Spring Valley Coffee, the Nairobi-based specialty roaster, has won Best New Coffee Shop at the London Coffee Festival Awards 2026, held at The Truman Brewery from 14 to 17 May.
The award was decided by consumer vote. Spring Valley opened its first international location at 24 Camden Passage in Islington, bringing coffee roasted in Kenya directly to a London market that already has no shortage of specialty options. The Camden Passage shop carries Kenyan art on the walls, stocks African brands, and sells coffee roasted at the company’s Nairobi facility, not sourced and finished abroad.
That last point is the commercial argument the brand has been making since CEO Ritesh Doshi revived the company in 2018. Most Kenyan coffee still leaves the country as green, unroasted beans, processed in Europe or North America before hitting shelves at a premium that puts little back into the supply chain. Spring Valley’s model holds the roasting in Nairobi, capturing more of the margin at origin and building the brand around the provenance rather than obscuring it.
Posting on LinkedIn after the award was announced, Doshi addressed the farmers and producers directly: “Every cup that was served in that café was yours before it was ours.”
“Every cup that was served in that café was yours before it was ours.” — Ritesh Doshi, CEO, Spring Valley Coffee
The company has been operating for over 15 years, running multiple cafés across Nairobi and supplying hotels, restaurants, and retailers across Kenya. It is certified as a B Corporation, a designation Spring Valley holds as Africa’s first BCorp-certified coffee roastery. The London entry, incorporated in November 2024, is the first test of whether that model travels.
London is a hard room. The specialty coffee market there is mature, competitive, and well-funded. The LCF Awards draw nominations from across the city, and the Best New Coffee Shop category pits recent openings against each other on the basis of consumer experience, not brand heritage. Winning on a community vote, with no marketing budget and no celebrity attached, says something about the quality of what was in the cup, and the story around it.
Spring Valley collaborated with several African brands for the London site, including Patti Endo, Wapi, Ndoro, Sandstorm, Nzilani, and Cinnabar Green, among others. The shop was built as a showcase for African craft, not just coffee.
The commercial question now is what Spring Valley does with the recognition. A community award at a festival is a moment, not a business model. Camden Passage is a small, boutique location. Whether the company pursues a second London site, widens its retail footprint, or doubles down on wholesale and direct-to-consumer shipping from Nairobi will say more about its UK ambitions than the trophy.
Kenya’s coffee has been admired on the world stage for decades, mostly as an ingredient in other people’s blends. What Spring Valley is attempting, one café on a north London passage, is to make it the whole story. The next question is scale.
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