200 Degrees Coffee
Nottingham · United Kingdom
200 Degrees started in 2012 in a Nottingham garage when co-founders Rob Darby and Tom Vincent — frustrated with the bad
Overview
Coaltown Coffee Roasters was founded in 2018 in Ammanford, an anthracite-mining town in the Amman Valley whose last colliery had closed in 2003, by Scott James as an attempt to give the town a new export commodity — 'Black Gold' built around coffee rather than coal. The first prototype roaster was built from a barbecue and parts from a Ford KA, and Coaltown is now a certified B Corporation that ships specialty coffee from Wales as far as the UAE and the United States, with an HQ roastery in Ammanford and an espresso bar in Pontarddulais.
Known for
- Wales's flagship specialty roaster — founded 2018 in post-mining Ammanford, Carmarthenshire
- Founder Scott James built the first prototype roaster from a barbecue and Ford KA car parts
- Reframed the town's anthracite-coal heritage as 'Black Gold' applied to coffee
- Certified B Corporation — ethically sourced, seasonal, fresh-roasted specialty coffee
- HQ roastery in Ammanford plus espresso bar in Pontarddulais
Why it matters
Wales has dozens of cafes serving specialty coffee but very few independent roasters that actually roast in Wales, and Coaltown is the one that turned the town of Ammanford into a coffee-industry placename rather than just a former colliery. The wider story is reindustrialization: a community that lost its 19th-century purpose with the closure of the Betws Colliery in 2003 acquired a new craft industry through coffee, and Coaltown's commitment to local hiring and B Corp commitments makes it the rare specialty roaster whose founding mission is regional economic revival rather than aesthetic.
Production
- destoning
- null
- head roaster
- null
- color sorting
- null
- roaster machine
- originally a custom rig built from a BBQ and Ford KA parts
- filter equipment
- null
- cupping frequency
- null
- roastery location
- Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, Wales
- espresso equipment
- null
- annual volume tonnes
- null
Café
Pontarddulais, Wales
Recognitions
- Certified B Corporation
Sources
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