News

2016 Our Health Tea of the Year?
2016 Our Health Tea of the Year?
Moringa Whole Leaf Organic Infusion Moringa oleifera is a marvellous tree, due to the high level of nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that this tree holds it has also been... Read more...
2016 Our Health Tea of the Year?
2016 Our Health Tea of the Year?
Moringa Whole Leaf Organic Infusion Moringa oleifera is a marvellous tree, due to the high level of nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that this tree holds it has also been... Read more...
Coffee Petal Tea (Yes it's a 'thing')
DRIED RED BOURBON AND SUDAN RUME COFFEE BLOSSOM PETAL TEA.   We recently attended a coffee cupping attended by a major specialist coffee importer, and got conversing with Licensed Q Grade, Coffee Trader, Priscilla, about tea… Obviously it was a conversation about Coffee Blossom Tea, something I knew a little about but wondered if she knew anything herself, not only did she know about it but had some… It transpired that Café Granja La Esperanza , one of our favourite Colombian Coffee Growers and Exporters, has been gathering the petals... Read more...
Is this the 'Most Perfect Afternoon Tea'?
Ceylon Moragalla Estate Oolong As all of us ‘Tea Aficionados’ know High-grown tea is what it is all about. So in the usual nature of trying to turn everything on its head, we bring you tea grown at the remarkably high levels of between 38 and 60 meters, that is just between 125 and 200 feet above sea level. The Tea Garden is also unusual as it’s found close to the sea and the salt levels found in the soil add greatly to this highly unorthodox teas both in flavour... Read more...
New Strong Coffee From Timor
West Timor Coffee It is quite unusual to find a Timor Island coffee being offered especially one as good as this. The Island has been politically divided in two parts for centuries. The Portuguese settled in the east of the island, (Timur is Malay for East) at the end of the 16th Century. The Dutch settled in the mid-17th Century and based themselves in Kupang, in the West, this side of the island was called Dutch Timor right up until 1949 when it became Indonesian Timor. The Portuguese and the... Read more...
Tea Grown in 'Europe'
Two tea experts from Portuguese Macau at the mouth of the Pearl River Delta opposite British Hong Kong, started Tea production in the Açores in September 1874. After only five years of tea production, The New York Times July 27th 1879 wrote “The first outcome of the tea-growing in the Azores is shown in a sample recently received at the Kew Museum from Senor Jose Do Canto. The sample is of good appearance, the smell is also good; and the flavour of the infusion by no means to be despised.” The... Read more...
Somebody knows me too well
Dominican Republic Cibao Altura Apparently my love for Caribbean Coffee is known not just to my gentle readers but fellow roasters too, who couldn’t wait to casually drop in the conversation that they had a new Dominican Coffee, and did I want to try some? Is water wet? Is the sky blue? Is snow white? Do bears….. you get the picture. So basically a Co-operative made up of family small-hold farmers who get to grow and produce their own coffee which the co-operative ‘coffee processing machine’ processes and then the... Read more...
Well that was interesting…..
So my favourite coffee from the largest Caribbean Island has been banned by P*y**l. Basically if we sell any of this fantastic coffee they will not allow us to use their service. The reason is down to the Helms-Burton act, or to give it its longer name ‘An Act to seek international sanctions against the Castro government in Cuba, to plan for support of a transition government leading to a democratically elected government in Cuba, and for other purposes’. This act has been condemned by the Council of Europe, the... Read more...
My love of Oily coffee
Two new dark roasted coffees.  I have sourced a couple of coffees to add to our collection, both selected for being Fair Trade and Organic or Rainforest Alliance as well as producing a great cup of strong coffee when roasted ‘Oily’. The first is from Ethiopia, and is a Yirgacheffe from the Negele Gorbitu Cooperative. Founded in 1995 the Negele Gorbitu Cooperative comprises of nearly 1,000 producers. Most Ethiopian Co-ops use traditional organic farming methods but Negele Gorbitu with the help of Oromia Coffee Farmer’s Cooperative Union helped provide the... Read more...
The Botany of Tea
The Botany of Tea The plant from which tea comes belongs to the Dicotyledonous class of the Angiosperm, or flowering plants, and is of the flowering plants in the family Theaceae. Two major varieties are grown: Camellia sinensis var. sinensis for Chinese teas, and Camellia sinensis var. assamica for Indian Assam teas. The name Camellia was named by Carl Linnaeus honoring the Reverend Georg Kamel, a Czech born Jesuit lay brother, pharmacist, and missionary who spent a long time in the Philippines. Kamel did not discover the tea plant, or... Read more...
Dark Roast Cuban Coffee The Best
I love Cuba and I love Cuban Coffee, for me it has to be dark roasted, this roasting brings out the oils and the delicious flavours that genuinely transport me back to Havana. The coffee there is usually espresso but I enjoy mine in a cafetière when I can’t be bothered to fire up the espresso machine, and it still tastes fantastic. Up in the mountains it is roasted in a simple pan above an open fire, the roasted beans crushed and then hot water added, stirred and let the... Read more...
Indian Sub-Continent Black Teas
Despite there being a slight downturn in black tea consumption as well as production, India is still the world’s greatest producer of fermented tea. China is still the world’s largest overall producer of tea, green as well as fermented and semi-fermented. The tea plant was deliberately taken, stolen, from China and after quite a few ‘stumbles’ finally found its feet and took off, enjoying the high altitude and warm but very humid conditions found especially in north-eastern India. Black tea was the preferred production method by the British population and... Read more...