Citrus – an award-winning, independent coffee shop & cafe in the heart of Cheshire

The History of Citrus

Citrus: The History of our Little Coffee shop in Kelsall, Chester

Citrus is a partnership between co-owners, Jake and Ross, both fully-trained Baristas. In 2017, they happened across a small business in the heart of the Cheshire countryside, Kelsall where the owner was looking to sell in order to relocate.

Back then, The Greedy Pig was a small village cafe, only a couple of miles from the centre of the historic, walled city of Chester, popular with cyclists and walkers, run by the then owner, Raina. While returning a refurbished laptop to one of Ross’s computer support customers, Jake noticed the ‘For Sale’ sign in the shop window.

As circumstances had it, Jake was facing redundancy from his managerial position running a chain of fitness centres and Ross was looking to leave his supervisory role at Costa in one of the UK’s business stores.

After some very clever under cover investigations and many conversations at home, the pair decided to invest Jake’s recent inheritance from his uncle investing in buying the business.

Jake and Ross began making their mark and making improvements to the store. Using Ross’s extensive combined experience within IT and the Coffee Industry (over 23 years combined) he began to forge a new brand, make use of technology to improve efficiency and the customer experience.

Within twelve months, Citrus has become multi award-winning: Trip Advisor awarded the pair with a Certificate of Excellence and since then the reviews have gone from strength to strength increasing their ratings across all social media platforms to 5 stars. The Environmental Health Department awarded them a 5-star rating in food hygiene and again in 2021, Citrus was born.

After turning around the fortunes of the shop and attracting a regular customer base from miles around with a reputation of the best coffee and freshest food around, it was time to make the shop their own and better reflect the freshness of what they do.

Intenso, Citrus’s own, bespoke, 5-origin blend of coffee has won industry acclaim and is roasted by the same roasters used by Harrods. The shop's own exlcusive coffees have also won a 1-star and 2-star Great Taste Award. Constant training and re-investment have joined the ethos of sustainability and environmentally conscious decision making within the business and Jake and Ross continue to strive for more for they business and it’s customers.

Finally, by popular demand, in summer 2023, Jake and Ross bought Number 1 Hair and Beauty (next door), knocked through and extended. Citrus went from a capacity of 20 to around 50 inside and out!


  • Best coffee by far

    • We’ve been coming here since moving to the village six years ago and can honestly say this is the best coffee around. Current favourites are dirty chai and tiramisu latte. They serve a mean panini too! We are so lucky to have Ross, Jake and team Citrus in Kelsall!
    - Qatar3





    The history of the shop in which Citrus now resides goes back to the 1800s. The shop has been the village Post Office, a Co-Op, a car-parts hardware shop until finally a sandwich shop which then grew into what Citrus is today.

    The Post Office opened in 1857 and was managed by Elizabeth Norbury. For many years after this Mr & Mrs Warburton ran the Post Office before it came The Co-Op.

    Around 1902 this photo shows the old Post Office with its beautiful picket fence, the public entrance on the corner with the house for the post master with a lovely white gate which is now the entrance to Number 2, The Gables. You can also clearly see the original pavement edge which is now the edge of our block paving. The old boundary crossed directly only the old road.
    Around 1912, you can see the old Post Office staff posing outside for a special occasion

    The shop was radically different to how it is now when Ross and Jake took over. The shop was initially a village delicatessen which proved to be unpopular and the previous owner stripped out the old fridges and shelving to focus on coffee, cake and sandwiches. 

    When Ross and Jake took over, the shop was dingy inside with a dark blue and cream colour scheme, a false 60’s-style ceiling suspended old flourescent office tubing lights and it was very dark inside.

    The shop had room for 5 people really, despite there being a stool area, the stools were so high, you couldn’t sit under the counter. There was a stool in front of the till (which didn’t accept cards) and 4 seats in the window.

    The first thing we did was increase light with daylight panels. Following that we replaced the ceiling, panelled the walls with reclaimed scaffolding, created tables, painted and brightened the shop and added new stools, increasing seating to 10 people.

    The first thing we did was increase light with daylight panels. Following that we replaced the ceiling, panelled the walls with reclaimed scaffolding, created tables, painted and brightened the shop and added new stools, increasing seating to 10 people.

    Following a trip to New York, we’re looking for inspiration to improve again. We had no storage at all and it was then on a visit to a coffee shop opposite our apartment in Greenwich village we saw some inspiration. 

    We created a new seating/benching area which increased seating again from 10 to 14.

    It wasn’t long until Covid hit and Jake and Ross knew that it was going to stay so they again adapted, taking the opportunity to get rid of the old, cumbersome display fridge. A new counter was built, enclosed cake cabinet installed and people kept safely from staff. Food was served and ordered from the door and Citrus weathered the storm.

    In 2023, unexpectedly, Number 1 Hair Salon closed in Kelsall which gave us an opportunity that we never thought would be possible to grow our business and transform Citrus.

    Taking another leap of faith, we took on the lease for next door, removed the internal wall which had been up and down over the past 200 years and did our best to incorporate the space and increase seating.

    With an additional 7 tables as well as our new, quiet room, our capacity grew hugely from 14 to 45 internally and additional seating outside took us to 61.

    After the expansion, our sales have increased, leading to further financial worries from VAT, NI increases, the cost of staff wages actually cost us a member of staff but despite this, Ross could no longer cope with the 30cm of worktop he had to create the higher volume of drinks.

    Using his own savings, Ross invested nearly £3000 of his own money to completely redesign the Snug shop counter.

    The new counter provides Ross (the main Barista) with everything he needed but never had. Enclosed Knock-box, Bin, Jug Wash amongst many other improvements meant that everything is now to hand. The counter raises the profile of the snug to better suit that of the lounge area as well as creating a better flow and spacious service area.