James Hoffmann

James Alexander Hoffmann (born 11 December 1979) is an English barista, YouTuber, entrepreneur, coffee consultant, and author.

Born in 1979 in Stafford, Staffordshire, Hoffmann grew up in the Lake District in North West England.

He is a graduate of Durham University.

One of Hoffmann's first jobs after joining the coffee industry in the early 2000s was working as an espresso machine salesman for Gaggia in the high-end department store Selfridges.

While working there, a chance encounter with a television producer led to him featuring on Trick or Treat, hosted by Derren Brown.

In 2003, Hoffmann released an EP under the stage name "King Seven" which featured "bell chimes, panned-and-swirling acoustic guitars and careful, sometimes glitchy percussion choices."

He also worked as a croupier in a Leeds casino and in the wine industry before entering the coffee industry.

In 2004, Hoffmann started his popular blog "Jimseven".

Hoffmann later moved to another espresso machine manufacturer, La Spaziale, as the national training manager for the UK.

Hoffmann first started competing in the UK Barista Championship in 2005, winning the competition in 2006 and qualifying to compete in the World Barista Championship (WBC).

He placed fifth at the WBC in 2006.

Hoffmann first came to prominence after winning the World Barista Championship in 2007 and has since been credited as a pioneer of Britain's third-wave coffee movement.

Hoffmann has published three books, including The World Atlas of Coffee, amassed a significant following on YouTube, started several businesses, including the specialty coffee roaster Square Mile Coffee Roasters, and consulted for several coffee ventures.

He became the UK Barista Champion again in 2007 before becoming the World Barista Champion in Tokyo in 2007.

His winning signature drink involved a "flavour marriage" of tobacco and almonds.

Since becoming the World Barista Champion, Hoffmann has come to be regarded as a pioneer in the third-wave coffee movement in the UK, with The Globe and Mail describing him as "the godfather of London's coffee revolution".

After leaving his job at La Spaziale in May 2007, Hoffmann co-founded Square Mile Coffee Roasters with his business partner Anette Moldvaer in 2008, a London-based specialty coffee company and roaster.

It was one of the first wholesale specialty coffee companies in London, and later became the largest.

The 2008 World Barista champion, Stephen Morrissey, was sponsored by Square Mile, and in 2009 the winning beans also came from Square Mile.

The company was based in Cambridge Heath in 2009 and Hackney by June 2014, before moving to their current location in Walthamstow in late 2018.

With his business partner Tim Williams, Hoffmann temporarily opened a coffee bar called "Penny University" in 2010 through Square Mile.

The café was open in Shoreditch from May 22 to July 30 and featured no espresso drinks, opting to serve Hario V60 pour overs, flannel drip, and siphon coffee.

Square Mile hosted the 2010 World AeroPress Championships, which took place alongside the 2010 World Barista Championship in London, and the 2015 English Aeropress Championships.

Hoffmann competed in the 2010 Aeropress Championship.

On 23 October 2014, Hoffmann published The World Atlas of Coffee through Octopus Book Publishing Group.

The book explores coffee history, varieties, growing methods, roasting, and preparation with a focus on origin, cataloguing the coffees grown in 29 countries.

Square Mile hosted a pop-up coffee shop during the 2016 London Coffee Festival.

The pop-up included two stands, one of which taught attendees how to make good espresso and filter coffee at home, and the other offered a tasting experience of food and drink that highlighted coffee as an ingredient.

In 2022, Square Mile collaborated with Cometeer to produce flash frozen pucks of concentrated coffee, which are then diluted in hot water as an alternative to instant coffee.

This was the first time Square Mile's coffee was available in the US.

This was followed in September 2022, when Square Mile and American specialty coffee company Fellow announced the roaster would partner with them for the September 13 "Fellow Drop", a weekly, text-based coffee ordering service.

Fellow had collaborated with US Barista Champion and fellow YouTuber Morgan Eckroth the month prior.

As of September 2022, Square Mile had 37 employees.

Square Mile took over Prufrock Coffee, a café in London, in 2017.

In 2017, Hoffmann self-published his second book, Best of Jimseven, funded through an Indiegogo campaign.

The book was a compilation of Hoffmann's popular blog "Jimseven".

In 2022, Hoffmann published his third book, How to Make the Best Coffee at Home through Mitchell Beazley, a part of Octopus Book Publishing Group.

In January 2023, the book was honored at the 14th Annual Sprudgie Awards, winning in the category of "Best Coffee Magazine/Book".

The book was a commercial success, selling 320,000 copies, including a second edition in 2018 and translation editions in eight languages.

The book was also critically well-received, with The Guardian describing the book as "high geekery made palatable by the evident love pulsing through every sentence."