Untold Coffee Box 8

We're so close to being in double digits for Untold Coffee Box's now, and if that doesn't prove commitment and loyalty to coffee (and subscription boxes) I don't know what does. 

This is also a very special box too, it contained the last ever outside company Untold will be using for their subscription boxes, and I am super excited to be having Untold in my cupboard every month, because although I love, love, love trying new things, I also love familiarity, and now that I've started my subscription to One Click, it's nice to have some familiar feels in regards to packaging (ooh, talking of... Look out for Untold's new super freaking cool packaging in a couple of posts time!!) 



This box, we had 2 gorgeous coffees from Heart and Graft, which like many coffee's in the past, have been on my to try list for 2019.






First up, Chateau 76
Ethiopia Kochere Debo
Region - Kochere
Variety - Locally Selected
Altitude - 1900-2100masl 
Process - Washed
Taste Notes - Blackcurrant Jam, Cassis, Blackcurrant Leaf




Aeropress - 16g - 2 minute 45 second brew time - 30 second bloom - 30 second push

Taste Notes - Super, super sweet, curranty. Next to no acidity, super smooth.


V60 - 19g - 275ml - 3 minute 30 second total brew time - 30 second bloom

Taste Notes - Super smooth, curranty, syrup-y and light to drink. A slight fruity acidity as it cools 

Overall, no matter how this coffee is brewed it comes out deliciously sweet, deliciously curranty and makes for the perfect morning coffee when you don't want to be smacked in the face by acidity.






Miriam Perez
Honduras Microlot 
Farm - Clave De Sol, Las Tres Marias Lot
Variety - Icatu, Catuai 
Altitude - 1300-1560masl
Process - Natural 
Taste Notes - Mulled wine, rum & raisin, apricot 





V60 - 19g - 275ml - 3 minute 30 second total brew time - 30 second bloom

Taste Notes -  Super boozy, with a sweet wine-y acidity (anything that resembles wine is a WINNER hands down) a stone-fruity aftertaste. Super yummy, and out of the two, I'd definitely choose this one, and can we just appreciate the packaging (for both!!!) 



This was such an amazing box to finish outside coffee's from Untold Sub Box, and I am so pleased I got to try them! 
Have you tried Heart and Graft? What did you think?


If you would like a code to get your own hands on a club subscription, hit me up on either Instagram or shoot me an email.




Check out Untold Coffee

Website - Here
Instagram - Here
Twitter - Here




Other Untold Coffee Box Posts





The Coffee Life

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Brighton Coffee Festival - Buy Your Tickets Now!!!

***


Exciting things are happening in the world of coffee this year, including many new places holding their own coffee festivals, including Brighton - everyone's favourite sea-side town. 
I love Brighton, so literally any excuse to go there, I'll drop everything just to visit. 



So, that being said - if you have been looking for the nudge to get your ticket to Brighton Coffee Festival - THIS IS IT.






I have become an ambassador for Brighton's Coffee Festival, which is an amazing opportunity and I am honoured they have trusted me in helping them. 


More information about  Brighton Coffee Festival: 

www.brightoncoffeefest.com

When is it? Sunday 11th of August 

Where is it? Brighton Open Market (a handy 7 minute walk from Brighton train station!!)

How much are we talking? 
- £6 early bird - for one session (morning/afternoon/evening)
- £8 standard ticket

- £11 early bird (all day ticket)
- £16 standard ticket

Who's there? So far Brighton have announced
- Small Batch Coffee Roasters
- Pharmacie Coffee Roasters
- Wolfox Coffee 
- Tilt Coffee Shop
- Victoria Arduino 
- Crafthouse Coffee
- Red Roaster Coffee
- Roasted Brighton
- Bird and Blend Tea


Being an ambassador means that if you buy a ticket through my link, I will get a small commission from your sale (it wont cost you any extra!!!) and it will also mean that hopefully I will get to work with Brighton Coffee Festival in the future again - that being said, that if you buy a ticket through my link, I will be forever grateful that you have, and I will make it my best effort to come and find you to personally thank you at the festival!







I hope to see you there!!




*** please note that if you do purchase a ticket through the link provided I get a small commission from Brighton Coffee Festival, this does not effect the cost for you, but it really helps me out.




The Coffee Life

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London Coffee Festival 2019

After an amazing time in Amsterdam, for Amsterdam Coffee Festival, I was both super excited and super sceptical for London Coffee Festival.

London Coffee Festival, was essentially everything I thought it was going to be, it had it's highs, it had it's lows, and I definitely had a good time, but there were definitely things that could've been done and set up better (and some people were real shitty, but we'll get onto that later)


If you read last years London Coffee Festival post (read here) you'll know I went on the Friday and Saturday. Not this year, I learnt from last year and went for just the industry days, the Thursday and Friday.



Straight off the bat, first complaint - WHY WAS THE PROJECTOR SO SHAKY THIS YEAR? Do you know how hard it was to get a photo?! 
None the less, here's the "did you even go to the coffee festival if you didn't get a photo of the projected logo?"


I got to Shoreditch really early this year (I was up at 4.30am, many regrets) and actually took to time to explore ("explore" as in I aimlessly walked around the place trying to get my barings and refusing to use Google Maps) 
I came across the gorgeous billboard from Jimmy's Coffee



I mean hats off, it's genius.


After already hitting 10,000 steps despite it only being 8.30 in the morning, I headed back to the Oatly stand, for my first coffee of the day (you're not doing LCF right if you don't get a coffee from the oatly pop up stand first) 



Oatly partnered up with Origin for London Coffee Festival (yum)
OatlyxOrigin




Classic Oatly advertising, everywhere. 
Almost fainted when I found out how much Oatly spends on advertising. 


Now actually getting into the festival

It's always clear that every year more and more people are going to hear about the festival and it's going to get busier and busier, but hot damn, wow. The queues were insane this year, and that was only on the Thursday. I dread to think how it was on Saturday and Sunday.



It's always so surreal seeing my blog name, even if it's just on a ticket (lol)


I'm not usually into Coffee Masters, but this year, Benji and Dhan were competing (although I didn't actually get to see Dhan actually competing, oops sorry Dhan)




So naturally the first place I headed was to Coffee Masters, not only to get my bearings on who was where this year, but just in time to watch Benji compete. 
Maybe next year I'll be really into the Coffee Masters and follow it through to the end, but then again that seems rather ambitious.


After going around a few stands, saying hello to everyone and giving out lots of hugs (esp to the girls who grind coffee, holla) 
I headed up to the Women In Coffee talk.



This was a SUPER interesting, and amazing talk.
The panel was made up of 
- Bianca Tuckwell, the global marketing manager for Ozone Coffee Roasters.
- Jacqueline Turner, the director of Kinini Coffee
- Agnieszka Rojewska, the WBC and Coffee Masters champion 2018 (and my ultimate girl crush right now)
- Anne Lunell, the founder of Koppi Coffee
- Freda Yuan, the head of coffee at Origin Coffee Roasters

It was incredible to see how different each of the women's journeys were and still are through the coffee industry, from farming, roasting, all the way to the cup. 



After that, I went to see who I could find, and ended up bumping into Ana (and Dhan) Ana seems to always slip her way into my London Coffee Festival posts



I also popped by Girls Who Grind Coffee, to get some sick tatts 



For real though if anyone actually wants to tattoo these onto me, thanks.


After this I had a bit of a shitty moment - after an Instagram DM sent me into a bit of a bad mood (of course I tweeted it, lol)
In short, a company got in touch about a blog collaboration over Instagram, saying how they'd seen I was at LCF and how they'd love to meet up for a chat, I of course was like "oh hell yeah"
Here's where it got a bit patchy - They asked me to meet them in the VIP Lounge, all well and good apart from I didn't have a VIP ticket, because you know, what's the point, I was going to LCF to look around not sit around in the VIP Lounge. 
They then proceeded to tell me that I shouldn't be a blogger if I wasn't going to bother getting a VIP ticket. 
a) how does a VIP ticket mean I'm worthy of being a blogger?
b) why does a company (that I was excited to work with) feel the need to belittle ANYONE
c) WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK. 

Honestly the situation, absolutely baffled me.
Just because you have a VIP ticket, does not mean you're better than everyone else that has a standard ticket. 



Back to positives - here are some more photos from day 1 












I also met the lovely Polly-Anna from One Click Coffee Box's
She's super lovely, and you should all check out One Click (I'll be doing monthly blog posts of the boxes, so you cant hide from them!!!)










Onto Day 2 



Day 2 started on a really positive note, I checked out of my hostel at about 8am and headed out in the sun, got a pack of raspberries from Tesco (living my best life honestly) and headed to sit in the sun at the Oatly stand. 



 Considering it was only 8am, it was already a gorgeous day, that I could sit comfortably in short sleeves (amazing)



This is also where I had my first councilling call, which took me up to the time of going into the festival. If you read my last blog post as well, you'll know that I'll be doing some blog posts regarding mental health soon, so look out for those.



I obviously had to scout out the custom machine parts that SkateReclaimCreate did for the Conti machine, look how freaking beautiful.



I also went to spend some time at the La Marzocco stand (and had a proper play with the KB90, wow I'm in love please)




Another panel talk I went to was the Coffee in crisis, a discussion on the future of ethical and sustainable coffee.
The panel was made up of
- Hosted by Greg Meenahan from World Coffee Research
- David Brooks, the managing director of Percol Coffee 
- Sian Sutherland, the Co-Founder of A Plastic Planet
- LJ Loftus, the head of supply chain at Fairtrade Foundation
- Mario Cerutti, the Cheif Institutional Relations and Sustainability Officer at Lavazza
- David Mills, the CEO of Weather Safe
- Polly Astbury, the Coffee Buyer at Waitrose 

Again this was such an amazing and eye opening chat. 
If you missed this chat, you really missed out (if anyone took a livestream or video during this chat, I'd love to see it!!) 


After the chat was over, I walked around for a bit longer, but started to get really anxious, I found a safe corner for a while, but it didn't get any better. 
In short I ended up having one of the worst panic attacks I've had in a really long time. 
I swiftly planned my exit, swinging by and saying goodbye to the people I could, but I got out of there like a flash. 





I ended my time at London Coffee Festival with a trip to Knot Pretzel at Clapham (although they've stopped doing my fave paprika ones!! devastated to say the least) 



London Coffee Festival was amazing, but it definitely had it's downfalls, and I don't think it was nessasarily anything that could've been helped. 
Considering a massive thing this year was "bring your own reusable cup" it was surprising the amount of stands that would just chuck paper cups with samples in at you before you even got the chance to get out your reusable ones. Can we sort that out for next year please?

My only other issue was the amount of women putting other women down (I don't know if it was just me that experienced this) I was literally so interested in a stand with a product I had never seen before, I got talking to the woman on the stand, started asking questions, it was all going well, she asked what I did, I said I was a barista and a coffee blogger, this woman literally scoffed at the word blogger, and walked off?!?!? um what?! Luckily the guy on the stand saw what happened and answered the questions I had previously asked. 
If it wasn't for that experience of the woman, I probably would've actually spent my money on this product. 

It's 2019, are we still putting people down for being bloggers?!?! Or because people think that bloggers are just after free products?!  WE NEED TO STOP THAT.




If you were at London Coffee Festival, what were your experiences? Did you have a good time? 








The Coffee Life

head over to my social media page on where to find me