Filter CoffeeHouse

Filter Coffee House opened on Castle Street in Reading in August 2022, in a small unit previously used as a produce store. The café is run by a founder known to customers as Mac, who grew up around South Indian filter coffee traditions and built the menu around them. The signature drink is filter kaapi, made to an 80:20 ratio of dark-roasted coffee to chicory and served with frothed milk in the traditional style, alongside a masala chai blended from Assam tea, Guatemalan cardamom, Indian cinnamon and British ginger. A small bakery counter turns over South Indian snacks and traybakes alongside the drinks, and the shop sells retail brew kits so customers can make filter coffee at home. Seating is limited to four stools, three at a window ledge looking onto Castle Street, so most trade is takeaway. The café holds a food hygiene rating from Reading Borough Council and has built its following through word of mouth.