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About Pithead
Pithead is a coffee and chocolate business from Pontypridd, South Wales, built around roasting, cacao, proper drinks, and a bit of graft.
The name comes from the pitheads you still see across the Valleys — reminders of work, machinery, industry, and communities built around getting things done. We are not trying to dress coffee up as something it is not. We like the practical side of it: good raw ingredients, controlled heat, careful roasting, and drinks that taste right when they reach the customer.
Coffee came first. Chocolate is becoming the other half of the business.
Our aim is simple: make good coffee and chocolate products with care, consistency, and a bit of Welsh industrial backbone.
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Pontypridd and the surrounding South Wales valleys. Image: James Alexander Foxhall
From the Valleys
South Wales has always had a serious relationship with work.
The pitheads across the Valleys are not just bits of industrial history. They are signs of skill, graft, invention, and the communities that formed around them. That is the spirit we want to carry into Pithead: practical, unshowy, and serious about the job.
We are not borrowing the name for nostalgia. We are using it as a standard.
Big Pit National Coal Museum. Image: Loco Steve
Roasted with purpose
Marcus leads the roasting side of Pithead.
That does not mean treating coffee like theatre. It means doing the work: choosing the right coffees, building the roast profile, tasting it properly, adjusting where needed, and making sure it can be repeated.
Each Pithead coffee has a job to do.
Engineered Espresso is built as a reliable house espresso.
Heavy Fuel is for body, strength, and milk drinks.
Amber is centred on sweetness and everyday drinkability.
Decaf No. 1 is for people who still want a proper cup without the caffeine.
The goal is not to sound clever on the bag. The goal is coffee that works — on bar, at home, black, with milk, or pulled as espresso.
Coffee and cacao
Pithead started with coffee, but we have always seen the bigger opportunity in coffee and chocolate together.
Coffee and cacao have a lot in common. Both are shaped by farming, fermentation, roasting, heat, timing, and judgement. Both can be treated lazily, and both can be made properly.
Alongside our coffees, we are building out the chocolate side of Pithead: hot chocolate, chocolate drinks, shivers, slush mixes, cacao products, nibs, cocoa powder, and food-service formats.
Some of that range is already being served. More of the process is being brought in-house as our chocolate equipment comes online.
It is not a gimmick or a seasonal add-on. It is where Pithead is heading.
Pit Lane
Pit Lane is our customer-facing hatch.
It is where the coffee and chocolate turn into the drinks people actually order: espresso, flat whites, hot chocolate, shivers, mockers, cacao drinks, and seasonal specials.
We want it to feel quick, clear, and reliable. Good drinks, served without making a performance of it.
The roastery does the thinking. Pit Lane gets it into people’s hands.
For homes, cafés, and food service
Pithead serves everyday customers, but we are also building for cafés, kiosks, and food-service operators.
For home drinkers, we offer coffee that is easy to understand and reliable to brew.
For trade customers, we supply products that are designed to work behind a counter: espresso blends, kilo bags, drinking chocolate, chocolate slush mixes, cacao products, and wholesale formats.
If you need coffee or chocolate that performs in service, speak to us.
Visit us
Find us at 81–82 High Street, Pontypridd, CF37 1QN.
Step in for espresso, filter coffee, hot chocolate, cacao drinks, shivers, and the latest from the roastery.