Jericho Coffee Traders started with a vision of great coffee anywhere. It has since turned into a growing community bringing together people who love coffee and want to make the world a better place.
Intro to Jericho Coffee Traders
What started as an idea, turned into a mobile Tuk-Tuk slinging flat-whites on the streets of Oxford. The combination of great service and excellent coffee has built a strong and supportive community in the Oxford area.
As the business has grown, the team at Jericho Coffee Traders has been fortunate enough to add new locations including three cafés, one of which has its own roastery. With the new locations, they have also started offering new services. This includes a highly rated Coffee School and an online store with subscription services.
Charity Partners
British Ukrainian Aid
Assisting those who have been impacted including; the injured, orphaned, and disadvantaged.
If you would like to fundraise for British-Ukrainian Aid, you can do so here with our Shopify App.
Restore
Restore is an Oxfordshire-based mental health charity that supports people to take control of their recovery, develop skills and lead meaningful lives. We offer recovery groups, training and employment coaching to make this possible.
If you would like to fundraise for Restore, you can do so here with our Shopify App.
Q and A with Jericho Coffee Traders
What’s the story behind Jericho Coffee Traders?
I (James) and my wife, Lizzie, founded Jericho Coffee Traders in 2009. We've always been in love with the idea of having our own coffee business; often scheming about how we would start one up. The opportunity came when we saw a beautiful bright turquoise Vespa 'tuk-tuk' for sale at the side of the road, and we both thought: "That needs a coffee machine on the back of it!". So we became the proud new owners of a 49cc Italian trike! And Jericho Coffee Traders was born...
Fast forward to today, and we've added three premises in Oxford UK – two Cafés and a Cafe + Roastery - both serving delicious espresso and filter coffees accompanied by locally made pastries and cakes. We also have a thriving online coffee subscription business, ranked 3rd in the Lightning 50 Top UK eCommerce companies in 2021. We also run our coffee school where we hold regular courses for novices and experts to share our knowledge and love of coffee.
As our business has grown, we've seen many changes, made new friends, and learned much on our journey to this point. But we continue to hold true to our commitment to sourcing ethical speciality coffee and supporting coffee farms, charities, and cooperatives worldwide. None of this would have been possible without our fantastic, hard-working team and our loyal customers to whom we owe our success.
What happened to the bright turquoise Tuk-Tuk where it all started?
We still use it for our local events - it seems to have grown quite a loyal following around Oxford!
You offer more than just great coffee. Why did you decide to offer a Barista course and the Coffee Enthusiast Experience?
We want to give our customers the skills they need to brew great coffee at home even if they don’t have expensive coffee-making equipment. Drinking speciality coffee at home has become increasingly popular and we'd love people to be doing an awesome job of brewing it...especially when they're using our beans! To achieve this, we created our Coffee Enthusiast Experience which is a fun, hands-on, 3-hour course held at our Oxford Roastery for up to 8 people per session. We’ve been running this course a few times a month for the past year, and it’s received superb feedback from attendees – all 5* reviews!
The Barista course is bespoke training for our business partners, including cafés, hotels, and venues. That training ensures their staff understands our speciality coffees and the various brewing methods so they can deliver exceptional coffee to their customers
Your coffee comes from all across the world. How do you select your suppliers?
We've been fortunate to meet incredibly knowledgeable coffee experts from around the world, including some who have family connections to farms. We love having a personal connection with our suppliers as these relationships are important to us. We only use green coffee beans from ethical sources and are passionate about supporting independent coffee farms, charities, and cooperatives.
We've recently connected a Brazilian coffee-growing family with the Royal Albert Hall and now their coffee is consumed there exclusively. We've been sourcing coffee from the same family in Brazil for the past few years. Recently James and Stretch (our head roaster) went and drank coffee with Bruna, the farmer’s daughter, in the Albert Hall which was a lovely experience for all of us.
Have you run any previous giving campaigns (or impact work) in the past?
Previously, we've worked with UK Coffee Week and will do so again this year. This initiative is a nationwide fundraising campaign for Project Waterfall which brings clean drinking water to coffee-growing communities. Thousands of coffee shops, roasters and individuals across the UK take part in UK Coffee Week each year.
We also support SolidariTee, an enthusiastic international, student-led charity fighting for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. They achieve this through various fundraising activities that help provide legal aid as a sustainable, long-term way of supporting these vulnerable groups.
Why choose to support British-Ukrainian Aid?
We want to help make a difference to people who are going through a really difficult time through no fault of their own. Sometimes the world can be incredibly unfair. Since launching our Slava Ukraini (Glory to Ukraine) coffee, we've been fortunate to also employ a lovely young Ukrainian woman who came to Oxford from Kiev. She was obviously very enthusiastic about our support for British-Ukrainian Aid.
Why choose to support Restore?
Restore is a fantastic local charity working across Oxfordshire that helps people with mental health issues take control of their recovery, develop skills, and lead meaningful lives. We've developed our Self Care blend coffee in collaboration with Hans Cook, the founder of Cap'n'chino.
His mission is to raise awareness that 'Selfcare is not Selfish' through his passion for speciality coffee.
What future initiatives would Jericho Coffee Traders like to take on in the future?
Doing better where we can! We're always keen to work with local charities to help forge relationships and to give back to our community. We’ve also just added Virtue’s ‘customer giving’ to complement our own charity donations. This means our customers can now join us by donating to our chosen causes when they buy our charity coffees. We’re excited to see Virtue’s app develop further and where that will take us!
How to Support
If you would like to support Jericho Coffee Traders you can find their speciality coffees online or at one of their locations in Oxford.
If you would like to support a charity with your own store, you can do so in only a few minutes with our Shopify App.
Guide: How to Run a Giving Campaign
How to choose a cause
How to pick a Giving Style
Launch Checklist
Cause Calendar
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