Cups Full’s Peace, Pace and Power range gives customers a choice of caffeine levels in a convenient coffee-bag format.

Rethinking Coffee One Bag at a Time

Katherine Willis founded Cups Full to offer portable specialty coffee bags that brew hot or cold, provide caffeine choices and reduce equipment, queues, mess and waste for modern coffee drinkers.

Great coffee often comes with a list of requirements. There may be equipment to carry, beans to grind, filters to prepare or a café queue to join. Cups Full founder Katherine Willis believes enjoying speciality coffee should be considerably simpler.

Her answer is a range of individually portioned coffee bags containing freshly ground, speciality-grade coffee. Designed to brew directly in hot or cold water, they offer a portable alternative for commuters, travellers, festival-goers and anyone unwilling to sacrifice quality when away from home.

Cups Full is more than a convenient format. Its Peace, Pace and Power collection also gives customers greater awareness of the caffeine in their cup, while compostable bags and carefully considered sourcing support the brand’s wider environmental ambitions.

From Japan to a New Coffee Concept

The idea began during Willis’s time in Japan, where she encountered individual pour-over coffee bags. The quality impressed her, but the format still required the bag to be attached to the sides of a cup while water gradually filtered through it.

Cup sizes varied, the paper supports could be fiddly and the brewing method was unsuitable for a simple cold brew. Willis started asking whether the experience could be improved.

She imagined speciality coffee sealed inside a bag that could sit directly in the cup. It would require no pouring technique, filter or machine and could be brewed with either hot or cold water. Measuring the caffeine in different blends would also allow drinkers to choose a coffee suited to their needs.

Those questions formed the foundations of Cups Full.

The brand’s coffee bags work through immersion, making preparation closer to brewing tea than using a traditional pour-over. Customers can add a bag to hot water for an everyday coffee or leave it in cold water for a smoother cold brew.

“Our coffee is made for bags, not just cupboards,” Willis says.

Convenience Without Compromise

Willis understood the practical frustrations surrounding coffee long before starting the company. As a barista, she saw customers waiting for drinks that required considerable labour, equipment and preparation. During festivals, trips and busy days, she experienced the inconvenience from the other side of the counter.

The available choices could feel limited. A speciality coffee might involve a lengthy queue and an increasingly expensive café purchase. Brewing ground coffee independently required equipment and cleaning, while instant coffee did not always deliver the depth of flavour she wanted.

Cups Full was created to sit between those options. Each bag provides an individual serving that can be carried in a handbag, backpack or suitcase and brewed wherever water is available.

For hospitality businesses, the single-serving format may also provide an alternative to preparing large quantities of coffee in advance. Rather than brewing jugs that might later be discarded, teams can make cups according to demand.

The complete product collection is available through the Cups Full online shop.

Choosing Your Caffeine Level

One of the brand’s most distinctive features is its caffeine-ranked range.

Peace is intended for occasions when the drinker wants coffee with less caffeine. Pace offers a more moderate lift, while Power is created for moments requiring a stronger boost.

Willis developed the system after recognising how difficult it can be for consumers to know how much caffeine is present in their coffee. Although people increasingly monitor or reduce their intake, caffeine levels can vary significantly between drinks.

“It amazes me that coffee remains mysterious,” she says. “Give the consumer a choice.”

Developing the range involved balancing coffee grade, extraction, flavour, caffeine and polyphenol levels. Willis worked with roasting and laboratory partners, testing different roast and grind combinations until the blends delivered the intended characteristics.

Power combines coffee from Brazil, India, Ethiopia and Vietnam. Its flavour profile includes cashew, caramel, milk chocolate, roasted peanut, dried cherry, earthy spice and cedar. The result demonstrates the complexity Willis wanted to preserve within such a convenient format.

Making Cold Brew Simpler

The ability to brew the bags in cold water extends their usefulness beyond a traditional hot drink.

Conventional cold brew can require ground coffee, a cafetière, several hours of preparation and careful filtering. Cups Full reduces the equipment required to water, a suitable container and time.

This versatility is aimed particularly at modern coffee drinkers who enjoy chilled drinks but do not want to brew hot coffee and dilute it with ice. The bags can be placed in cold water ahead of time, whether in a refrigerator at home or in a flask while travelling.

Willis sees possibilities in locations ranging from offices and hotels to campsites and festivals. A drinker might even prepare coffee with fresh water during an outdoor adventure, without carrying a grinder, cafetière or brewing machine.

A More Thoughtful Single Serving

Sustainability was a central consideration rather than a later addition.

Willis had observed the difficulty involved in recycling some coffee capsules, particularly when different materials needed to be separated. She was also conscious of the coffee wasted in workplaces, hotels and hospitality settings when large quantities were prepared but not consumed.

Cups Full uses compostable coffee bags, while its outer pouches are described by the company as reusable or recyclable. The single-serving format allows customers and businesses to prepare only the amount they need.

The brand’s connection to travel and outdoor experiences made this especially important to its founder.

“Litter and landfill are not on brand,” Willis says.

Responsible sourcing is another priority. Willis wants customers to understand that coffee has its own journey before it reaches their cup. The company works with coffee connected to farms and cooperatives in several growing regions and seeks to support positive practices within its supply chain.

Readers can learn more about the company’s purpose on the Cups Full story page.

Finding the Full Cup Moment

At the centre of the brand is an idea Willis calls the “Full Cup Moment”.

It is not a single prescribed experience. It might be a quiet coffee before a presentation, a pause during a demanding working day, a drink shared with friends at a festival or a cup enjoyed after reaching the top of a mountain.

“A full cup moment is personal to the consumer,” Willis explains.

The philosophy is about reducing the time spent waiting, cleaning and preparing so people can pay greater attention to where they are and what they are doing. Cups Full encourages customers to pursue adventures and ambitions while remembering to stop and appreciate them.

“Life is about a journey, not just the destination,” she says.

That message also shapes the company’s growing creator community. Its affiliate model invites people to take the coffee on their own journeys, share authentic content and potentially earn commission through product recommendations.

Information about participating is available through the Cups Full creator programme.

Building an International Brand

Willis has been starting small businesses since childhood, beginning with ventures involving sweets and flowers before moving into events, music projects and other ideas. More than a decade of professional experience across marketing, sales and growth later gave her the commercial and creative grounding to develop Cups Full.

The brand has since entered a mixture of retail and ecommerce channels. Its stockists have included independent retailers, farm shops and delicatessens alongside names such as Selfridges and Holland & Barrett. Products from the range have also received recognition at the Great British Food Awards.

Her long-term vision is for Cups Full to become an internationally recognised brand accompanying customers throughout their journeys. Coffee might be delivered to their homes, collected from a shop before departure, discovered during transport or enjoyed after arriving at a hotel.

Willis also hopes to collaborate with businesses connected to travel, adventure, work and active lifestyles. Ultimately, she wants Cups Full to stand for courage, freedom, energy, presence and personal fulfilment.

The company’s proposition is straightforward but ambitious. Speciality coffee should not be restricted to kitchens, cafés or complicated equipment. It should be able to go wherever the person drinking it chooses to go.

Source: Taste London magazine