Great coffee for everyone.
About Modern Standard Coffee
We're a speciality coffee roaster in Glenrothes, Fife. Since 2015 we've bought coffee directly from the people who grow it, roasted it ourselves and sent it out to homes, cafés and businesses across the UK and beyond.
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2015
Founded on 8 March, International Women's Day
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4
Diedrich roasters, from 2.5kg to 70kg
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40%
Paid over the Fairtrade minimum, on average
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B Corp
Certified since May 2026
Our founder
The Modern Standard
Modern Standard was founded by Lynsey Harley, a Q Grader, UK Cup Tasting Champion and World Barista Championship judge. After more than 12 years working in coffee, she saw a gap for a full-service speciality roaster that could raise the quality of coffee everywhere it's served.
We keep the supply chain as short as we can. We buy from some of the world's leading producers, then roast and pack everything ourselves, so we can offer traceable speciality coffee at a fair price. We're also one of the few female-founded and female-led coffee businesses in the UK.
Great coffee for everyone. That's the Modern Standard.
Modern Standard is the idea to bring the best of everything together: speciality coffee at scale, market-leading technical support, wonderful customer service, and a team that works together and cares about the customer and the coffee they're serving.
Founder and CEO
Since 2015
Our story
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2015
The start
Modern Standard was founded in March 2015, on International Women's Day as it happens. We started on a 20kg Diedrich roaster and grew year on year by working with like-minded businesses.
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2019
The move to Glenrothes
Visit the roasteryAfter five years we'd outgrown our first roastery. Lynsey brought us home to Glenrothes, into a 15,000 sq ft warehouse with room to grow. It now houses 70kg, 25kg, 12kg and 2.5kg Diedrich roasters, so we can roast small lots and large orders without compromising on quality.
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2020
Our Edinburgh café
Read about the caféIn December 2020 we opened a café on the corner of Bruntsfield Links, a place to serve our coffee the Modern Standard way. The café has since closed, but the same coffees are roasted to order and delivered to your door.
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2022
Our London Coffee Studio
Wholesale coffeeWe opened our London Coffee Studio as a home for our London wholesale team. It's where we welcome London customers for meetings, coffee tastings and barista training.
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2026
A certified B Corp
See our impactIn May 2026 we became a certified B Corp, recognising how we work with producers, look after our team and reduce our impact on the planet.
Behind our doors
The people and places behind your coffee
The team
From roasters and baristas to trainers and engineers, great coffee wouldn't be possible without all of them.
The producers
We've built long-term relationships with producers since 2015. We buy directly and pay a fair price, so they can keep growing great coffee year after year.
The roastery
Every batch is roasted in Glenrothes. Pop into the roastery shop, Monday to Friday, for beans straight from the roaster.
Our impact
What being a B Corp means for us, from how we source to how we pack and ship.
Taste the Modern Standard
Order online and we'll roast, pack and send your coffee from Glenrothes. Or bring our coffee into your business with our wholesale team.