As much as we loved being there, one thing stood out to us - it was surprisingly hard to find really good  coffee, the stuff we were used to back home in Canberra, Australia. We had been spoiled by the kind of coffee culture that sets the bar high - places like BrewBar, Barrio, and Redbrick, just to mention a few.

What began as a search for good coffee quickly became part of how we explored the city. We’d plan around places like The Roasting Plant on London Bridge, Hermanos Coffee Roasters near Old Kent Road, and Drury Tea & Coffee in Woolwich. We were always on public transport, always walking, always trying to squeeze in one more stop if it looked promising.

And that worked in our favour. Phone snatchers zooming past on e-bikes meant we spent less time glued to our screens and more time talking. Somewhere between train rides, long walks, and coffee stops, we kept coming back to the same thought: what if we started roasting coffee ourselves?

The more places we visited, the more questions we had. Why did one coffee stay with us over another? What was happening before that cup was poured at the café? We read more, asked more, and paid closer attention.

Before long, we were drawn into everything behind the cup - where coffee is grown, how altitude and climate shape it, how processing changes flavour, and how roasting can bring a coffee to life or flatten it completely.

It stopped being just about finding coffee to enjoy ourselves. It became about learning what made coffee remarkable, and how we could contribute to the creation of coffees that made people take a detour.

Even the history of it drew us in. The old story about goats becoming lively after eating coffee cherries is still one of the best beginnings any drink could ask for. From there, coffee’s story runs through Yemen, where it became closely tied to devotional life, with Sufi communities using it to help stay awake for night prayer. Later, coffee houses spread through the Middle East and into Europe. In London, they became known as “penny universities” - places where people gathered to debate, learn, and exchange ideas (all for the price of a cup). And after the Boston Tea Party in 1773, coffee took on even more prominence in America as tea became politically charged and coffee increasingly became the patriotic alternative.

Coffee has carried conversation, ritual, movement, work, trade, and culture for centuries. It brings together people and places in a way very few things do. This understanding deepened our appreciation, and the idea evolved...

We care deeply about where coffee comes from, how it is handled, and the many people involved in getting it from farm to cup. We work with producers, importers, and partners who value quality, integrity, and doing things properly.

For us, great coffee should reflect the people and places behind it. It should feel honest. It should feel memorable. And it should feel like something worth slowing down for, talking about, and sharing.

That is what we are building with Detour - coffee with character, coffee with a story, and coffee worth going out of your way for.