Looking for a coffee shop in Mid-Wales that combines great coffee, fantastic lighter bakes and cakes, and a welcoming community space?
TOST Coffee Shop offers a modern café experience designed for today — relaxed, friendly, and focused on quality.

Blending coffee beans isn’t just for cafés and roasters. It’s a way to create complexity, balance, and a flavour profile that single-origin beans alone may not achieve. Whether you’re experimenting at home or refining your go-to espresso, blending roasted beans opens up endless possibilities.

Ever wondered how coffee travels from a distant farm to the cup in your hands? Understanding the coffee supply chainhelps you appreciate the care, skill, and ethics behind every brew. From smallholder farms to specialty roasters, each step shapes the flavour and quality of your coffee.

Blending roasted beans is a common practice in specialty coffee, allowing roasters and speciality coffee shops to balance flavour, aroma, body, and consistency in a way that a single-origin coffee alone cannot achieve. And why not - its great fun and something you can also experiment with at home.

If you’ve ever bitten into a crusty, tangy loaf, you’ve probably tasted sourdough. But what exactly makes this bread different from regular white or whole wheat loaves?

Over the past month we’ve made great progress with our little café. The front of house is taking shape, and we’re now turning to the kitchen with new flooring going down and fresh equipment arriving — including a new espresso barista coffee machine and specialist sourdough kit. Next up will be the outside: a fresh lick of paint and our new signage.

Have you ever ordered the same drink in two different cafés and noticed it tastes completely different? Even if the beans are similar, coffee can vary dramatically from one place to another. That’s because flavour isn’t just about the bean — it’s about everything that happens before the cup reaches your hands.

If you’ve ever heard baristas talk about “cupping,” you might wonder what it actually means. A coffee tasting, also known as cupping, is a standardized method used by coffee professionals to evaluate aroma, flavour, quality, and consistency. It’s how roasters, buyers, and cafés decide which beans make it into your cup.

Not all coffee is created equal. When specialty coffee shops talk about “high-quality coffee,” they aren’t just bragging — there are clear factors that determine whether a bean delivers an exceptional cup.

We’re Chris and Debs, and we’ve recently moved to Llanwrtyd Wells from Wiltshire. We’ve fallen in love with the stunning countryside, the welcoming people, and the strong sense of community here - thank you for making us feel at home already.

Specialty coffee isn’t just about a good cup anymore — it’s becoming an experience, a culture, and a movement. From sustainability to tech innovations, the next decade is shaping up to be exciting for coffee lovers everywhere.

Wales’ coffee scene has evolved rapidly over the last decade. Independent cafés, specialty roasters, and rural coffee destinations are redefining how people experience coffee across the country. But while Wales might seem small geographically, its coffee culture is far from uniform.

If you’ve visited an independent café recently, you’ve probably heard the term specialty coffee. It appears on menus, packaging, and coffee shop websites — often alongside tasting notes, origin stories, and brewing methods.

Coffee is one of the world’s most popular drinks, but not all coffee is created equal. If you’ve ever wondered why some cafés charge more for a cup or why certain beans taste brighter and more complex, it can often come down to the difference between commercial coffee and specialty coffee.

The Slow Coffee Movement encourages people to slow down and focus on the brewing process, rather than rushing through a cup.

In towns and cities across the UK, from Cardiff to Llanwrtyd Wells, independent cafés are thriving — even in the shadow of big chain giants like Costa, Starbucks, or Caffè Nero. But how do small, local cafés compete with these household names?