OUR STORY
Every bag starts in the mountains of Colombia and is roasted fresh for your order. We bring specialty coffee straight from passionate farmers to your cup, with quality and care in every step.
Meet Fran- The Story Behind Mr. Tinto
Growing up in Colombia, coffee wasn't a luxury. It was life. The first thing we reached for in the morning, the drink that brought the family together. Where I'm from, there's always a perfect moment for a cup of tinto, and I grew up knowing exactly what fresh, properly roasted coffee should taste like.
Then I moved to the UK, and couldn't find it anywhere. Coffee that looked premium but tasted flat, bitter, or stale. Bags with no roast date, sat on shelves for months.
So I started small: just a man and a bicycle, selling fresh Colombian coffee outside East Croydon Station. That little stall became Mr. Tinto. Named for home, where black filtered coffee is tinto and the person who sells it is El Señor de los Tintos, Mr. Tinto.
Since 2017, the mission hasn't changed: real Colombian coffee, in small batches, from family-owned farms. Fresh enough that you finally taste what I grew up loving.
WHY MR. TINTO EXISTS
Most coffee is already dying by the time you buy it. Commercial beans sit for months, hidden behind a "best by" date that says nothing about when they were roasted. By the time you brew it, the flavour's gone, and what's left is that burnt, bitter taste most people think coffee just is. It isn't. That's the taste of dead beans.
We started Mr. Tinto to fix that. We roast fresh in London in small batches, sent within 48 hours with a real roast date on every bag. Specialty-grade Colombian that's smooth, never bitter, and easy on your stomach. Every bean is traceable to a family-owned farm we know by name, not an anonymous blend. It arrives straight to your letterbox with no subscription trap, cancel in one click, and at around 40p a cup versus £4.50 at the café, it's café quality without the ego.
From Colombian Farm to Your Cup
Great coffee isn't an accident. It's a short, careful journey with no shortcuts. It starts in Colombia, where we work directly with small, family-owned farms and producers we know personally. Some are indigenous communities like the Misak in Cauca, who farm in deep harmony with nature and harvest together as a shared commitment, every bean hand-picked by the group. Others are family farms going back generations, set in landscapes so rich they double as havens for wildlife, and a few sit so high in the mountains that the only way to bring the coffee down is a two-hour ride by horse or mule, making every harvest a real adventure. We source these beans, mill them through our own lab in Colombia for exacting quality control, then bring them to London, where we roast in small batches for freshness, not shelf life, with a real roast date on every bag. From there it goes straight to your letterbox, fresh, with none of the staleness that comes from sitting on a shelf for months. From a Colombian farm to your cup, done properly.
