What makes a great cup of coffee?
Of course, the flavour profile of the bean; the roast; the temperature of the milk… You can get these anywhere. Grow has a different philosophy: a key ingredient of our coffee is connection and relationships.
Over the last few months, we have teamed up with local neighbourhood coffee roosters Square Mile Coffee Roasters to create bespoke drinks, deepen our team’s knowledge, and celebrate the East London community.
RED BRICK
Grow’s signature coffee is Square Mile’s flagship Red Brick espresso blend, which offers delightful notes of red apple, date, caramel, and almond. But during our Arts Council England funded Canalside Snug Sessions, running December 2025 - March 2026, we have been able to adapt to a specialist, seasonal menu of coffee beans.
GUEST BEANS
If you visited Grow in January, you will have had the opportunity to taste a special coffee blend with LA CIDRA medium-roast beans, and created a unique cocktail selection for our Canalside events.
It’s not too late to sample our special espresso blends!
Join us for the final Canalside Snug Session on Thursday 19 March. Why not ask for a first-hand taste of the new martini menu while you’re here? On the night, our Mercury-nominated house jazz band will be performing, joined by special guests for an evening of exceptional music. Just £5 entry on the door
Maybe you tried our mixological alchemy of tiramisu martini, which benefited from the solo-origin Honduras bean? We found the almond top notes floating fantastically in our espresso martinis, with a fantastic cranberry and ganache finish rounded out the flavour.
Or, if you came later - after aligning our programming with Peruvian cumbia (chicha) night with Chicha Por Favor - you may have tried a washed Peruvian coffee called La Bermeja which has lovely notes of forest fruit, plum and almond.
We certainly had a great time curating our espresso martini menu for our partnership with Square Mile, and a few of our customers were lucky enough to be entitled to free coffees with that special blend.
FREE COFFEE
For the First 10 arrivals from midday on Sunday 15 March you will receive a FREE Square Mile coffee when you quote “Canalside Coffee” at the bar. Then sit back and enjoy the FREE live music from Williams Cumberbatch and special guest
SQUARE MILE ANNUAL SUMMIT
On March 4th, in fact, we were lucky enough to join Square Mile at their annual summit. Hosted by Instagram phenom and Square Mile co-founder James Hoffmann.
James was clear that his mission with coffee was to “get people excited and interested in coffee … to help foster a culture and community of coffee in London.” Grow is proud to be a part of that, and hugely grateful to Arts Council England Supporting Grassroots Music Fund for enabling us to deepen our connections to that community by offering specialist coffee-based cocktails and funding free coffee for the first 10 customers at recent, dedicated events.
James told us about overlap between “the sustainable and the meaningful,” which drives all of Grow and Square Mile’s initiatives.
This alignment allows Grow to combine our philosophy directly with our practice as an experiment in ethical business, and helps us to invest in our team through training that enhances visitor experience and wellbeing, as well as deepening collaboration with community groups and independent local businesses. Over the last three months, Square Mile has helped give all of our team specialist barista training at their roastery four miles down the road from Grow.
“Square Mile has always passionately supported independent hospitality businesses, and we are delighted that Grow has been selected by Arts Council England for this fund. We are excited to support this journey and to see what the future holds for Grow.”
The team tell us. And we agree: Grow’s future is exciting!
As Square Mile’s Josh said, after all, “hospitality is fun, it’s why we do it!”