Pouring Purpose: The Story Behind SIP Syrups and Their Place at Coaltown

At Coaltown, we’re proud to work with producers who share our commitment to quality, transparency and craft. SIP Syrups, born from a café in West Wales have become a staple both behind our bar and among our wholesale partners. We sat down with the team to talk about their journey, their ethos and how they’re helping shape the future of flavour in coffee.

Could you share the story behind how SIP was founded and what motivated you to begin making syrups?

Sip really came from a need of our own. At our café, Crwst, we were struggling to find coffee syrups that matched the quality and ethos of everything else we were serving. Most of what was available felt overly artificial and it just didn’t sit right with us. So we started making our own syrups in-house using real ingredients. They quickly became a hit with our customers, which gave us a bit of a lightbulb moment, if we were looking for something like this, there was a good chance other cafés were too. From there, Sip grew quite naturally. What started as a solution for our own menu turned into an opportunity to create something for like-minded coffee shops, syrups that focus on quality, simplicity and doing things properly.

SIP is known for its natural, well-balanced flavours that complement coffee so well. What is your process for developing flavours, particularly with coffee drinks in mind?

When developing new flavours, we always keep it simple. Real, quality ingredients are at the core of every flavour. We’re fortunate to be able to trial any new product in our café, getting feedback from our regulars and baristas, which allows us to tweak and refine the recipe before finalising.

Your syrups are used both in our busy espresso bars and by our wholesale customers. What factors do you consider to ensure the product performs reliably in high-volume café settings as well as in home environments?

Our products are designed to work in both high-volume café settings and home environments. Production consistency is key to this and we’re fortunate to have an amazing production team who already have experience in producing artisan products at volume.

The packaging is also fundamental in ensuring the syrups can be used in busy café environments. After a lot of trial and error with various sustainable packaging solutions, we landed on aluminium bottles, which we find are perfect for using at volume and are much more sustainable than plastic or glass alternatives (and we like to think they look pretty cool!).

Quality and simplicity are clearly central to your ingredients. How significant is transparency in your approach to ingredients?

The whole idea behind SIP was to create something that we felt wasn’t widely available, an additive and preservative-free syrup made using quality ingredients. Most of the syrups on the market are full of e-numbers and artificial, chemical flavourings.

This not only has negative health implications but also gives the coffee a chemical aftertaste. Transparency in the ingredients we use is significant because it’s what sets us apart from these large, mass-produced brands.

We often view flavour as an important part of the overall customer experience. In your opinion, how do syrups enhance creativity and help shape the modern coffee menu?

We’ve seen from our experience in Crwst that flavoured coffee is a growing trend. Recently, there’s been a huge rise in demand for matcha and flavoured iced coffees, driven largely by social media trends.

Although we feel great coffee (especially Coaltown!) doesn’t need to be messed with, it’s clear that syrups are increasingly becoming an important part of the modern coffee menu. Our aim is to create simple, classic flavours that aren’t designed to overpower the flavour of bad coffee, but to sit alongside a quality product and add natural sweetness to flavoured drinks.

Presentation can strongly influence perception, both behind the bar and on the shelf. How did SIP’s branding and visual identity develop?

Presentation was something we thought about from day one. We knew one of our biggest challenges would be standing out in a market dominated by large, traditional syrup brands. No matter how good the product inside was, it wouldn’t cut through if it looked like everything else.

We were really conscious that we didn’t want to fall into the easy route of cheap plastic bottles and uninspiring labels. Instead, our aim was to create something people would actually want to display, something considered, eye-catching and reflective of the quality inside.

The bottles were our starting point. After exploring more sustainable alternatives, we landed on aluminium. It ticked all the boxes both practically and visually, and it’s become a key part of our identity. From there, the branding followed, fun, approachable and true to who we are as a small, family-run team from West Wales.

When it comes to introducing seasonal flavours versus maintaining core favourites, how do you determine whether to innovate or refine existing recipes?

For us, it always comes back to our ethos. We love developing new flavours and experimenting seasonal classics like pumpkin spice are a great example but only if they genuinely align with what we stand for.

We’re not trying to be a brand with hundreds of flavours for every possible occasion. Instead, we focus on doing fewer things, but doing them properly. Using real, quality ingredients and making sure every flavour we release earns its place in the range.

With sustainability becoming increasingly important in the drinks sector, how does SIP approach responsible sourcing, production, packaging and long-term impact?

Sustainability is one of our core values, and it underpins a lot of the decisions we make. Our packaging is probably the most visible example. We chose aluminium bottles not because they’re the cheapest option, but because they felt like the most responsible solution.

They’re lightweight, energy-efficient to transport, and unlike glass, they don’t shatter—so there’s less waste. Compared to plastic, aluminium also has a much longer life cycle, as it can be recycled continuously without degrading in quality.

When it comes to ingredients, we try to source as locally as possible to keep food miles low, and everything is produced in-house in Cardigan. For ingredients that can’t be sourced locally, like vanilla, we work with suppliers who prioritise ethical sourcing. We know we’re not perfect, but we’re always looking to improve.

What does working collaboratively with coffee brands and cafés mean to you and what do you value most in partnerships such as with us here at Coaltown?

Collaboration is hugely important to us. As a small and growing brand, building strong, genuine relationships is essential. We see it as a two-way partnership, supporting each other, sharing ideas and growing together.

That’s been especially true with Coaltown Coffee Roasters. From the beginning, their team has been incredibly supportive, offering feedback and championing our products. Being associated with a respected brand like Coaltown has given us confidence, credibility and a real sense that we’re on the right path.

Lastly, how do you define “Purpose” at SIP Syrup, and how do you keep that sense of purpose central as the company grows?

For us, purpose is about staying true to why we started SIP in the first place, creating products we genuinely believe in, using real ingredients and doing things in a considered and responsible way.

As the business grows, it’s easy to get pulled in different directions, but we try to keep things simple. Every decision, whether it’s a new flavour, packaging choice or partnership comes back to the same question: does this align with our values, and does it feel like something we’re proud to put our name to?

Being a small, family-run team helps us stay close to every part of the process and connected to what matters most. Ultimately, our purpose is to build something with integrity, a brand people trust, that reflects the quality inside the bottle.

SIP Syrups feel like a natural extension of everything we value in coffee, quality, transparency and considered craft. What began as a simple café solution has evolved into a range that genuinely respects the coffee it sits alongside, enhancing rather than masking flavour. Their focus on real ingredients, sustainable choices and consistency at scale makes them a trusted partner in both our espresso bars and wholesale offering. Ultimately, it’s a collaboration built on shared standards and a mutual belief that doing things properly will always speak for itself in the cup.