So the fable goes, the areas in the Lincolnshire fens were once so isolated everyone knew each other as well as family. All except for an old fen woman who was the continuous subject of gossips and rumors. She lived on the very edge of the fens, away from all but the wild animals and deep dark woods.

People passing across the fens late in the evening could hear strange howling coming from her cottage. Thus, she was labelled a witch, to be avoided by all and given the name ‘Old Mother Nightshade’.

Everyone was  afraid of her except a foolish boy by the name of John Culpepper. He was madly in love with a lady far beyond his reach, named Rose Taylor, who enjoyed the attention, but it was all a ruse. Soon, his love unrequited, turned his heart sour and he sought after the witch’s help in revenge.

He was welcomed by the old woman and, having shared his woes, presented with a box of sweetmeats to give to Rose and told to return by the night of full moon to give a report. 

He did all that was asked, returning to the cottage on the brightly moon lit night. As soon as the door closed behind him, he was bound to a chair and told to close his eyes. He dared to take a peek and as he did so, the old woman revealed her true self, a fearsome giant grey wolf.

There were reports of blood curdling cries across the fens that night. So, at first light, the men folk went to see what had happened but could find only bones and wolf paw prints. 

John Culpepper and the old woman were never seen again.

Old Mother Nightshade

Freshly roasted, ethical coffee, locally roasted for the best flavour you'll ever experience.

Seven Districts Coffee

Grown an an altitude of 1490m above sea level, this carefully hand-picked lot is a real winter warmer. Notes of green apple, plum and dark chocolate are present with a creamy finish.


Today, Boston Borough is an area boasting lush green fields and long-stretching farmlands, but things weren’t always this way. Many of its precious fields used to be bogs and swamps; lands of endless mists and crooked streams, of mires and marshes as far as the eye could see. 

Old tales from the fens speak of a peculiar breed of pixie-like folk most commonly known as the ‘Tiddy People’, who lived among these bogs. According to some, Tiddy Mun was the king of the Tiddy People and was acknowledged to be the guardian of the fens and wetlands, with mighty powers over their waters and wildlife.

Like most faeries the Tiddy People were strictly speaking neither good nor evil; sometimes kind, sometimes mischievous, but occasionally cruel. It was said they would help local crops grow, pinching open the buds in spring and it was a great honour if they came into your home and warmed themselves by your fire.

Relations between the mortal folks and the mysterious Tiddy Mun turned very sour when in the reign of King Charles I, work began to drain the fens. They king called upon Dutch engineers to drain the land. Tiddy Mun grew angry that his marshes and fens were being emptied and dried up. Cattle fell ill and people mysteriously vanished, rumours spread that Tiddy Mun had spirited them away in revenge.

Thus began, every new moon, the locals would pour clean water into the dykes as an apology and offering, pleading Tiddy Mun to reverse the curse. 

Location: Finca Bonanza
Varietal: Red Bourbon

Tiddy Mun

A beautiful coffee with incredible complexity. Full bodied with cherry, orange and nutmeg and a smooth milk chocolate body to tie it all together. This coffee is best as espresso.

Long, long ago, in the town of Burgh le Marsh, the beastly locals made their living from ‘wrecking’ - a wicked trick to confuse a struggling or lost ship amidst perilous and stormy weathers. A safety beacon would be lit on the rocky shores, hoping the captain would mistake it for safety and run aground, leaving the cargo ripe for looting the next day. 

In 1629, Scotland’s famous Mary Rose, filled with precious fabrics, encountered a terrible storm nearby. The locals, evil as they were, saw this opportunity and prepared to light the beacon. However, on this fateful night, an elderly church warden named Guymer, fearing for the sailors’ lives, begged them to stop, but his cries fell on deaf ears. Sure enough, the captain of the Mary Rose saw the light and commanded the ship’s hands to steer the ship towards the beacon, thinking it was safety.

Guymer had fight in him yet, having seen the ship turn, he ran to his church and began to ring the great bell, with every ounce of strength left in his bones. As the ship drew near, the captain heard the bells, veering the ship to safety, narrowly avoiding utter devastation.

The very next day, Guymer was found with his tired hands still tightly wrapped around the church bell rope; but alas, he had utterly exhausted his weary body and had passed into the afterlife,  giving his all to rescue those sailors. 

Many years later, the captain returned to the church to have a silk rope installed for the church’s bell in honour of Guymer the church warden.

SHB coffees exhibit unique qualities garnered from their high altitudes, like citrus acidity and its complex combination of fruit and smooth chocolate notes, giving a hint of the salty, rich coastline of East Lindsey.

Varietal: Caturra

The Great Bell

This single origin is directly sourced from Mustafa Abakeno who is a smallholder farmer owning 18 hectares of land in Western Ethiopia. A bold single origin with a cup profile bringing lime, tangerine, and ripe fruits. A buttery, delicate and sweet finish, great as an espresso.

Among many others, West Lindsey is host to the folklore that King Canute once stood on the shores of the River Trent, gazing at the rising Aegir and commanded it to stop. 

The tale goes, tired of his follower’s vain flattery and persistence of his god-like status, he decided once and for all to prove who the true God is, that they should revere Him and set aside their love of the crown over Christ. When he was at the height of his ascendancy, he ordered his royal throne to be placed on the shore as the tide was coming in. King Canute then said to the rising tide, ‘You are subject to me, as the land on which I am sitting is mine, and no one has ever resisted me. I command you, therefore, not to rise on to my land, nor to presume to wet the clothing or limbs of your master.’ But the waters came up as usual, and disrespectfully drenched the king and  his fine expensive clothing. 

Canute cried, ‘Let all the world know that the power of kings is empty and worthless, and there is no king worthy of the name save Him by whose will heaven, earth and sea obey eternal laws. He who causes the sea to rise is the right and proper person to place one’s trust in and to honour. He is a just and virtuous king, whereas I am a miserable wretch. I am a mere mortal, whereas He is everlasting. 

Thereafter King Canute never wore his royal golden crown, but placed it on the image of the crucified Lord, in eternal praise of God - The one great King. 

Varietal: Heirloom

King Canute

A delicious, single origin which has a cup profile that brings red cherry with caramelised roasted hazelnut and a sweet milk chocolate finish. Perfect for filter and drip coffees.


Once upon a time, a beautiful young girl agreed to run away from her wicked parents with her one true love. They were to meet at the well in the woods at the strike of midnight. Thus, when evening came, she prepared her bags, climbed out of her bedroom window and started walking towards the woods. 

As she reached the edge of the ancient woods, she encountered an old woman wrapped in a worn and tattered shawl. 

The old woman warned her of the dangers of the wood at dark, of beastly animals and haunting noises, yet the young girl did not listen. She continued to tell her of the risk of meeting secretly with a man, however, she disregarded all of her warnings, bid her farewell and continued towards the well.

A while later, the girl arrived at the meeting place, a decrepit well in a clearing at the heart of the woods, but the man was nowhere to be seen. As the night drew in, she began to wonder if he would ever appear. She waited for many hours with no word from her love. It was evident that he had a change of heart and she would have to return to her home.

As she stumbled her way through the darkness, having lost her way, she saw a dimly lit cottage wherein stood the old woman, scowling at her from the doorway. It was then that she realized the hideousness of the old woman’s face. She ran, stumbling and tripping along the way until finally she fell beside the well, next to her lover’s cold, breathless body. The girl, her lover and the old woman were never seen or heard of again.

Varietal: Mundo Novo & Acaia

Nanny Rutt

A beautiful coffee with incredible complexity. Full bodied with cherry, orange and nutmeg and a smooth milk chocolate body to tie it all together. This coffee is best as espresso.

Many years ago, when North Kesteven was just a wild and desolate speck of land, there lived a witch known as Old Meg, who was the terror and scourge of all men and beasts that lived there. At the villagers cry, a champion emerged who vowed to rid the district of her for good. 

He had the pick of a dozen fine horses on which to ride, but knew his steed had to be quick and alert, so he devised a plan to test their reactions. While the horses drank at the village pond, he tossed a large stone into the water and watched for the quickest to react. 

A horse by the name of Blind Byard jumped faster and further than all else. The champion took this as a good omen, because a blind horse would not be scared by the loathsome appearance of Old Meg. He mounted Byard and, armed with his trusty sword, rode to Old Meg’s den and called for her to come forth. She heckled the rider, screeching “I’m busy, I’ll see to you later!”

No sooner had these words been uttered, that the witch jumped from her hiding place and dug her nails deep into Blind Byard’s flanks. The horse reared up in pain and made an almighty leap of some 60 feet, dislodging the hideous hag, who fell to the ground. Seizing his chance, the champion ran her through with his sword and ended her deathly grip on the village, returning a hero. Byard’s leap was so powerful, his hoof prints are still visible today. 

Varietal: Castillo & Colombia

Blind Byard

It all started amidst a terrible storm in the mid-14th century, when two mischievous imps were sent to make a nuisance of themselves with the growing churches across the UK. 

Their first port-of-call was Chesterfield Cathedral, twisting the spire to annoy the clergy endlessly, dizzying any who would gaze up at it’s tiles.

However, mid-tinkering, a strong gust of wind blew them off-course, all the way to Lincoln, where they landed with a thud in the ancient cathedral. Being cantankerous twerps, the two imps smashed tables and chairs, heckling as they went, even having the audacity to trip the bishop. 

They had a view to destroy almost everything including the church choir, when an angel arrived to deal with the two miscreants.

The angel ordered them to cease, but the pluckier of the two disobeyed, throwing rocks and insults and he sat mockingly, cross-legged, high atop a column. 

The angel, infuriated by their tenacity, turned the first imp to stone, which gave the cowardly imp enough time to escape, darting through smashed chairs and tables as it left.

Legend has it, that on a windy day you can hear the imp circling the cathedral looking for his partner-in-crime to travel on to cause more mayhem elsewhere.

As a warning to all Imps and ill-doers everywhere, the Imps’ stone likeness is to be found all across the country, from famous colleges to pubs and bars, as a symbol that good will always triumph over evil.

Varietal: Catuai, Caturra

The Lincoln Imp

Our Colombian Decaffeinated coffee uses the CO2 process in extracting caffeine from the beans, perfect for those who would rather not have a mild stimulant effect when drinking the cup of dark brew, without using chemicals.

The CO2 decaffeination process uses three components; coffee beans, carbonated water and pressure. The reason we use the CO2 method is because it's much friendlier to both the environment and our consumption than using a chemical method. The process of extracting caffeine from the beans using the CO2 method is below:

1. Soak your coffee beans in water - this causes the beans to swell twice their size and allows the caffeine to dissolve into the water which is trapped in the bean
2. Place the soaked beans in a large stainless steel extraction vessel, ensure they're tightly sealed.
3. Use liquid CO2 to pump into the coffee beans at a high rate of pressure - 1,000 pounds per square inch, at a temperature of approximately 200 degrees F. This is called supercritical CO2.
4. The supercritical CO2 then acts as a solvent, absorbing the caffeine from each bean. Each bean needs approximately 5-7 hours to rid of all caffeine.
5. Once the beans are caffeine free, they're then removed, dried and roasted.

Grown at the foot of the Andes mountains, this coffee is high in citric acidity due to the fertile volcanic soil, providing lots of organic nutrients. A vibrant, lively and sweet taste mimics the qualities of North Kesteven.

Varietal: Caturra, Typica, Bourbon

Colombia Decaf

Tasting notes: Cherry, plums & dark chocolate. Full bodied & sweet with a juicy, apple acidity.
Farm: El Caracol & Quetzal
Varietal: Caturra & Bourbon

Decaf Blend
Seven Districts
This decaf lot is a mixed central american blend of two different coffees, one from Honduras called El Caracol that mean the snail and one from Huehuetenango in Guatemala that we decided to call Quetzal like the national Guatemaltec's Bird; therefore this blend is called "The Snail and The Bird".

This lot was made up of coffee from various small producers, who own around 3 to 5 hectares of land. The coffee was picked by the producers and their families themselves and processed at a centralised wet-mill before being dried on raised beds. These producers haven't yet produced micro-lots, but this blend was intended to incentivize them to improve picking and processing in order to gain quality premiums.

El Rincon (A.K.A Quetzal) is a 25 hectare farm situated in the corner of a valley of limestone hills, protected from warm, dry winds and climate fluctuations. The climate is very stable with high relative humidity, which, along with the chalky soils of Huehuetenango define the cup character of this farm. Roberto Molina was the cousin of Jorge Vides the first owner of Finca La Bolsa, and they bought and established the farms around the same time. Roberto passed away in 2009 and his widow Yolanda Galindo is now taking care of the farm. The farm is now run by Renardo Ovalle, who has transformed the production towards quality focussed microlots. Many of the plants are old bourbon and caturra trees from the early years of the farm, but the farm manager is in the process of planting new bourbon and caturra plants, along with other exotic varietals.

Coffee is fermented dry in tiled tanks for 18-24 hours, before being washed and graded in channels. After the mucilage has been washed off, the coffee is soaked overnight in clean water. This step is more common in African processing, and is rare in Guatemala, but adds to the unique cup profile of this farm.

Decaf Blend / Seven Districts

Long, long ago, in the town of Burgh le Marsh, the beastly locals made their living from ‘wrecking’ - a wicked trick to confuse a struggling or lost ship amidst perilous and stormy weathers. A safety beacon would be lit on the rocky shores, hoping the captain would mistake it for safety and run aground, leaving the cargo ripe for looting the next day. 

In 1629, Scotland’s famous Mary Rose, filled with precious fabrics, encountered a terrible storm nearby. The locals, evil as they were, saw this opportunity and prepared to light the beacon. However, on this fateful night, an elderly church warden named Guymer, fearing for the sailors’ lives, begged them to stop, but his cries fell on deaf ears. Sure enough, the captain of the Mary Rose saw the light and commanded the ship’s hands to steer the ship towards the beacon, thinking it was safety.

Guymer had fight in him yet, having seen the ship turn, he ran to his church and began to ring the great bell, with every ounce of strength left in his bones. As the ship drew near, the captain heard the bells, veering the ship to safety, narrowly avoiding utter devastation.

The very next day, Guymer was found with his tired hands still tightly wrapped around the church bell rope; but alas, he had utterly exhausted his weary body and had passed into the afterlife,  giving his all to rescue those sailors. 

Many years later, the captain returned to the church to have a silk rope installed for the church’s bell in honour of Guymer the church warden.

The Great Bell – Nicaragua

Today, Boston Borough is an area boasting lush green fields and long-stretching farmlands, but things weren’t always this way. Many of its precious fields used to be bogs and swamps; lands of endless mists and crooked streams, of mires and marshes as far as the eye could see. 

Old tales from the fens speak of a peculiar breed of pixie-like folk most commonly known as the ‘Tiddy People’, who lived among these bogs. According to some, Tiddy Mun was the king of the Tiddy People and was acknowledged to be the guardian of the fens and wetlands, with mighty powers over their waters and wildlife.

Like most faeries the Tiddy People were strictly speaking neither good nor evil; sometimes kind, sometimes mischievous, but occasionally cruel. It was said they would help local crops grow, pinching open the buds in spring and it was a great honour if they came into your home and warmed themselves by your fire.

Relations between the mortal folks and the mysterious Tiddy Mun turned very sour when in the reign of King Charles I, work began to drain the fens. They king called upon Dutch engineers to drain the land. Tiddy Mun grew angry that his marshes and fens were being emptied and dried up. Cattle fell ill and people mysteriously vanished, rumours spread that Tiddy Mun had spirited them away in revenge.

Thus began, every new moon, the locals would pour clean water into the dykes as an apology and offering, pleading Tiddy Mun to reverse the curse. 

Tiddy Mun – Rwanda

It all started amidst a terrible storm in the mid-14th century, when two mischievous imps were sent to make a nuisance of themselves with the growing churches across the UK. 

Their first port-of-call was Chesterfield Cathedral, twisting the spire to annoy the clergy endlessly, dizzying any who would gaze up at it’s tiles.

However, mid-tinkering, a strong gust of wind blew them off-course, all the way to Lincoln, where they landed with a thud in the ancient cathedral. Being cantankerous twerps, the two imps smashed tables and chairs, heckling as they went, even having the audacity to trip the bishop. 

They had a view to destroy almost everything including the church choir, when an angel arrived to deal with the two miscreants.

The angel ordered them to cease, but the pluckier of the two disobeyed, throwing rocks and insults and he sat mockingly, cross-legged, high atop a column. 

The angel, infuriated by their tenacity, turned the first imp to stone, which gave the cowardly imp enough time to escape, darting through smashed chairs and tables as it left.

Legend has it, that on a windy day you can hear the imp circling the cathedral looking for his partner-in-crime to travel on to cause more mayhem elsewhere.

As a warning to all Imps and ill-doers everywhere, the Imps’ stone likeness is to be found all across the country, from famous colleges to pubs and bars, as a symbol that good will always triumph over evil.

The Lincoln Imp – Blend

Recommended: Espresso
Bean: Peru
Regions: Cajamarca
Owners: Various smallholders
Process: Sparkling water (decaf)
Varietal: Mixed
Notes: Dark chocolate, creamy cashew nuts and orange marmalade with good acidity
Elevation: 1600-1900masl

Sparkling water decaf process
A blend of coffees from the the area around Jaen, main city of the Cajamarca region in northern Perú.

The Cajamarca region holds a lot of potential for quality coffee, with ideal growing conditions and great varieties, but quality is often lost in picking, processing and drying, with producers lacking infrastructure and knowledge. The most vulnerable producers are those that are unassociated.

The sparkling water decaffeination process
This process was first discovered by a scientist called Kurt Zosel at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in 1967 as he was looking at new ways of separating mixtures of substances. In 1988, a German decaffeination company called CR3 developed this process for decaffeination whereby natural carbon dioxide (which comes from prehistoric underground lakes) is combined with water to create ‘sub-critical’ conditions which creates a highly solvent substance for caffeine in coffee. It is a gentle, natural and organically certified process and the good caffeine selectivity of the carbon dioxide guarantees a high retention level of other coffee components which contribute to taste and aroma.

The process
The green beans enter a ‘pre-treatment’ vessel where they are cleaned and moistened with water before being brought into contact with pressurised liquid carbon dioxide. When the green coffee beans absorb the water, they expand and the pores are opened resulting in the caffeine molecules becoming mobile.

After the water has been added, the beans are then brought into contact with the pressurised liquid carbon dioxide which combines with the water to essentially form sparkling water. The carbon dioxide circulates through the beans and acts like a magnet, drawing out the mobile caffeine molecules.

The sparkling water then enters an evaporator which precipitates the caffeine rich carbon dioxide out of the water. The now caffeine free water is pumped back into the vessel for a new cycle.
This cycle is repeated until the required residual caffeine level is reached. Once this has happened, the circulation of carbon dioxide is stopped and the green beans are discharged into a drier.
The decaffeinated coffee is then gently dried until it reaches its original moisture content, after which it is ready for roasting.

Seven Districts Coffee

3.5

Seven Districts Coffee

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

Coffee Roasts

Blind Byard

King Canute

Nanny Rutt

Old Mother Nightshade

Peru – Decaf

The Great Bell – Nicaragua

The Lincoln Imp – Blend

Tiddy Mun – Rwanda

Coffee archive

Colombia Decaf

Decaf Blend / Seven Districts

The Great Bell

The Lincoln Imp

Tiddy Mun

New Coffee Review