Dark Woods Coffee

05/09/2026

A week on Sunday 🚲🚶🏻‍♀️🌎🧑🏽‍🦽‍➡️ Under Your Own Steam - Sunday 13 September 2026 / 10am–2pm

At Dark Woods Coffee, Holme Mills, Marsden, HD7 6LS

A morning and afternoon promoting sustainable movement in the Colne Valley, workshops, repair stations, demonstrations and more!

We will have our takeaway hatch open, serving coffees and pastries! All hot drinks served on the day, on a donation basis, with all proceeds going to the charities supporting the event.

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Featuring.

Matt Wood
EPIKS
Experience Community
Good Footing CIC
Holme Valley MRT
Colne Valley Cycle Therapy CIC

04/09/2026

Less than two weeks to go, be good to see you at Dark Woods Coffee on the 17th!

AI is changing the way we work — but what does it really mean for your business?

Join In the Colne Valley for a practical, jargon-free look at how AI can help your business save time, improve productivity, generate new opportunities and make better decisions.

We’ll explore the benefits, the potential pitfalls and how to get started without needing to become an AI expert. Discover how to use AI as a powerful business assistant, where it can help, where you need to be cautious and how small changes can make a big difference.

Richard Lucker, will give a short presentation, followed by an opportunity to ask questions and continue the conversation through further networking with other local businesses.

Richard has worked at the forefront of digital technology for over 30 years, leading product, marketing and technical teams across Media, Telecoms and Financial Services in the UK and around the world. More recently, much of his focus has been on understanding how to get the best out of AI while maintaining control and minimising ethical, legal, privacy and environmental risks.

Richard lives in Golcar and is actively involved with a number of not-for-profit organisations in and around the Colne Valley, making him ideally placed to explore what AI means for local businesses.

Come along, ask questions and discover what AI could do for your business.

Date: Thursday 17 September 2026
Time: 5pm – 7pm
Location: Dark Woods Coffee,
Holme Mills, West Slaithwaite Road, HD7 6LS

Book your free place via the Eventbrite link in the comments below

04/09/2026

From Burundi, we have a beautifully structured Red Bourbon from the Long Miles Coffee Project. Founders Ben and Kristy Carlson moved to Burundi in 2011 and set out to help build a fairer, more transparent coffee industry in this often-overlooked origin. Today, their Ninga Washing Station in Kayanza Province supports more than 700 local producers from the surrounding Ninga community.

Grown at high altitude, this Red Bourbon delivers the sweetness and clarity we love from washed East African coffees. Perfectly ripe cherries are pulped, fermented and fully washed in clean mountain water, then slow-dried on raised beds, giving the cup an expressive stone-fruit character and a clean, balanced citrus finish.

The medium roast profile makes it a perfect choice for lovers of bright and characterful espresso, whilst still working beautifully as a soft brew that delivers generous mugs of juicy and easy-going breakfast coffee.

02/09/2026

We have three standout coffees from two reliably excellent producers to talk about this week.

Luis Anibal Calderón has grown Villa Betulia, his farm in Huila, Colombia, into an internationally recognised name for exceptional micro-lots and rare varietals. His work with highly sought after cultivars such as Maragesha, Yirgacheffe, Ombligon, Gesha revels a producer with exceptional command of both variety and process.

This rare and new Bourbon Primitivo lot delivers a grape-like fruity depth, shaped by 45 hours of aerobic fermentation and slow sun-drying. The result is a complex, winey and fruit-forward coffee with notes of berry fruit, port wine and malted-chocolate, accented with a gentle tartness and finishing with a coating mouthfeel. Best suited to soft brew, though with careful dialling in it can also make a sweet, expressive espresso.

Alongside it, we’re also roasting his 100% Java arabica: another extremely limited micro-lot that demonstrates his exceptional craftsmanship with complex layers of strawberry, silky chocolate and perfumed aromatics.

28/08/2026

28/08/2026

This Bank Holiday Sunday: Pop-up Wine Bar with Hoults Wine
Sunday 30 August 2026 / 12pm–8pm
At Dark Woods Coffee, Holme Mills. West Slaithwaite Rd, Marsden.

We’re hosting our very own wine bar with the good people at Hoults Wine Merchants. No booking or reservations required, just rock up, grab a table and soak up the vibes.

Wine will be served by the glass and by the bottle, with plenty available to take away too - all from a specially curated list for the evening, soundtracked by Dark Woods DJs.

Snack menu by Miriam's Kitchen Table, presenting a veritable cornucopia of enticing treats to accompany all those delicious wines …

Party Nuts
Preserved Olives
Homemade Focaccia with Whipped Feta and Chilli Aubergine
Ham Hock Croquettes and Smoked Chilli Jam
Panzanella Salad Using Heritage Tomatoes
Brined Rosemary Fries
Anchovy Mayo
Posh Ketchup

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To remind you all, there are no bookings required for this Sunday and we kindly ask that no dogs are allowed inside the building. Enjoy your Bank Holiday.

Photo credits
No. 3 - 5 : Oliver Lawson
No. 6 : Origin Creative

27/08/2026

Thanks to Huddersfield Hub for the mention about our forthcoming event, alongside our good friends :

Woods Bicycle Service & Repair
Environmental Projects In Kirklees
Experience Community
Good Footing
Colne Valley Cycle Therapy CIC
The Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team

Sunday 13th September at Dark Woods Coffee.

An innovative event is to be held in the Colne Valley called Under Your Own Steam and it's all about walking, wheeling and cycling

27/08/2026

For more than a decade, we've been buying coffee from the Blackburn Estate in Northern Tanzania. That long-standing relationship has led to this coffee becoming a much-loved seasonal favourite, delivering consistency, quality and character, year upon year.

Produced by Michael & Tina Gehrken on the slopes of Mount Oldeani, close to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, this washed lot is all about balance and drinkability. Expect notes of hazelnut, milk chocolate and red apple, with a buttery texture and bright citrus finish.

It proved a popular choice as the house espresso during our most recent Open Day, with many visitors returning for a second cup. Bright, balanced and beautifully sweet, it's a coffee that works equally well as both daily filter brew and milk-based espresso drink.

Available now in the FIELD category of our current Producer Series.

Roast: 3/5 (Medium)
Process: Washed
Variety: Kent & Nyassa Arabica
Country: Karatu, Tanzania

25/08/2026

Coffee was first cultivated and exported to the world from Yemen, making it perhaps the most historically significant origin of all.

Our latest Dark Woods Reserve Tin features a remarkable lot from Fawaz Ali Wahab, grown on steep mountain terraces at dizzying altitude, in regions where coffee has been cultivated for centuries. In a country where much of the coffee farming is done by hand using ancient methods, these historical heirloom varieties produce cups unlike anything else in the world.

Expect an intensely complex brew with notes of dried fruit, warming spice and cacao, with an intense, syrupy sweetness.

☕ Available now as a pre-order
🔥 Roasted once, in a single limited batch
📦 Packed exclusively in our Dark Woods Reserve Tins

Yemeni coffees are among the rarest and most sought-after in specialty coffee. Limited production, challenging growing conditions and extraordinary demand mean only small quantities ever reach roasters like us. That's why we've chosen to make this a special Reserve release, roasting just one carefully planned batch for pre-order customers.

If you've never experienced a great Yemeni coffee before, this is a very special place to start. Get your pre orders in by 12pm on Tuesday, 1st September.

22/08/2026

We are proud to publish our annual report for our B Corp accreditation. One of the most important areas of the report details the coffee community we support.

In 2025, we contracted over 216 metric tons of green coffee from 23 different countries. In these countries we source a diverse range of distinctive and delicious coffees, always looking to deepen existing relationships and develop new ones with outstanding coffee producers. Without the countless hours of skilled work done at origin, Dark Woods wouldn’t be who or where we are today. We honour this by always roasting in ways that showcase the very best flavours from origin, and by supporting organisations within these coffee-growing communities that create positive social and ecological changes.

Ardent Children’s Centre

In 2025, we continued our support of the Ardent Children’s Centre in Bensa, Ethiopia.
Set up and run by Ardent Coffee, our Ethiopian export partners, the Children’s
Centre is an independent, non-profit residential home and education space for local children who have, sadly, lost one or both parents. We have been proud to support the Children’s Centre for the last five years, and we have committed to continue our support long into the future.

Farmers’ Voice Radio

We have enjoyed had a long-standing relationship with Farmers’ Voice Radio, a charitable organisation that empowers smallholder communities by providing training on setting up and running community radio programmes. These allow farmers to share their knowledge, agriculturally relevant news and much more besides. The aim is to help these communities improve their farming techniques, both to improve quality and to mitigate challenges caused by climate change.

In 2025, to celebrate five years of collaboration and partnership between Farmers’ Voice Radio, Dark Woods Coffee, and Café de Panama, we created a special edition of our Panama La Huella anaerobic natural coffee. This was available exclusively at Manchester Coffee Festival, with all proceeds from the sale of this Great Taste Golden Fork-winning coffee going to support the work of Farmers’ Voice Radio.

To read the full report > darkwoodscoffee.co.uk/pages/values