Sip Collective Coffee, a United Kingdom roastery founded by Alexandru Marin, won the 2026 UK Coffee Roasting Championship, held March 13 to 15 in London, with Marin scoring 559 points to edge out runner-up Rifqi Maulana. The championship hands every competitor the same standardized green coffee to grade, roast, and cup blind, so the prize isn’t a bag of competition beans, it’s the title and a place representing the UK at the World Coffee Roasting Championship. Sip Collective’s own shop runs on rotating single origin microlots instead, roasted in small batches.
Current offerings include a washed Kenyan from the Kihuyo cooperative, grown from the SL28, SL34 and Ruiru11 varieties, all developed in Kenya: SL28 and SL34 prized for cup quality since the 1930s, Ruiru11 bred decades later specifically for resistance to coffee berry disease (washing strips the fruit from the bean before drying, a process that tends to produce a cleaner, brighter cup than letting the fruit dry on the bean), alongside named producer lots from Colombia and Ethiopia. Bags run roughly £10 to £20 for 100 to 200 grams, with free UK delivery over £30 and international shipping listed as far as the United States and Australia.
The Winner
Marin founded Sip Collective as a project built around competition level roasting, sourcing lots directly from producers and importers he considers among specialty coffee’s most progressive, and aiming to make the category feel approachable rather than intimidating to newcomers. The UK Coffee Roasting Championship, organized annually by the Specialty Coffee Association’s UK Chapter, put that skill to a formal test. Twelve finalists were tested on grading green coffee, developing a roast profile for the same provided lot, and submitting the result for blind cupping by certified judges. Marin’s 559 points carried him past runner-up Rifqi Maulana for the title.
The win qualified Marin to represent the United Kingdom at the World Coffee Roasting Championship in Brussels that June, competing against national champions from competition bodies around the world under the same blind format. He placed eighth.
For more on the UK Coffee Roasting Championship and past winners, visit our SCA UK Coffee Roasting Championship page.