47 Degrees Coffee is an independent speciality coffee roaster in Langley Mill, on the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire border. Aidy Wragg started the business after being made redundant, and has since won a string of Great Taste awards for his coffee.
Why "47 Degrees"?
Most of the world's coffee grows in a band around the equator, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Each tropic sits about 23.5 degrees from the equator, so the "bean belt" is roughly 47 degrees wide. That's where 47 Degrees sources its coffee, and where it got its name.
From redundancy to roasting
Aidy came to coffee after being made redundant from a company he'd worked at for 26 years. "I simply wanted to produce a high-quality handmade product, using quality ingredients that people would like. It just happened to be coffee!" he told us. It surprised everyone who knew him: "I'm from a family of tea drinkers." His very first coffee, he admits, was a cup of Mellow Birds.
He brought an engineering background to the roastery, laying it out to work efficiently from day one. Every roast is charted on a computer, but he still spends most of his time at the sampling spoon, watching the beans change colour and listening for first crack.
Award-winning coffee
47 Degrees roasts in small batches so its coffee is always fresh, and its coffees have won many Great Taste awards from the Guild of Fine Food.
At home, Aidy is a big filter coffee fan and starts every day with two cups. "Nothing fancy," he told us, but he always weighs his coffee and water. He loves coffees from the Americas for their smooth chocolate and nut flavours, and his favourite has long been their Brazilian Sul de Minas.
Advice for new roasters
Aidy's tip is to read The Coffee Roaster's Companion by Scott Rao, then relax and spend plenty of time at the roaster. He likes to tell the story of his Aunty Edna, who made the best Victoria sponge he's ever tasted without knowing any of the science behind it: "She just made lots of them over the years and understood that using good ingredients coupled with having lots of experience on how best to cook it equalled a good sponge cake!"
Visit or buy their coffee
You can buy their coffee from the 47 Degrees Coffee website.
Blue Coffee Box has featured 47 Degrees Coffee in our subscription box.
Discover more of the independent UK roasters we work with.
Discover a new coffee every delivery
Get a different single-origin speciality coffee from the UK's top independent roasters, freshly roasted and 100% arabica. Choose whole beans or a grind for your brewer, including decaf. Free UK delivery, and you can skip a delivery, change your date or cancel anytime.
