The best coffee in the Lake District

Based in Kendal, family-owned and run coffee specialists, Pennington’s, roast ethically sourced beans from all around the world to craft their exceptional blends.

Roasting in small batches to ensure quality is maintained, you can find their coffee in cafes, bars and restaurants all over the Lake District. And they are the only company north of the M25 to roast their own coffee for home compostable pods.

Pennington’s Website >

Try Pennington’s at:

• Lakeland Cafe, Windermere
• Blend & Brew, Kendal
• Cedar Manor Hotel, Windermere

If you find yourself in Staveley on your visit to the Lake District, we’re sure the aroma of roasting coffee will have you following your nose into Duffins. Located on the main street in the village, this small artisan roastery also doubles up as a café, so you can try their wares along with a tasty cake.

Their roaster is on show and is in action most afternoons doing its thing with the beans. And you can also buy bags of roasted beans to take home with you or back to your holiday cottage if you just can’t wait. Their signature blend is called Juicy Gossip – and who doesn’t love a bit of that?

Duffin’s Website >

Try Duffin’s at:

• Duffin’s Coffee Shop, Staveley
• Cow Shed, Windermere
• Brew?, Grange-over-Sands

If you’re enjoying a coffee in a café in Keswick, there’s a good chance it will be a blend from Darkhouse Coffee Roasters.

Set up by a Cumbrian-based barista, Jiri, who learnt his trade in the Czech Republic before coming to the UK, Darkhouse only use responsibly sourced beans in their blends.

Jiri works with two Cumbrian-based coffee bean buyers who both have family links to the plantations they source from, so everything is fully traceable.

And, when it comes with what to call his blends, Jiri keeps it local, with names like Manesty Wood, Falcon Crag, and Walla Crag, to name but a few.

Darkhouse Website >

Try Darkhouse at:

• Cafe HNW, Keswick
• Serendipity, Keswick
• Fika, Cockermouth

It’s all about taste at True North Coffee. And some of their blends have won Great Taste awards, so they must be doing something right. Dedicated to crafting the perfect cup of coffee, using high-quality beans from the best coffee-growing regions around the world, they carefully roast in small batches to bring out the best in every bean.

And if you want to taste their coffee for yourself while you’re here in the Lakes, head to More?, the artisan bakery in Staveley that was founded by former pastry chef and master baker, Patrick Moore, who is also the brains behind True North.

A great cup of coffee and a banging brownie, or muddee, as they call it at More? – sounds like a win, win to us.

True North Website >

Try True North at:

• More? Artisan Bakery, Staveley
• Cumbrian Baker, Cockermouth
• Basecamp North Lakes, Troutbeck Penrith

If you like your coffee steeped in a bit of history, you’ll love Farrer’s. You can find them in a gorgeous Grade 2 listed 18th-century building on the high street in Kendal, where they have been selling freshly roasted coffee and loose-leaf teas since 1819. Look out for the original coffee grinder from 1853 in the centre of the shop.

Farrer’s can lay claim to being the oldest coffee roaster in the UK, and now, from their modern base in Kendal (which supplies the high street shop), they roast a range of blends for cafés, restaurants, hotels and pubs all over the county and beyond.

Farrer’s Website >

Try Farrer’s at:

• Farrer’s Tea & Coffee House, Kendal