Eleven14 Coffee

Eleven14 Coffee started the way a lot of home-roasting hobbies do — with a popcorn maker — except the person doing it was Keith Earls, a former Munster and Ireland rugby winger with a 15-year professional career. He roasted at home before studying technique with established roasteries and eventually launching Eleven14 from a unit in Annacotty Business Park outside Limerick, exclusively Arabica and specialty-grade from the start rather than working up from a lower grade.

The naming carries the rugby career through into the product line: No.11 and No.14, the two positions Earls played across his career, are the names given to the roastery's seasonally rotating single origins, while a separate House Blend runs a steadier Colombia-and-Brazil mix for drinkers who want consistency over rotation. Straight single origins from Brazil and Colombia, plus a decaf Colombia, round out the retail range, alongside a monthly subscription service.

It's a founder story that's unusually traceable — an athlete's actual jersey numbers on the bag, not a marketing invention — and it gives Eleven14 a distinguishing fact most regional Irish roasters don't have: an origin story with named positions on a rugby pitch behind the product names.