The Story
3FE Coffee, short for Third Floor Espresso, was founded by Colin Harmon, the Dublin-based coffee company started as a small cart in the lobby of the Twisted Pepper nightclub in 2009. The name has personal significance — 3fe stands for Third Floor Espresso and started life as a room in my third-floor apartment where I trained for the World Barista Championships in 2009.
It all started when the founder, Colin Harmon - a former investment fund worker, became frustrated with the inconsistent quality of coffee he was buying.
The timing was fortuitous. I finished in fourth place overall and opened my first shop on December 5th, 2009, in the lobby of the Twisted Pepper Nightclub on Abbey Street. What began as an unusual coffee cart in a nightclub lobby quickly evolved into something more substantial. In 2011 Colin opened their first stand-alone cafe on Lower Grand Canal Street (pictured here) and in 2014 they began roasting with a refurbed 50-year-old Probat UG22 and with the help of Steve from Hasbean (co-owner of the business).
Today we have two shops, a coffee roastery, training business, espresso machine business and a webshop which collectively employ 30 people.
Sourcing & Relationships
Our green coffee buyer, Stephen Leighton, makes sure that we source the highest quality coffee grown in the world. Stephen has built many mutually beneficial relationships with the best coffee producers across the globe. Leighton is a heavyweight in specialty coffee — Staffordshire based Stephen Leighton is rightfully one of the best known names in the coffee world for his pioneering coffee company Hasbean and his extensive work at origin, developing direct trade links.
Along the way he developed his popular coffee podcast “Tamper Tantrum” and helped establish the Irish specialty coffee powerhouse 3FE, in which he also has a stake.
The sourcing philosophy is straightforward: pay more for better coffee and better relationships. It is very important that we pay a higher premium for green coffee to ensure the farmers and producers we buy our coffee from are paid well, and deservedly so, for producing the best specialty grade green beans.
Our green buyer Steve travels to the best farms and co-ops across the world, establishing long-lasting, trust-based relationships with the coffee producers we work with. These farmers charge higher premiums, which allow them to provide fair working conditions and benefits for their employees. The approach emphasizes direct producer relationships over intermediary purchasing, with Steve travels to the best farms and co-ops across the world and establishes relationships with all of the producers to ensure there is a mutual benefit and a strong feedback loop to ensure better coffees are produced in coming harvests.
Roasting Philosophy
3FE’s roasting approach centers on versatility and careful development. We omni-roast all our coffee so that you can use it for any brewing method you like. The roast profile we use can be described as medium-light. This omni-roasting philosophy reflects their practical approach to serving both cafes and home brewers with consistent results across brewing methods.
After our green coffee makes its journey around the world to our Roastery in Dublin, our team works tirelessly to roast great coffee. We are always tasting, tweaking and testing to ensure that the most is gotten from each lot we buy and we do this great coffee justice. As a team of former baristas, both our wholesale and roasting teams are heavily invested in producing excellent roasts to ensure equally amazing cups of coffee. The roastery maintains rigorous quality control, with Our roasting team have a rigorous quality control procedure and are constantly testing and tweaking, to ensure every bag of coffee we ship is the best it can be, only ever roasting to order.
Their seasonal approach to coffee reflects the realities of working with smaller producers. Their coffees change as the seasons progress as they tend to deal with smaller producers and work through their produce while it’s fresh and tasty. As coffee comes into season in different parts of the world you’ll see their offering changing to reflect that. Their blends will have a definite flavour profile in mind but the constituent components of the blends will change throughout the year to meet that particular flavour.
What to Try
Our three all-rounders, Momentum Blend, Malarkey Blend, and IRFU Blend, are perfect for those looking for an easy and enjoyable brewing experience. The Momentum Blend stands out as their flagship offering — 3fe’s popular seasonal blend, served in some of the most excellent cafés arcoss the country, also available for home brewers enthusiasts! While components are subject to change without notice, the target flavour profile of Momentum remains constant: Sweet, smooth, chocolatey & nutty.
Beyond the core blends, 3FE offers an extensive single-origin selection that changes seasonally. Their current lineup includes coffees with tasting notes ranging from “Blackcurrant, tangerine, brown sugar” to “Plum, red apple, dark chocolate” and more adventurous profiles like “Blackberry, yuzu, cardamom, brown sugar.” The diversity reflects their sourcing network spanning multiple origins and processing methods.
For those wanting to explore their range systematically, Our subscriptions are a flexible way to get great coffee delivered frequently to suit your needs. The company’s reputation speaks for itself — “This is probably one of the best blends of coffee I’ve ever had!” as one reviewer noted, and 3fe Coffee (Dublin) – Dublin’s award-winning specialty coffee roaster and café continues to set the standard for specialty coffee in Ireland and beyond.