Harris + Hoole Hemel Hempstead

Harris + Hoole is the brainchild of three siblings - Nick, Andrew and Laura Tolley. Their vision is to bring great tasting speciality coffee to the high street. Not an easy mission for three individuals, but having already set up eight Taylor St. Baristas shops across London and Brighton since 2006, they know how to brew a great tasting cup of coffee.

But to be able to provide the high street with fantastic coffee takes investment and backing, and few people know the high street better than Tesco - who have made a non-controlling investment in the new business to allow the Tolleys to realise their dream.

As for the name...

"Harris + Hoole" is a funny name for a coffee shop. Sounds more like a name for a small town firm of solicitors! But in actual fact, the names hail back to the very first days on London's coffee scene, as captured in the diary of Samuel Pepys in 1664:

The excerpt:

"Feb. 3d, 1664. In Covent Garden to-night, going to fetch home my wife, I stopped at the great Coffee-house there, where I never was before: Where Dryden the poet (I knew at Cambridge), and all the wits of the town, and Harris the player, and Mr Hoole of our College. And had I had time then, or could at other times, it will be good coming thither, for there, I perceive, is very witty and pleasant discourse. But I could not tarry, and as it was late, they were all ready to go away."

So there you go. We reckon it's pretty cool that 400 years on people are still being brought together by great coffee. It's a tradition we are proud to be part of, and if Mr. Pepys were around today we very much hope he'd pop in for a cup.