Update. 17 May 2026: meeting the Hermanos founders at London Coffee Festival
A short update to this review because today was a good day for coffee.
I spent four hours at the London Coffee Festival 2026 at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. The festival ran 14-17 May this year. Thursday through Saturday for trade, Saturday and Sunday for public. And today (Sunday) was the closing day. If you missed it, the dates and tickets for 2027 will land on the official site.
Official festival site:londoncoffeefestival.com(no follow. They get enough link juice already).
What four hours at LCF actually looks like
At least 30 stations pouring filter, espresso, cold brew, milk drinks, and a long tail of more obscure preparations (kombucha-coffee hybrids, nitro pours, single-origin espresso flights). Plus bakers, chocolatiers, and equipment vendors filling the rest of the floor. Two coffees per station is generous; four hours is enough to sample maybe 20 and walk out caffeinated for the next 48.
I went heavy on beans. Bags from at least five roasters left with me. Hermanos included. Which means the next month of home brews is already sorted.
Meeting the Hermanos founders
This was the moment that turned a good day into a great one. Met the Hermanos founders at their LCF stand. Brothers Victor and Santiago Gamboa, plus their business partner Adnan Millwala, who together started Hermanos in Walthamstow back in 2018. They were pouring V60s, talking through their single-origin Colombian lots, and patiently fielding questions from a queue of caffeine-drunk Londoners.
I told them what I wrote in this review. That Hermanos is my number one cafe pick in London. And they were generous enough to let me get the photo below. The two of them have built the kind of operation that this review keeps trying to describe: roasters who care about the bean origin first, the cafe craft second, and the cafe scene's reputation as a side-effect rather than a goal.
The haul that came home: Don Jhon, with Jazz approving
One of the bags I brought back from the Hermanos LCF stand was Don Jhon, a new launch that is not yet on the shelf at the Portobello Road shop. Single-origin from San Adolfo, Huila. Caturra Chiroso varietal, washed (red fruit cofermented), sun-dried. The cup notes are wild: blackcurrant, strawberry candy, watermelon, cherry cola, cantaloupe melon. Medium-light roast. The kind of bag where you taste it once and ration it for the next three weeks.
My beagle Jazz, pictured below, gave it the full sniff test the moment the bag came out of the tote. Beagle nose approves. That is the closest thing to a Hermanos endorsement I can put in print.
Full Hermanos coffee range is on their site athermanoscoffeeroasters.com/collections/all. Don Jhon is the bag to watch this month if you want a cup that does not taste like every other Colombian washed lot on the shelf.
The other photo, because four hours produced more than two frames
Walked away with bags from Hermanos, plus a few from roasters I had not tried before. Will write a longer post on the LCF 2026 hauls separately. For now, the original review below stands. And the in-person meeting reinforced every paragraph of it.
Why this update matters for the review
A cafe review that holds up at a festival stand is a stronger review than one written from the cafe alone. Meeting the people behind the bean, in a context where they are answering hundreds of questions a day, gives you the same answer their cafe gives you when it is at its best: care, specificity, and an obvious love for the craft. That is the test Hermanos passed today, again, in a room full of competing roasters all doing the same demonstration.
Number one cafe pick in London. Confirmed in person.
London Coffee Festival 2026. Quick facts
Dates: 14-17 May 2026. Venue: Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, E1 6QL. Trade days: Thursday and Friday. Public days: Saturday and Sunday. Ticket prices were £18-£35 on the day depending on session length. The next edition is typically announced in autumn for the following spring; check the official site for 2027 details when they land.
Original review. 2 May 2026
Everything below is the original review from earlier this month. The update above is appended; the original stands unchanged.
I have been to a lot of cafes in London. Not in a "10 best brunch spots in Hackney" listicle way. I mean genuinely, over the last decade, I have made a habit of trying every independent that opens within walking distance of wherever I happen to be. A few hundred is a fair count. I drink filter coffee almost exclusively, mostly batch brew, and I am the kind of customer who asks what the bean is before ordering.
Of all of them, the one I keep going back to is Hermanos Colombian Coffee Roasters. They are, in my view, the best independent coffee operator in the country right now.
Who they are
Hermanos was founded by two Colombian brothers. Santiago and Victor Gamboa. And their friend Adnan Millwala. The name is Spanish for "brothers". Everything they roast is Colombian and most of it is direct-trade through farms the Gamboa family has personal relationships with. That is not a marketing line; you can ask the staff which finca a particular batch came from and they will know.
They have nine London locations as of 2026: Portobello Road (Notting Hill), King's Cross St Pancras, Columbia Road, Victoria Station, Stratford, Walthamstow, Whitechapel, Barnes, Walworth, and Aldgate. The Portobello Road shop is the one I treat as home base. 127 Portobello Road, just up from the market, with a pink shopfront and a small bench outside that catches late-morning sun.
What they have actually won
I am not normally one for citing awards on a cafe recommendation, because most coffee awards are vendor-paid. The London Coffee Festival ones are not. In 2025, Hermanos won both Best Independent Coffee Shop and Best Coffee Shop Operator (10; 50 locations). A rare double. The Independent rated them Best Overall Coffee Subscription in 2026. Vogue, Forbes, and Time Out have all featured them. I am noting these not because they should change your mind. Try the coffee first. But because they line up with what I have been telling friends for two years anyway.
Why I rank them above everyone else
Three reasons, in this order.
First, the batch brew changes daily. Most "specialty" cafes pour the same single-origin filter for two weeks before swapping. Hermanos rotates the bean every day, sometimes twice a day, between specific Colombian fincas. If you go on a Tuesday and a Friday in the same week you will get two genuinely different cups. Different region, different processing, different cup score. For someone who actually drinks the coffee rather than ordering it as a prop, this is the single thing I value most.
Second, the consistency across nine sites is unusual. Independent chains usually peak at two or three locations and then quality erodes. Hermanos has held the line. The flat white at Walthamstow is the same flat white as Portobello. The staff training is real, the grinder calibration is checked, and they care about the same things in zone 4 as they do in zone 1.
Third, the room itself. The Portobello shop in particular has the right balance of bustle and quiet. Busy enough that you can sit there for two hours with a laptop without feeling watched, calm enough that you can read. It is the rare cafe in central London where the music is at the right volume and the lighting is warm enough to read on a grey day.
What to order
Order the batch brew. Whatever they have on. Ask the barista which one is on today; they will tell you the region, the farm, the processing method, and what to expect on the cup. The honest answer is usually some variation of: this one is bright, this one is jammy, this one tastes like dessert. Take whichever description sounds like your morning.
My current rotation, in order of how often I order them: Doña Delfina, Siberia, Don Daniel, and Don Domingo. Sergio. The farmer behind Delfina and Daniel. Named them after his parents. Don Domingo is named after the farmer who grows it. There is a story behind every cup if you ask the right question.
Doña Delfina
Floral. Lavender, rose petals, the soft citrusy sweetness of Earl Grey tea, and a silky, almost honeyed mouthfeel. The first time I had it I genuinely thought there was something wrong. Coffee is not supposed to taste this distinctly like a tea garden. I do not know how the farm or the roast pulls this off, but you can actually smell the lavender as the cup cools. It is the most ordered coffee on my Tuesdays.
Siberia
Brighter, fruit-led. Vivid passionfruit at the front, wildflower honey in the middle, and a soft lavender finish from the extended fermentation. Won a heap of attention at the London Coffee Festival last year and you can taste why. It is layered without being chaotic. Goes well with anything where you want the cup to wake the room up rather than settle into it.
Don Daniel
Rose water and pomegranate, white peach, honey. The most floral of the four without being perfumed. If Delfina is a tea garden, Daniel is the moment after rain in a stone-fruit orchard. Hits a different register depending on temperature. Warmer it is more peach, cooler it is more rose.
Don Domingo
The newest of the four and the most balanced. Less aggressive on the florals, more chocolate and dried fruit on the body, longer finish. The one I order when I want a coffee that will sit politely next to a pastry rather than upstaging it.
On the lavender and rose-water thing. I do not know how Hermanos pulls this off and I have asked. The honest version is that it is a combination of the cultivar (some of these are Geisha or Pink Bourbon), the elevation in Quindío, the fermentation method (extended anaerobic in some cases), and the roast curve. The non-honest version is that the farm is doing something unrepeatable in the soil, the tree, or the dry season. Either way, you can taste lavender and rose water in the cup. Repeatedly. Across multiple visits.
If you want milk, the cortado is the move. The flat white is also great. Skip the filter-coffee-as-iced-latte experiments unless you specifically want a sugar-forward cup. The team will help you pick. They know the rotation better than the menu does.
A small note for cafe owners reading this
Most of the people who find this post will find it because they are looking for a good cafe in London. Some of you will find it because you run a cafe and you noticed I write about coffee. If you run a cafe and your website looks like a 2014 Squarespace template. Or you have a great product and nobody local can find you on Google. That is what I do for a living through Seahawk Media. I am not pitching here; I will not put a CTA at the bottom. But the email is on the homepage if you want it.
If you are visiting Notting Hill
Most of the people coming to Notting Hill come for the Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts movie. The bookshop on 13 Blenheim Crescent. The one that played Travel Bookshop in the film, now The Notting Hill Bookshop. Is genuinely worth the visit. It is also five minutes' walk from Hermanos Portobello. If you are doing the bookshop pilgrimage, the unwritten rule is: bookshop first, Hermanos after. The cup of Delfina earns the queue you just walked through more than the bookshop does.
Go on a weekday morning before 11am. Order the batch brew. Sit at the bench outside if the sun is out. Walk the rest of Portobello afterwards. That is the version of the morning that converts visitors into people who tell their friends about Hermanos when they get home.
My second favourite London cafe
If Hermanos is full or you have already had your morning cup there, the next best in my rotation isHagen. Marylebone, Pavilion Road in Chelsea, and Battersea. Three sites, all of them excellent, all roasting their own beans, all serving food worth ordering for its own sake rather than as a pastry-shaped excuse for a coffee. The flat white at Hagen is the one I order when Hermanos is closed.
On Gail's
Gail's is overhyped as a cafe. The coffee is fine, not memorable. The bread, on the other hand, is genuinely good. The sourdough boule and the cinnamon buns earn the queue. If you walk past one and you need bread for the week, that is the right reason to go in. The right reason to go in is not the coffee.
A small note for cafe owners reading this
Most of the people who find this post will find it because they are looking for a good cafe in London. Some of you are running cafes and reading this thinking about what makes the difference. The honest answer, watching Hermanos for years now: the rotation. Most independent cafes settle on a single-origin filter and pour it for two to four weeks because rotating costs money on training, on dialing in, on the staff knowing what each bean wants. Hermanos rotates daily. Their staff can speak to the cup in front of you because they tasted it themselves that morning. That is the gap. It is operational, not a secret.
I will be at Hermanos Portobello most Tuesdays around 10:30. The cup in front of me is almost always the batch brew. If you see this post and you are the right level of curious, come say hi.
FAQ
Who owns Hermanos Coffee?
Hermanos Colombian Coffee Roasters was founded in 2018 by brothers Victor and Santiago Gamboa, who grew up in Colombia, alongside their friend Adnan Millwala. The brand operates ten London locations as of 2026, with sourcing relationships direct to farms in the Quindío region. The founders' story is in the cup: every brew is named after a farmer or family member from the supply chain.
Where to get coffee in Notting Hill?
Hermanos at 127 Portobello Road is the answer most weekday mornings. Colombian single-origin batch brew that rotates daily, with the Doña Delfina as the flagship. Hagen Espresso on Westbourne Grove is the strong second pick if Hermanos is full. Other established names in the area include Farm Girl, Notting Hill Coffee Project, and Amoret. Skip Gail's for coffee specifically. The bread is good, the coffee is fine.
What are the best Hermanos coffee brews to order?
My current rotation, in order of how often I order them: Doña Delfina (lavender, rose petals, Earl Grey), Siberia (passionfruit, wildflower honey, soft lavender finish), Don Daniel (rose water, white peach, pomegranate), and Don Domingo (chocolate, dried fruit, longer finish, the most balanced of the four). Order the batch brew unless you have a strong reason not to.
How many Hermanos Coffee locations are there in London?
Ten London locations as of 2026: Portobello Road in Notting Hill, King's Cross St Pancras, Columbia Road, Victoria Station, Stratford, Whitechapel, Bethnal Green Road, Aldgate (Vine Street), Walworth (Manor Place Depot), and Barnes High Street. Portobello is the original and remains the flagship, with the broadest brew rotation.