across Yorkshire and the UK.

Try Docker, Jones or Pantano at theblendingroom.co.uk

22/09/2026

Coffee Roaster With No Smoke?

See that chimney?

No smoke. And that’s exactly the point.

The Loring S15 Falcon recirculates the roasting air, while the burner combusts the smoke particles. The result? Almost nothing comes out of the stack.

That means a cleaner process for our Hull neighbours, a lower-impact way to roast, and—most importantly—proper speciality coffee.

James — The Blending Room
theblendingroom.co.uk

Little and often, or all in one go?When a member of staff is on holiday, I’ve historically roasted the entire week’s cof...
21/09/2026

Little and often, or all in one go?

When a member of staff is on holiday, I’ve historically roasted the entire week’s coffee in a single day so I can step in and cover their role. That means starting earlier than usual (I normally begin at 5:00 am) and spending a long day at the roaster. Thankfully, the Loring S15 Falcon gives me the flexibility to roast up to 600 kg in a day.

But is that really better than spreading the week’s production across several shorter roasting days?

I don’t know, so this week I’m putting it to the test.

The aim is to roast 50 batches over four days and see how I feel at the end. Am I just as tired? Did I get everything done? Were there any noticeable gains—or losses?

We’ll see.

Day one: 12 batches roasted. One thing is already noticeable: I don’t enjoy roasting coffee on a Monday. 😅

20/09/2026

Specialty coffee’s future starts with personal agency.

This week at The Blending Room, I’ve been circling two big ideas: personal agency and the future of everything. Where do AI, co-fermentations, fruit infusions, and yeast inoculation fit within specialty coffee? And how do I stay present enough to form a real opinion — then act on firsthand experience rather than hype?

As a Northern UK roaster, I think the only way to hold a genuine position is to do the work: roast the coffees, taste them properly, understand post-harvest fermentation, take courses, ask better questions, and keep learning. Only then can you decide where you stand.

What’s your position on fruit infusions and co-ferments? What’s your opinion on AI in coffee? Drop it below.

But none of it works without a solid base. Mine is Beverley Market every Saturday, 8 till 4.

19/09/2026

La Picona — crisp, blood orange & honeyed pear

It’s incredibly crisp, with lovely blood-orange acidity and a honeyed, pear-like finish.

I brewed it this morning as a filter coffee, and that’s how I’d recommend trying it first rather than as espresso. The flavours are delicate, and I think some of that would be lost in an espresso shot.

If you’re buying whole beans—which I’d recommend—be mindful of the different bean sizes, as they can affect the brew. Get in touch if you need any advice.

As always, I hope you enjoy the coffee.

18/09/2026

Why I Never Drop Coffee Without a Plan

A roast profile is a recipe.

Before a batch goes anywhere near the roaster, I want a clear plan for the cup I’m trying to create.

Roasting isn’t magic. It’s intention, heat, and then tasting honestly to see whether the coffee landed where you wanted it to.

Across 17 years of roasting speciality coffee, every batch I’ve roasted has started with a plan — because consistency doesn’t happen by accident.

Fresh roasted coffee → theblendingroom.co.uk

More roasting talk → on YouTube

17/09/2026

How I Split My Coffee Range: Cores vs Specials

If someone walked into the roastery and asked what I roast, I’d split it into two buckets.

First: the specials. These are on high rotation, sourced and roasted for what makes them distinctive. Each bag is a bit of an exploration — sometimes surprising, sometimes challenging, often brilliant. That’s the point.

Then there are the core coffees. They have a different job. They’re the everyday brews you can come back to again and again. With the automation on the Loring, I can focus on the thing that matters most for those coffees: consistency in the cup.

So that’s the range in simple terms: cores and specials. One is there when you want something reliable. The other is there when you want something that might not taste the same next month.

I’m James Wilkins, Q Arabica Grader and owner of The Blending Room in Hull, East Yorkshire. We’ve been roasting speciality coffee here since 2009, starting from a market stall in Beverley.

Shop cores, specials and subscriptions:
https://www.theblendingroom.co.uk

16/09/2026

I Bailed on Batch 21 of 25. Here’s Why.

Sometimes the best roasting decision is knowing when to stop.

On a 25-batch roast day, I called it at batch 21. The water delivery to the Loring S15 Falcon failed, which meant the chaff quencher — the system that adds water to the chaff bin to help prevent a chaff fire — wasn’t working.

Why does a coffee roaster need water in the first place? Safety.

The pressure looked fine. I’ve even got a reducing valve. But the system still failed, and rather than push on with my head in the wrong place, I stopped.

Not every important decision at the roaster is about gas, charge temperature, or development time. Sometimes it’s about recognising when to walk away, reset, and come back tomorrow.

I’m James Wilkins, Q grader and owner of The Blending Room in Hull. We roast speciality coffee on a Loring S15, with the old Probat still there as backup.

Fresh roast → https://www.theblendingroom.co.uk

15/09/2026

16 Years With the Same Coffee Roaster Engineer, Malcolm Quarleri.

Why I didn’t post yesterday: I spent the day with Malcolm, my coffee roaster engineer, giving our lovely Loring a proper service.

Malcolm and I go back a long way. I still remember his son, Henry, coming along to our first roaster install 15 or 16 years ago — and now he’s all grown up. It’s a real privilege to work with the same people for that long. I think it says something about both of us: still here, still committed, still doing the work after all these years.

The result? A second service completed, and the Loring is roasting like a dream.

Thanks, Malcolm.

Address

30 Unit Factory Estate
Kingston Upon Hull
HU34AY

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5:30pm
Friday 8:30am - 5:30pm

Telephone

01482 212409

Website

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