With JA Braithwaite’s of Dundee closing its doors this month, our co-founder and Managing Director, Steve Glencross, looks back at the 158-year-old institution and the impact it had on the beginnings of Machina.

This month, something important in coffee happened.

It wasn’t a new cafe, or a new exotic coffee release, or a barista heading for rockstar fame. Instead, it was a tiny coffee store in Dundee called JA Braithwaite’s that decided it was time to close its doors, after trading for 158 years.

Braithwaite’s was special - both to myself and, maybe a little unknowingly, to the wider coffee industry. They came from a different era, very much disconnected from anything considered on trend in today’s vibrant coffee world. Yet they were (at least in my memory) one of the earliest instances of passionate coffee people and community that existed in Scotland, long before the flat white made its appearance.

JA Braithwaite Ltd opened in Dundee in 1868 and was, until last week, run by Alan Braithwaite, who after many years of commitment has decided to retire and close the shop doors forever.

The shop was originally started by James Steele, Alan's great-uncle, and has been passed down lovingly from generation to generation, finally landing with Alan from his parents, June and George Braithwaite, whom I remember from my childhood.

Our connection with the Braithwaites was something quite special, in that it was Alan's parents who started the Quaker meeting in Dundee. My mother was a Quaker, loved coffee (and was quite the talker), so it was fate that she would get to know Alan and his amazing world of coffee.

As a kid, my mum would take me into JA Braithwaite's, as she was (and still is) a very keen coffee person. From recollection, this was my first ever exposure to the world of coffee.

I remember being taken there on Saturday mornings, and while my mum chatted with Alan and bought her Old Brown Java, I looked around and studied the different tins, read the labels, and smelled the smells. It was one of those old-school emporium style places, with ancient-looking containers on shelves going all the way up to the ceiling; to me, it was otherworldly and super interesting.

I didn't realise it at the time, but this amazing little shop with its tiny footprint - but one that reached around the globe - was to become one of the biggest influences on my life, and one for which I am forever grateful.

Braithwaite's was from a generation when coffee was something much more rare and exotic, but still made up an important part of respected independent shops that locals would visit each week to buy their beans.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Alan and his family for the amazing memories and all the exotic coffees that he brought to Dundee and Scotland. He was so ahead of his time, and someone whom I remember as being both welcoming and very humble about what he did for a living.

JA Braithwaite's: 1868 - 2026.