Each time one of us brings your delivery, we’re bringing more than just delicious espresso beans, were bringing an engineer, a training specialist and years of experience in the industry, at no extra cost and at your disposal

That’s because we believe that you shouldn’t have to pay for labour, call outs and training when you’re using our coffee and if your machine was bought through us, your parts will be at cost price too!

The doors are always open at our office and training centre, so if you’d like some training to sharpen your skills, some advice on new products, just a cup off coffee a chat whilst trying your hand at roasting feel free to stop by, just be sure to call and check we’re in!

Always moving forward…

So with the London Coffee Festival now feeling like a distant memory – things havent slowed down here at Clifton Coffee Co. Infact – this week sees probably the single most important week in our 12 years of business. The Diedrich IR-12 s – we are told – arriving today! Lots of hard work (mainly by James and his tool kit!) in the roastery to get us prepared for this moment, lots of green sourcing and several months later – our brand new customised roaster should be up and running by the end of next week all things being well.

Andy’s been sourcing some awesome greens to make up our portfolio of coffees roasted in house for the first few months and we’re all incredibly excited to get to this point which has long been an ambition of CCC from day one. Watch this space!

http://www.diedrichroasters.com

New Coffee Introduction –Great new Single Origins’ for filter brewing

In line with our desire to continually evolve our coffee offering and bring you the latest crop single origin coffees – we’re delighted to bring you two stunning new coffee this month:

From Rwanda, comes Kaokaka, (100% Red Bourbon). This Lot from the Karaba Coffee Growers Cooperative, in Huye, Southern province Rwanda is full of sweetness with a soft jam-like acidity and lovely hint of cocoa on the finish. We’ve been drinking this on Clever Dripper all week.

And then from Bolivia, we have Colonia Manco Kapac from the Caranavi region. This coffee is a mixture of Red & Yellow Caturra & Typica – fully washed and then sun dried. Juicy, but with low acidity – this coffee is all about mouthfeel. Beautiful buttery texture – and a honey sweetness to finish. I absolutely love this coffee and think its best is the good old trusty V60.

Both coffees available in our webshop now.

Clifton Coffee Flying away again!

Pete Hooper – our head of engineering and a major cog in the wheel of our maintenance and workshop division spent a couple of days with La Spaziale at their factory in Bolgna, Italy this week… Looking further in to the research and development work as well as spending time with the design team – Pete also took along a few of the guys from Loungers Group as a prize for winning their recent in-house barista competition.

All the Loungers & Cozy Club sites use a combination of the La Spaziale S5 and Mazzer grinding technology – so it was great for them to develop further insight into the makings of their machinery and how to keep them running in perfect order!

www.laspaziale.com

Thanks Pete, we’re not jealous of your trip – at all. Not one bit.

The post Clifton Coffee Company – May 2013 Newsletter appeared first on Clinton Coffee.

Clifton coffee once again head to the LCF to compete against some of the best Baristas in the UK.
Name of Barista(s):
Peter Hooper and Andrew Tucker – both in the UK Cupping Championship
Edmund Buston – UK Brewers Cup

Ed’s competition drink
Drink Name: Macchi-wacky-ato
Coffee used: Clifton Coffee’s seasonal espresso blend.
Description of Drink: A blend of single origin micro lots working together to create a very tasty, balanced, sweet and fruity espresso. Visitors will be given multiple choices of ingredients to choose from what they would like. We then build the drink in layers and serve a uniquely prepared beverage.

Watch, be inspired and drink some “damn good coffee”.
And it’s all for charity too!

In 2012 The True Artisan Café raised an amazing £2000 for Project Waterfall, the initiative delivering clean water projects in African coffee-producing countries.

The post London Coffee Festival 2013 appeared first on Clinton Coffee.

FAIR TRADE: In 2009, Coopedota opted for the fair trade certification which guarantees our buyers that the activities carried out in Coopedota are not only in harmony with the environment but that productivity and social responsibility are balanced both on the farm and in the coop.

C.A.F.E. PRACTICES (Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices): This certification, like Rain Forest Alliance, is based on soil conservation, conservation of water resources and flora and fauna conservation criteria generally in the coffee plantation. This certification stands out because it reinforces the social responsibility of the farm workers.

The Tarrazú region is one of James favourite places, situated 1700m above sea level this was spectacular, and one of best FT coffees we had Cupped. Needless to say we agreed on a small shipment there and then and if all goes according to plan – this coffee should be landed with us very soon

Costa Rica is an absolutely stunning country with lovely people who were rightly of both their heritage and their coffee crops. We drank some beautiful micro lots and were lucky to even have the last day on the beach… after a morning’s fishing on one of the locals boat, James pulled 150 LB Sail Fish! Catching the sunset on the beach, it was the end to a perfect trip.

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A superior Gourmet coffee grown on the Monte Sion Estate in Northern El Salvador. In 2009 this coffee was voted in the top ten certified coffees in the world, and has been awarded with a Cup of Excellence certificate in homage to its fantastically complex sweetness and acidity.

The Monte Sion Estate is well known for the ethical way in which it works. Dr. Luis Arrtia, the owner and founder of the estate, has been recognised by UNICEF for his efforts to eradicate child malnutrition in the area, among many other initiatives.

After spending 3 days trekking around the farms (and sampling there amazing biscuits made with cashew nuts) Finca Shekinah in particular stood out for us, as owners built a bakery on their land for the workers’ wives to bake bread to sell in the local market, any profit they make is their own.

Located 1250m above sea level, we were able to see all there dedication for the coffee by growing smaller trees to act as wind breakers to stop any damage to the coffee trees. After cupping some amazing coffees we had no doubt we had made the right decision on the Monte Sion Estate. Our first crop should land this March…

The post El Salvador – Monte Sion Estate Field Trip 2013 appeared first on Clinton Coffee.

Cup Tasters Competition – London Coffee Festival

It’s was a wet and windy Sunday as Ed and myself headed to London for a day of completions – ed was entered in to the Brewers Cup and I was to rub shoulders with the best taste buds in the industry in the UK cupping competition!

For one reason or another (mainly because we had been so busy) I hadn’t had a chance to get any practising in apart from watching a few videos on YouTube so I would go in the competition a complete novice! I wasn’t holding out much hope!

My time came around – groups of 3 battling out together!! My heart was pounding, hands were getting sweaty – 3,2,1 go! I slurped away! Putting the odd one out to the side! Time flew by and not even ed getting in my face like the paps was going to put me off!! ‘Done’ I called and stepped away from the table! I had finished in 4.26!! Not a bad time!! Now I just had a wait to see how many I had got right!!

Along came the judge! I lifted my first cup and low and behold there was a red dot! ‘yes’ called the judge! Next cup – ‘no’! Ah reality hit! Maybe I would only get one!! Next cup ‘yes’ cup four ‘yes’ cup five ‘no’! Doh so down to my last 3 cups!! At this point I was chuffed with 3 but then my next two cups were right!! Get in!! Down to my last cup!! If I got this I would be in with a real chance of getting through to the next round! Final cup! ‘no’ ah never mind!
But I was pleased with 5 out of 8!!!

I think the competition bug has taken hold!! Looking forward to next years comps now!!

Check out the review featuring Ed: Global Coffee Review

The post Cupping Adventures with Pete – April 2012 appeared first on Clinton Coffee.

The legendary Ed Buston will be making his award winning Espresso Martini whilst James & brother Miles mingle with La Spaziale and all the other coffee geeks to talk coffee!
More updates to follow @ londoncoffeefestival.com

Also at the London coffee festival are the UK Cupping and the UK Brewers Cup competitions. To maintain our sharp focus at the top end of speciality coffee Clifton Coffee has entered in to both of these competitions.

The newest member of our crack coffee team Pete Hooper will be putting his taste buds to the test at the Cupping Competition whilst Eddie mixes with the UK coffee roasters elite in the UK Brewers Cup.
Keep an eye on this page for an update on how we get on.

The London Coffee Festival is the flagship event of UK Coffee Week™ and celebrates London’s bustling coffee scene. From gourmet food, to speciality teas and of course hard-core geek love for the black stuff! Is there anyone who can actually get through the day without it?

Check out the review featuring Ed: Global Coffee Review

The post The London Coffee Festival – Brick Lane 27-29 April 2012 appeared first on Clinton Coffee.

Coffee is the largest agricultural commodity in international trade. Annually, the global coffee industry earns $60 billion. Coffee laborers often earn 4cents a pound for the coffee they pick by hand. Most of the worlds coffee is grown by small-scale, coffee-farming families. Around the world, 25 million families work in the coffee fields and are dependent on coffee as their sole source of income. Everyday these families struggle to survive. They confront chronic malnutrition, poor sanitation, illness due to preventable diseases, and little or no access the health care or education.

Coffee is not enough…

Families cannot rely on a single crop to provide for their basic needs.
What we do…

Help coffee-farming families alleviate their dependency on coffee through projects in economic diversification and microcredit, health awareness, education, and food security.Facilitate forums where local community groups identify challenges and implement their own long-term sustainable solutions. Educate coffee consumers and businesses about prevailing conditions in coffee-growing communities and invite them to help.

How we do it…

We beleive that people hold the solutions to their own challenges. We listen to and support coffee-farming communities as they determine their most pressing needs and develop solutions. We create partnerships with non profit organizations in coffee-growing regions that work directly within communities. These partners provide technical resources, training, and follow-through to communities to implement grass roots projects. We facilitate learning exchanges between partner organizations to help them find solutions to similar challenges.

info-uk@coffeekids.org
www.coffeekids.org

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“The coffee isn’t there, and the market is facing structural deficits [related to] the nature of the coffee trees,” says Eric Nadelberg, senior vice president, Investments, and the Head of the institutional coffee desk at Prudential Bache Commodities. “That means supply can’t respond as aggressively as the market is requiring. I don’t see any replenishing of supply in the next three years.”

“Coffee prices, particularly those of Arabicas, reached new highs in April. The monthly average of the ICO composite indicator price in April was 231.24 compared to 224.33 US cents/lb in March 2011, the highest monthly level recorded since June 1977. On the other hand price volatility decreased compared to March. At this time of the year the market traditionally starts speculating about the possible risk of frost in Brazil during winter. However, changes in the location of Brazilian production in recent decades mean that the risk of frost has diminished considerably. Speculative movements driven by the precarious balance between supply and demand accentuated the firmness in Arabica prices during April.”

International Coffee Organisation April 2011

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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE UK BARISTA TEAM!

World Number 1 !

Team members: Ed Buston, Paul Stephens, Neil Le Bihan, Aysin

The post UK Barista Team – St. Petersburg appeared first on Clinton Coffee.

The Coffee in Good Spirits contest is run by the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe and is part of the lead-up to Britain’s biggest-ever coffee promotion, when the World Barista Championships come to London in June. All the world’s top coffee-makers and competitions will be at Caffe Culture, trade’s main expo, at Olympia, 23-25 June.

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