18th century Bristol was a flourishing commercial port with elegant tea clippers regularly to be seen returning from plantations in India, Ceylon and the Far East.

It was in this setting that Edmund Carwardine was apprenticed to the trade in the 1860s. His son Stephen followed him in 1888 and subsequently set up his own account.

It was his son, also named Stephen, who in turn guided the now established firm through the difficult years of two World Wars, withstanding severe rationing and the ravages inflicted on Bristol by the Luftwaffe.

Post war, he further developed the business until his son Christopher took over the reins in 1973.

In 1981 his son Martin Stephen Carwardine joined the company and in 1991, in the same fashion as his great grandfather around 90 years before, Martin himself set up on his own account.

The same traditional standards continue into the 21st century, an art only few have mastered, bringing you a world of coffees to experience and savour.