Grumpy Mule is an independent coffee roaster based in Meltham, Yorkshire. It was founded in 2006, with the mission of creating award winning coffee that is meticulously sourced and ethically traded, making sure that their growers share in their success.
They roast with precision and care, making sure that they get the very best flavour from each and every bean that the growers have worked so hard to produce. They are the most award winning speciality coffee company in the UK, with 31 Great Taste Awards achieved over the past 5 years.
We stock their Organic Seasonal Decaf – Swiss Water Processed, which is a ground decaf coffee making a great espresso and filter, their Ground Sumatra, Peru and Colombia Coffee – strength 4, 3 and 4 respectively, as well as their unground Sumatra Beans, with tastes of cocoa & dark chocolate, from the Gayo Highlands, Sumatra.
As well as making amazing coffee, Grumpy Mule are committed to making a difference. When they learned that one of their coffee partners in Honduras had built a solar-powered drying facility for their co-operative, they chose to invest in this group to offset their CO2 emissions. Supported by the Mesoamerican Development Institute, they buy carbon credits from the group which are used to invest in planting native trees for carbon sequestration, as well as supporting integrated open canopy farming within the Pico Pijol rainforest national park. By doing this they offset all our Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO2 emissions, doing their bit to try to reduce the impact of our CO2 emissions and help try to stop climate change, which is currently a major challenge to coffee growing communities around the world.
They also work to eliminate child labour, which is a difficult and emotive topic for coffee. Low prices and poor availability of childcare make it hard for coffee farmers to help their children get a good education and stay out of the coffee farms before they are old enough to work there. Grumpy Mule has had a strong relationship with the community around Finca Santa Paula in Coban, Guatemala for many years, and they support them to help make sure that all the children of that community get a great education by donating 20p per pack of Guatemala Pocola sold to their school to fund building improvements, school equipment and support their teachers.
Equality is important to Grumpy Mule too. Women make a vital contribution to global coffee supply, and in many parts of the world are largely responsible for the family coffee farm. Unfortunately, in many places women still lack basic fundamental rights and freedoms. Grumpy Mule has partnered with the Café Femenino foundation to help encourage gender equality at origin, by supporting women coffee farmers in Peru. They pay a premium for every bag of Peru Femenino coffee that they buy which goes to support women in Peru to claim the legal right to the lands they farm, to take up leadership positions within the co-operative, to get paid directly for the coffee that they grow, and also to receive the premium paid for their coffees.
Back in the UK, Grumpy Mule also supports their local food bank and Meltham Town Council, making great coffee accessible to older residents of the village through supporting social events in the Carlisle institute.