Union House Roast: What a House Roast Is and How to Brew It

Union House Roast Cafetière Grind: the everyday blend explained

A house roast is the blend a roaster puts its own name to and expects people to drink every day, and Union says this one has been a favourite since 1995. That makes it the fairest place to start if you are new to speciality coffee or stepping up from instant.

Published 26 Sep 2026 Curator-written, not crowdsourced

Union House Roast Cafetière Grind: the everyday blend explained, in summary: Union's everyday blend: a medium roast of coffees from Honduras, Peru, Colombia and Ethiopia, ground coarse for a cafetière. Balanced rather than showy, it is the easiest Union bag to live with every morning.

Last reviewed by the teas.co.uk team in September 2026.

A house roast is the blend a roaster puts its own name to and expects people to drink every day, and Union says this one has been a favourite since 1995. That makes it the fairest place to start if you are new to speciality coffee or stepping up from instant.

Four origins, one balanced cup

Union builds House Roast from coffees grown in Honduras, Peru, Colombia and Ethiopia, roasted to a medium depth. The roaster describes it as chocolate and caramel with a citrus acidity, and the purpose of the blend is that none of those notes takes over. It is roasted far enough for sweetness and body, then stopped well before the charred edge you find in a dark roast.

That balance is deliberate. A single-origin coffee is usually chosen for one striking quality; a house blend is built so the tenth morning tastes much like the first. Some people find that a little unexciting in a speciality bag, but it is exactly what you want from the coffee you make on autopilot before work.

Why the grind decides who should buy it

The bag is ground coarse at the roastery, to roughly the texture of sea salt. In a cafetière the coffee steeps for four minutes, a long stretch for water to work on it, and a metal mesh has to keep the grounds back when you plunge. Anything much finer would over-extract in that time and escape through the mesh as silt, leaving a harsh, gritty last cup.

A lot of the ground coffee on shop shelves is set finer, for filter machines, and a grind like that is a common reason a cafetière brew disappoints. If you own a plunger and no burr grinder, a bag ground for it is the straightforward answer. If you own an espresso machine, this coarse grind will run straight through the basket, and Union's Revelation beans are the better buy.

Brewing and keeping a 200g bag

Use 60g of coffee per litre of water, which is 15g for a 250ml mug, and a 200g bag gives roughly 13 properly dosed mugs. Let the kettle rest for about thirty seconds so the water is between 92 and 96 degrees, stir the floating crust back down after the first minute so all the coffee meets the water, and plunge at four minutes.

Pour everything out as soon as you have plunged, because grounds left in the jug keep extracting and the last cup turns bitter. Once the bag is open, squeeze out the air, seal it and keep it somewhere cool and dark. Ground coffee gives up its aroma far faster than whole beans, so treat a bag like this as one to drink, not to stockpile.

The packs we stock

Union Hand-Roasted Coffee House Roast Cafetière Grind, 200g (barcode 5060035755226)

What to eat with it

McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives Biscuits, 266g: A milk chocolate digestive echoes the chocolate and caramel side of the blend.
McVitie's Digestives Dark Chocolate Biscuits, 433g: Darker chocolate stands up to a full-bodied cafetière cup and keeps the sweetness in check.
Border Lemon Drizzle Melts Organic Biscuits, 150g: A lemon biscuit picks up the citrus edge Union describes in the blend.
Border Classic Biscuit Sharing Pack, 400g: A sharing pack for the weekend, when a whole pot of House Roast is going round the table.

Elsewhere in the Union range

The full range is on the Union brand page.

FAQ

What does house roast mean on a coffee bag? It is the roaster's signature everyday blend, the one it expects people to drink daily. Union's is a medium roast built for balance rather than a single standout note.

Which countries go into the House Roast blend? Union lists Honduras, Peru, Colombia and Ethiopia as the origins in the blend.

How many mugs does a 200g bag of House Roast make? About 13, at 15g of coffee for each 250ml mug. Dose it lighter and you will get more mugs, but a thinner drink.

Can I use this in a filter machine? It will work, but the grind is set coarse for a cafetière, so a paper filter tends to give a slack, thin cup. It is at its best in a plunger.

Does House Roast take milk well? Yes. Its body and its chocolate and caramel notes carry through milk, as long as the water was not at a full boil, which leaves a harsh edge.

Curator's note: If someone tells you speciality coffee is too sharp for them, pour them a mug of this. It is the bag we would reach for when we have no idea how a guest takes their coffee. Lee, Teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.