History of Moonroast Coffee

Moonroast is continuing a century-long Bradshaw tradition.

The Bradshaws have specialised in the coffee and tea trades for four generations and more than a hundred years.

It began in the late 1800s when Richard Goodwin Bradshaw swapped the family pub business for a milder brew.

‘RGB’ joined Wilson Smithetts - the principal City of London tea broker - where as a taster, then as a broker, he became an expert in trading and blending tea from Ceylon.

In those days, imported tea was auctioned at Plantation House in Mincing Lane - "the Street of Tea " - a custom full of noise and colour.

RGB's son Dorman Bradshaw (and Francis’s grandfather) continued the gentlemanly charm and integrity of the honest-broker tradition.

Then followed Dorman’s son Richard – another tea-blending specialist who ran his own loose-leaf tea firm - and Haydon, first in tea, then with Nestlé as Britain’s leading coffee specialist. He has since worked as a coffee consultant for well respected businesses such as Waitrose and Greggs.

Haydon is now a consultant to Moonroast, where his son Francis carries on the Bradshaw spirit of quality tea and coffee excellence. Moonroast’s expert skills and pedigree in the very best roasting and blending techniques have recovered a lost brilliance for people who love fine coffee.