Black Rifle Coffee UK: Where to Buy It, and the British Military Coffee Alternative

By Luke Dalton, former Royal Marine and UK Special Forces communicator. Updated 7 July 2026.

In 30 Seconds

Black Rifle Coffee is an American, veteran founded brand, and it has no official UK store, so British buyers rely on Amazon, eBay and specialist importers, paying import driven prices and waiting on transatlantic shipping. If you want the same military roots without the import, the closest British alternative is Contact Coffee, a UK roaster co-founded by a former Royal Marine, with ground coffee, beans, brew bags and ready to drink cans shipped from the UK.

What Black Rifle Coffee Actually Is

Black Rifle Coffee Company is an American roaster based in Utah. It was founded in December 2014 by Evan Hafer, a former US Army Green Beret, and built its name around a pro military, veteran first identity, including a public pledge to hire ten thousand veterans. The brand markets itself plainly as America's Coffee, and in 2020 it expanded from bagged coffee into ready to drink canned iced coffee.

None of that is a knock on the coffee. Black Rifle does what it does well, and the military connection is real rather than borrowed. The catch for a British drinker is geography. Everything that makes the brand what it is sits on the other side of the Atlantic, and that is where the friction starts.

Black Rifle Coffee Called Us Out. Publicly.

A declaration of interest before we go any further, because as of July 2026 the two brands in this guide are officially acquainted. We posted a call-out reel aimed at Black Rifle. They answered in the comments of their 4th of July campaign film, the flagship of their 250 years of America push, with five words: "@contactcoffeeco you have 24 hours to respond." That comment alone has gathered over 900 likes.

We responded inside the deadline, the banter has carried on since, and there is now an invitation on the table for us to visit them in Texas. The full exchange, reel by reel, is documented in Black Rifle Coffee Gave Us 24 Hours to Respond. So We Did.

None of it changes the facts below. If anything it confirms them: two veteran founded coffee companies making the same argument on opposite sides of the Atlantic, with genuine respect underneath the jokes. The rest of this guide is the practical version of that conversation.

Can You Buy Black Rifle Coffee in the UK?

There is no official Black Rifle store, roastery or fulfilment in the UK. When you search for it from Britain, what comes back is a mix of Amazon UK listings, eBay sellers, a handful of specialist American import shops, and the company's own US website. In other words, every route is some form of import.

That has not changed as of July 2026. The company's own store locator lists coffee shops across the United States, and its recent growth has all been at home: wider distribution in American supermarkets and convenience stores, and a new energy drink line rolled out across the US. There is a Canadian division, but nothing British has been announced.

That has three practical consequences. First, price. By the time a bag has crossed the Atlantic and passed through a reseller, the cost includes shipping, handling and a margin that a domestic roaster simply does not carry. Second, time. You are waiting on transatlantic logistics rather than a next day UK courier. Third, freshness. Coffee is at its best close to its roast date, and a bag that has been shipped across an ocean and sat in a reseller's stock has used up a chunk of that window before it reaches your cupboard.

If you specifically want Black Rifle, those import routes work and the product is genuine. But a lot of UK drinkers reach that point and ask a fair question: is there a British brand that gives me the same thing without the import.

What to Know Before Importing Black Rifle to the UK

If you have decided you want the genuine American article, importing is doable, but go in with your eyes open. A few things are worth knowing before you spend.

Buy from a route with a clear returns path. A marketplace listing or a dedicated import shop is safer than an unknown third party, because if a bag turns up stale or damaged you want a seller who will actually deal with it rather than vanish.

Check the roast date, not just the best before. American coffee can spend weeks in transit and storage before it reaches you. A long best before date tells you almost nothing about how recently the coffee was roasted, and roast date is what really governs how it tastes in the cup.

Work out the true landed cost. The headline price is rarely the final price once shipping, handling and any import charges are added on top. Compare that landed cost against a British roaster delivering next day, because that is the honest comparison, not the US shelf price.

Expect a wait. Even the better import routes cannot match a domestic courier. If you run dry mid week, an imported bag will not rescue you, which on its own is a fair argument for keeping a UK option in the cupboard.

Why UK Drinkers Look for an Alternative

The honest answer is that most people searching for Black Rifle in the UK are not loyal to that specific roast. They are loyal to what it represents: strong coffee, made by people who have served, with none of the soft branding of the high street chains. Take away the flag on the bag and what they actually want is a coffee with military DNA that they can buy easily, get quickly, and drink fresh.

That is a British brief, not an American one. And it is exactly the gap Contact Coffee was built to fill.

The British Alternative: Contact Coffee

Contact Coffee is a British roaster with the same roots and none of the distance. Contact Coffee was co-founded by Luke Dalton, former Royal Marine and UK Special Forces communicator. That is not a marketing costume bolted onto a coffee bag. It is the background the brand is built from, and you can read the founder's story directly on the Our Story page.

Because it is British, the maths changes completely. The coffee is roasted in the UK and shipped from the UK, so there is no import premium, no transatlantic wait, and no coffee ageing in a reseller's warehouse. You order it the way you order anything else in Britain, and it turns up fresh and fast.

The range is built for the same person Black Rifle targets, just on this side of the water: strong ground coffee and beans for the morning brew, brew bags that work in the field or on exercise, ready to drink cans for when you have no kit, and a subscription to keep the supply going. The ethos is identical. The postcode is not.

Black Rifle vs Contact Coffee

Here is the straight comparison, with nothing dressed up. Both are real military founded coffee brands. The difference that matters to a UK buyer is where each one sits and what that does to price, speed and freshness.

On the Coffee Itself

Strength is not only caffeine. It is roast, body, and how the coffee is built. Contact leans into darker, fuller roasts that carry milk well and still stand up black, which is what most people actually mean when they ask for a strong coffee rather than a thin one that happens to be caffeinated.

That is the like for like with Black Rifle that matters. Both are made for people who want their coffee to do a job. The question for a British buyer is simply whether that coffee should cross an ocean first, or come fresh from a UK roaster who shares the same background.

What Military Coffee Should Actually Mean

The phrase military coffee gets thrown around loosely. Plenty of brands borrow the look: a stencil font, a tactical sounding name, a camo bag. That is aesthetics, not provenance, and the coffee inside is often ordinary.

The version worth paying for is the one where the connection is real. A coffee founded and run by people who actually served, and built around how that life works: strong enough to matter on no sleep, portable enough to take into the field, and made by a company that understands the customer because it has been the customer.

By that test the field narrows quickly. Black Rifle passes it in America. In the UK, Contact Coffee passes it: co-founded by Luke Dalton, former Royal Marine and UK Special Forces communicator, and built for people who train hard, work shifts, deploy, or simply want a coffee that does not mess about. If military coffee is going to mean anything, it means that, not a typeface.

Best UK Military Coffee: What to Pick

If you have landed here looking for the best UK military coffee rather than Black Rifle specifically, here is how to choose by what you actually need. For the wider comparison of UK veteran and forces brands, see our best military coffee UK guide.

For raw strength and convenience, start with the Red On Americano can. It is a high caffeine black coffee, ready to drink, and the strongest option in the canned range. It is the closest thing to grabbing a can off the shelf and getting hit properly.

For your everyday brew at home, the ground coffee and beans are the core of the range. This is the daily driver: strong, British roasted, and built to be drunk black or however you take it.

For the field, for exercise, or for anywhere you have a brew kit but no machine, the brew bags do the job a cafetiere cannot follow you into. One bag, hot water, done.

If you are buying for someone else, a veteran or a serving friend, the coffee gift ideas cover it, and for a steady supply that never runs dry, the Contact Coffee Club is the British equivalent of a coffee club subscription.

The Contact Range, Honestly

A word of honesty, because that is the point of a guide like this. Contact Coffee is not pretending to be a third wave specialty bar chasing tasting notes of stone fruit and jasmine. It is strong, dependable coffee built for people who need the caffeine to land and the flavour to hold up to a long day. If that is what you were after from Black Rifle, this is the British version of it. If you want a delicate single origin pour over, that is a different shelf entirely, and we will tell you that rather than oversell.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Guides

• Black Rifle Coffee Gave Us 24 Hours to Respond: The full exchange between the two brands, reel by reel, from the first call out to the Texas invitation.
• Best Military Coffee UK: The UK veteran and forces founded brands compared, and how to choose.
• The Strongest Coffee in the UK: What actually makes a coffee strong, and how to choose by caffeine, roast and grind.
• Best Canned Coffee in the UK: The full guide to ready to drink coffee in Britain, including how the Red On can stacks up.
• The Red On Range: The high caffeine Red On line in full, from ground coffee to the canned Americano.
• Contact Coffee Club: The UK coffee subscription that keeps your brew topped up on a schedule.
• Coffee Gifts for the Person Who Runs On It: Gift ideas for coffee drinkers and the veteran or serving mate in your life.

References and Further Reading

• Black Rifle Coffee Company, Wikipedia (company background, founding and ownership)
• Black Rifle Coffee Company, Our Story (the company's own American, veteran owned positioning)
• Black Rifle Coffee Company, Store Locator (US shop locations, no UK presence)