Welcome back to Unfiltered, our monthly behind-the-scenes series where we share what’s really happening at Green Coffee Collective. This isn’t about polished announcements or perfect outcomes. It’s about being honest about the reality of building something new and trying to do things differently in green coffee sourcing.
We’re still a small team, building a platform that doesn’t quite follow the usual importer playbook. We’re figuring things out as we go, and with each decision, each mistake, and each step forward, we’re learning. These posts are our way of bringing you along for the ride, and hopefully making you feel a bit more connected to what we’re building and why we’re doing it.
Here’s what’s been going on this month.
Manchester Community Cupping – the first of many
In April, we ran our first ever community cupping in Manchester. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. For a while, we’ve talked about building a green coffee business that doesn’t just ship coffee out the door, but actually connects people. But, like most things when you’re a lean team, it stayed as a nice idea until the capacity was there.
That changed when Saskia joined the team. Her background, energy, and drive to build our community meant we could finally give events the attention they deserve. And if this Manchester event is anything to go by, we’re onto something.
A massive thank you to Saskia for pulling it together and to Nat from Aiturm for offering us the space. We also had Jonny from Mi Cafe, Mark from Khipu, and James from Omwani joining us, each sharing stories from their side of the supply chain.
We hoped to get around 20 attendees so when more than 30 people showed up it felt like a real win considering it was our first attempt. We charged a small £5 entry fee – mostly to make sure people who booked a spot showed up – and any leftover funds after the venue hire are being donated to one of the causes we support. That’s something we want to grow as these events grow. The bigger the audience, the bigger the impact.
We had around 20 coffees across the three cupping tables and it was a brilliant opportunity for those new to the process of cupping to give it a try. Well done to everyone who got stuck in and gave it a go!
We also set up a few of our sample roasters so that anyone interested could jump in and have a go. One or two people who had never roasted before gave it a try which is really rewarding for us to be able to have experienced roasters within our community give a helping hand to a few newbies.
Bristol is next. Keep your eyes out for details soon.
London Coffee Festival – big spend, big learning
This one dominated April and May. It’s been a lot. The London Coffee Festival was the single biggest financial investment we’ve made since launching Green Coffee Collective.
To give you a sense of the rough numbers, the stand itself cost about £5,000. Add electricity at £650, accommodation at around £750, a bespoke backdrop and stand design at £1,500, and then all the little extras – table hire, signage, printing, stock prep – and we were just under the £10,000 mark.
So yeah – we felt the pressure.
But the decision behind it was clear. If we’re serious about reaching more roasters, this is where they are. With tow industry days and the weekend focused on consumers, Saturday alone drew more than 7,000 people. And given the momentum we’ve had recently with that part of our audience, it felt like the right time to go all in.
Thursday and Friday were trade days, which gave us the chance to do something really different. Importers don’t usually exhibit at shows like this. So we had our sourcing partners take over the stand for an hour at a time across the two industry days - giving them an opportunity to showcase in the heart of LCF without the requirement to stick around on the weekend...where importers are typically less relevant.
For the consumer days, we gave out small 100g bags of green beans – with a card stapled to each one linking to an instagram reel on how to roast them in a pan at home. Then, if people were curious, we invited them to try roasting on a Kaffelogic right there at the stand.
That part worked. What didn’t quite go to plan was my attempt at a guerrilla marketing campaign.
Worried we might not get enough footfall, especially with our stand being tucked away on the third floor in the furthest corner, I printed 2,000 business cards with a QR code that linked to a WhatsApp message, in big red letter the card read "Free Drugs" with small text underneath "Don't worry it's green coffee". We handed them out around the venue early in the morning on Saturday.
Less than an hour later, an angry event organiser came marching over to let me know that apparently distributing flyers requires an extra fee. Of course it does. I guess there isn't a single thing that event organisers won't charge for. He did mention that he respected the approach, but we had to stop. Thankfully we had good footfall across the entire 4-days and we even had moments where we were three to four people deep queuing to give roasting a try.
Massive thanks to Dan from Big Hand Little Hand for lending us some beautiful tables that really helped bring the stand together. They became the focal point for our cuppings and demo area, and they made a real difference.
In terms of results, we sold a good number of Kaffelogic machines and green beans over the weekend. That helped claw back a decent chunk of our outlay, but more than that, we met people – curious home roasters, pros, enthusiasts – who now know who we are, what we’re about, and why we’re doing things differently.
Broken machines, heavier bags
April also brought us back to our roots – and not in a good way.
Our auto-weigher, which helps us break down full 30–60kg bags into 5kg units, decided to stop working. This is the same cheapest-option machine we bought last year – a bit of a gamble at the time. And now, of course, the gamble is catching up with us.
No brand markings. No customer support. No way to identify the motor that’s failed. So for now, we’re back to weighing every order by hand.
It’s been painful.
When we first launched, weighing out 5–8 orders a week by hand was fine. Now, with the volume we’re doing, it’s a different story. Alex, who runs ops, has not-so-quietly made it known that this wasn’t how he planned to spend the last few weeks.
The lesson here is pretty clear – if something becomes critical to how you operate, invest properly. And when it breaks, make sure there’s a path to fix it.
Helping new roasters find their way in
We’ve been having some great conversations recently with roasters who are just getting started. And one big opportunity became clear – we’ve made it harder than it needs to be to find the right coffee.
If you’re a seasoned roaster, you might be looking for a washed SL28 from Kenya at a specific altitude. But if you’re just starting out, you might just want something that just works well for espresso. That’s where we’ve missed an opportunity.
We’re now working on content and site changes to guide people based on brew method – not just origin or process. Something like "Green coffee for milk-based espresso" or "for filter brewing" might sound obvious, but we hadn’t built the experience around it. Theres a bit of cross over for coffees across different categories, but given that ultimately what works for specific brewing method is still subjective, we're hoping at the very least this gives those new to roasting a helping hand into deciding what works for their needs.
The takeaway here is simple; talk to your customers. Ask questions. And then make it easier for them to find what they’re looking for. Especially if they don’t know yet what that is.
Reddit Ads – a swing and a miss
This one stung a bit. I’ve been a Reddit user for years and always thought there was potential there. There’s a strong roasting community. The logic felt sound – targeted paid posts just to UK and EU users interested in roasting? Should be a no-brainer.
I ran the test for about a month and spent £700 on it. Not a single sale.
We got some great engagement on a boosted post where I asked people what they wanted to know about green coffee sourcing, but none of it converted into orders. That’s not to say it wasn’t valuable – it gave us insight and visibility. But at the end of the day, we need campaigns to drive purchases.
So, lesson learned. Reddit might be great for conversation, but maybe not for paid customer acquisition – at least not right now. Time to try Meta next.
Onboarding the right way
Finally, we’ve been working on something that’s been on my mind for a while – making sure that when someone joins our email list, we actually help them get value from it.
We’ve built a new automation that does two things:
Helps us identify whether someone’s roasting at home or professionally.
Delivers a simple onboarding experience with useful links, context about who we are, and relevant next steps based on where they’re at.
A year ago, I was emailing new customers manually, asking what they were roasting on, how we could help, and pointing them to the right tools. That’s not scalable anymore. But we’ve taken everything we learned from those conversations and built it into a simple 4-part welcome flow that now runs automatically.
We’re also running a post-purchase follow-up that asks for feedback on the experience. And honestly, the insights we’ve had from that are gold. We’re hearing more clearly what’s working, what’s missing, and where we need to level up.
I'd love to be able to offer the personal touch for every purchase, but this has to be balanced with what's scaleable. Adding a well constructed automation flow enables us to give each new customer at least a bit of a helping hand while trying to keep it as personal as possible.
That’s it for May. If you made it this far – thanks. We’re grateful to be building this alongside a community of roasters who genuinely care about good coffee and good relationships. And if there’s anything you want us to cover in next month’s update, just reply or drop us a note.
