Planted like my grandfather's apple trees.....

When you are a child memories are planted like my grandfather's apple trees, still there and still bearing fruit year, after year.

My mother used to travel on the weekends to Muswell Hill Broadway to do the weekly shop, and when the Tea and Coffee were running short, she’d pop into W. Martyn's at 135 Muswell Hill Broadway, London, N10 3RS - 020 8883 5642

This was no ordinary shop because the aroma hit you long before you stepped over the threshold. That aroma was the roasting of coffee beans in a gas-fired coffee roaster tumbling away making sounds like maracas in a cylinder, popping and cracking like Rice Krispies – which thankfully can still be seen in the window roasting away to another generation's delight.

W. Martyn’s enchanting aroma still fills the air and remains the standard by which I judge all coffee to this day...

The beautifully hypnotic aroma has been unmatched in my 64 years of life... When you cross the threshold you are entering a bygone age... I have never forgotten the sacks of coffee beans lined up waiting to be roasted, and tins of tea and coffee adorned the shelves with names like Jamaican from the Blue Mountains of Jamaica and grown since 1728, which incidentally was a favorite of my mothers.

The proprietor Steve has probably long forgotten me and my family, he would give us coffee beans to taste, and were instantly transported to Jamaica, Guatemala, El Salvador, or some other far-flung coffee paradise – but paradise for me is the little moments shared with my mother who has long since passed and part of those memories is W. Martyn’s.

The shop back then had an old-fashioned feel, with wooden shelves packed to the brim with deliciously looking delicacies, the service had that old-fashioned touch something today’s retailers could learn from. 

But one thing I am positive about is that W. Martyn is in the business of creating not just the finest Coffee but memories, like my grandfather's apple trees, they are still here with me everywhere I go….. even my children know the story of the tumbling coffee roaster and that beautiful old shop in Muswell Hill. 

Go, see for yourself, you’ll not be disappointed.

Muswell Hill - 1952

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