introducing: dear green coffee roasters
Let’s get up close and personal with the wonderful folk who are helping to make it happen. This time, it’s the turn of Dear Green Coffee Roasters!
Not just a partner of the festival, Glasgow Coffee Festival and Dear Green share a founder in Lisa Lawson, who has worked hard to bring GCF to its fans almost every year for over a decade.
Founded in 2011, Dear Green started as a one-woman operation before expanding into the popular coffee roastery that has played a significant role in spreading the word on speciality coffee in Glasgow and beyond. We sat down with the team to learn more about the business, what you can expect from them at GCF, and what they’ve got coming up in the near future!
You've been involved with Glasgow Coffee Festival since day one. What's kept you motivated to keep it going since 2014?
It’s been a labour of love; the specialty coffee industry keeps evolving year on year, which extends the small community that GCF originally brought together back in 2014. GCF now feels like a tradition and serves the purpose of supporting and promoting the incredible coffee talent and passion we have here in Scotland, whilst showcasing new independent businesses, educating on a diverse range of topics and celebrating what we all work so hard on all year round. Every year is different with competitions, new trends, and we attract new audiences to share our passion for coffee with.
Why do you think Glasgow Coffee Festivals and others like it matter so much to the wider coffee community?
There’s never a better way to bring the coffee community together, and a way to bring them to Glasgow. After years of attending coffee events and festivals around the world, when there was an opportunity to make this happen in Glasgow, we had to do it. Since the COVID-19 lockdown period, the importance of in-person events has increased. Learning from one another, growing careers, businesses, networks, knowledge and having a lot of fun is so important for our niche industry.
In Glasgow and in the UK in general, there are so many ways to get involved in the coffee scene with local latte art throwdowns and cuppings. Whether you’re new or you’ve been involved for decades, the festival represents an opportunity to get most of us in the same room to share ideas, inspiration, and to help us all feel a bit more connected. It’s a very like-minded community based on fairness, togetherness and focused on quality. The festival represents a chance to catch up with coffee pals whilst making new ones.
What can people expect from Dear Green at this year's event?
We plan to share some seriously exciting coffees, a new entry from our Showcase series (the latest in our series of exceptional and experimental coffees), and of course, our whole team will be there to chat about any coffee queries, share some brewing skills and we’ll be also be contributing to a workshop, a sustainability panel, the woman in coffee breakfast, hosting a cupping and competing in Best Roaster UK!
Anything else you'd like us to mention or promote that's coming up in 2026?
So much, all of the time! We’ve just celebrated B Corp month, our 5th as a B Corp organisation. We’re also well established in our new roastery, where we offer all sorts of classes, courses, and cuppings. It’s our 15th year in business, and we’ll be visiting our coffee partners in Uganda to work with new producers, as well as welcoming new customers from around the UK. Lots more to come in Glasgow and beyond, follow us on socials for updates.
Alongside Dear Green, we’re delighted to be joined by our partners La Marzocco, Mossgiel Organic Dairy, BWT Water, Story Shop, 2GOCUP Jaguar Espresso Systems as exclusive distributors of Eureka Grinders, Brewed By Hand and The Social Hub - thank you one and all! Alongside blogs covering all things GCF26, you can use our website to sign up for our ticket waiting list and plan your visit to Glasgow Coffee Festival 2026. We can’t wait to see you there.
