Kirinyaga County, in Kenya's Central highlands, is home to the slopes and foothills of Mount Kenya. Many rivers run through the region and the soil is rich and volcanic, providing smallholders and cooperatives with the resources to grow and process some of Kenya's most fruit-forward coffees. Due to the cool temperatures at altitude, particularly at night time, coffees from Kenya's central highlands tend develop and mature slowly producing very dense, hard beans high in acidity and complexity.
NewGround Coffee was founded in 2018 in Oxford by Joel Grates and Dickon Morris with a social mission at its core: providing work and training opportunities for ex offenders. The roastery is B Corp certified and pays growers four times the Fairtrade standard. Head roaster James learned his craft at Redemption Roasters while in prison and now runs the Loring S15 Falcon day to day. The original café opened in 2019 in the same Headington building as the roastery, and a second location, a café and wine bar on Ship Street in central Oxford, followed in 2023. The inspiration for the business traces back to the Zukuka Bora project in Uganda, where coffee farming transformed lives in communities affected by civil war.
