Lost Sheep Get to the Hopper Blend Review

Lost Sheep Coffee were founded in 2011 in Whitstable, Kent, by Stuart and Sarah after a backpacking trip to Melbourne opened their eyes to what café culture could look like. They came back to the UK determined to bring that relaxed, quality-first Aussie coffee spirit to Kent. Their roastery team, led by head roaster Mike, hand-selects specialty-grade Arabica beans from sustainably managed farms and precision-roasts in small batches. No coffee snobs allowed is more or less the house rule.

Get to the Hopper is their multi-award-winning flagship espresso blend, roasted with flat whites firmly in mind.

Get to the Hopper: Blend and Background

The blend combines washed Arabica from Central and South America, carefully profiled to deliver the smooth, chocolate-forward character that Aussie-style espresso culture prizes. The name is cheerfully irreverent: a “hopper” is coffee-trade slang for the grinder hopper that feeds beans to the burrs. Get to the hopper before the espresso goes stale. Good advice.

Lost Sheep pay above Fairtrade prices to all their farming partners, which places them in the better-practice category for UK specialty roasters.

Aroma

Ground beans produce an aroma that’s inviting and uncomplicated in the best possible way: milk chocolate, a warm brown sugar sweetness, and a gentle walnut nuttiness. There’s nothing aggressive or unusual here. It smells ready to be a flat white.

In the Cup: Espresso

Pulled as a double espresso at 93°C with 26-second extraction:

• Milk chocolate leading, smooth and well-integrated
• Brown sugar sweetness in the middle, round and clean
• Walnut nuttiness on the finish, mild and pleasant
• Body: medium-full
• Acidity: very low, almost absent
• Crema: good amber colour, holds well

The extraction is forgiving on home machines, which matters. Blends that behave well across a range of grind settings and temperature variations are worth their weight in ease-of-use. This is one of those.

In the Cup: Flat White

This is where Get to the Hopper is genuinely impressive. In a flat white, the milk chocolate lifts cleanly through steamed milk and the brown sugar sweetness rounds everything out. It tastes like a café flat white because it’s calibrated to taste like a café flat white. That’s not an accident.

Value

At £9.45 for 250g (£3.78/100g), Lost Sheep is competitive and honest value. For an award-winning, specialty-grade espresso blend from a dedicated independent roaster, this sits at the fair end of the pricing spectrum.

Who It’s Best For

• Flat white, latte, and cappuccino drinkers first and foremost
• Home baristas using entry-to-mid-range espresso machines
• Those who want an approachable specialty blend without light-roast complexity
• Kent and South East coffee enthusiasts who want to support a local roaster

Not for: single-origin seekers, filter-first drinkers, or those who prefer brighter acidic espresso profiles.

Verdict

Lost Sheep Get to the Hopper is a well-crafted, crowd-pleasing espresso blend that does exactly what it sets out to do. The milk chocolate and brown sugar profile is perfectly suited to milk-based drinks, the extraction is forgiving, and the price is fair. A reliable everyday espresso from a Kent roaster with a clear identity and genuine craft.

Rating: 4.3/5

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Lost Sheep Coffee roasted? Lost Sheep Coffee is hand-roasted in small batches at their dedicated roastery in Whitstable, Kent. They supply both retail customers and wholesale clients including cafés, pubs, and restaurants.

Does Lost Sheep Coffee do RTD (ready to drink) products? Yes. Lost Sheep have expanded into RTD iced coffee cans and an espresso concentrate, alongside their roasted coffee range. The RTD range secured a major UK retail listing in 2025.

What grind settings work best for Get to the Hopper? The blend is designed for espresso and performs well across a range of settings on home machines. It is also available pre-ground for cafetière and filter brewing from the Lost Sheep website.