A tucked-away coffee shop in the shadow of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral is winning praise.
Nestled in the Georgian Quarter is a tiny backstreet housing one of the city's most ethical coffee shops. Located on Pilgrim Street is Coffi, an independent business offering a range of European flavours, sweet treats and even plants.
Couple and co-owners Michael Davis, 37, and Natalie Southern, 36, discussed the idea of opening their own coffee shop after they were "spoiled for choice" with the variety on offer in the Romanian capital Bucharest, where they lived back in 2015.
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Three years later they made the decision to bring their coffee expertise back to the city, primarily because they wanted to keep the blend they grew accustomed to readily available.
Michael told the Echo: "We wanted to bring a variety of coffee to Liverpool selfishly because we missed drinking it. It was a no-brainer."
The pair struggled more with finding a venue than they did with taking the plunge into opening a business. Michael added: "We spent most of 2019 looking for a site. We were looking online mostly and couldn't find anything in our price range or interesting so it wasn't until late 2020 we found where we are now which was originally a garage. We approached the owner of the building and said we want to open a coffee shop and fortunately he loved the idea.
"It has character. It's a Grade II listed building so we are limited in what we can do but with so much character we wanted to do as little as we could because we loved the building so much."
Coffi opts for exposed brickwork, understated furnishings and touches of greenery, most obviously in their newly renovated upstairs seating area. The care they've put into polishing the business for customers while keeping the building's historic integrity is clear.
Discussing a pivotal component of Coffi, Michael added: "When we opened the coffee shop we wanted to go and prove you can sell fully traceable and ethical coffee where all of your colleagues are paid well without it being an issue.
"Coffi only sells coffee you can fully trace back to the farm. We only work with roasters in UK and Europe who have fully transparent value chains so we can see where it was bought and grown, and from day one we've only done that.
"It's important everyone profits fairly and equally. The coffee industry has a past problem where people weren't being paid fairly. All of our colleagues are paid above the living wage and we only buy coffee we trust."
Coffi opened to the public in 2021 but not without some sleepless nights for both Michael and Natalie in preparation. In the lead-up to the big launch, the most basic of items appeared to skip their minds.
Michael said: "I think when we opened we had £8 in our banks. I remember the day before we realised we didn't have napkins and you could only buy them in bulk and they were £60 and we couldn't afford them."
Laughing about the situation in hindsight, he added: "We can laugh at the £8 now but it was stressful at the time. We had as much as we were ever going to and I remember at the time feeling like it was now or other."
Since then it's been a hit with locals and coffee aficionados far and wide who make a point to travel for some of the best cups around. Michael said: "The great thing for us is that it becomes a central hub for our friendship group and family and for other families. We've made friends through Coffi including the people who work with us and our regulars we see every day for the last two years.
"I'd like to think we're good neighbours but people travel to come and see us because they're interested in coffee, or interested in the building, or a combination. It feels great to have that."
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