April 2009

• Colombia (First Harvest) Cup of Excellence auction

  Thu 23 April, 2009

  With the help of the good folks at Mercanta, we’ve shared the fantastic Cup of Excellence Award winning Lot 20 from Uriel Antonio Chiquito’s Las Delicias farm. From the Risaralda region of Colombia, the 1.7 hectare farm grows Arabica coffee at nearly 1800 metres above sea level.

  Once shipped, the coffee should be available in the shop by July. One to look forward to.

• Coffee in the Lakes

  Sun 19 April, 2009
  Coffee in the Lakes

  It’s that time of year to begin enjoying the great outdoors again after the mud, wind, rain and ice of the local football season. Setting off to the Lakes at 5am does not excuse bad coffee not matter how tempting it is to reach for the jar of instant. It was worth getting out of bed 5 minutes earlier to brew up a cafetiere of Tanzania Footprint and decant it into the trusty walking flask. After a long hard slog to the summit, it went down a treat on top of Dale Head overlooking the picture postcard scenery of the Newlands Valley. Looks like someone had even made their own bread at home to make some nice, rustic sarnies.

  By the time we’d completed the Newlands Round, we were all ready for a cuppa and a rest back in Keswick. Fellow walker Nick’s recommendation of "this great coffee shop that I know" wasn’t far off the mark either. It turned out to serve loose tea (not a teabag in sight) and Square Mile coffee so Nick was right for a changeJ A creamy-sweet latte set the tone so I had to follow it up with a cafetiere of Rwandan coffee for afters. Just wish I’d had one of the scones too…