The Coffee Life

*all of the products shown in this blog post were kindly gifted to me*

A couple of months back I came across this company ECO Coffee, and me obviously being me I dropped them an email asking more about the company, the coffee, and what they're all about. They got back to me and asked if I'd like to try out any of their products, which of course how can I say no to?

I was expecting to receive a few sample bags of their coffee and I was shocked when I got home to a huge(!!!) box filled with not just coffee but lots of other ECO goodies.

Including in this huge box of goodies -

* 4 x 1kg bags of coffee

* ECO compostable cups

* ECO paper straws 

* Karma Cola drink products

* Clipper Organic Tea

* Water Bottle made entirely out of plants (ok but how cool)

You can say I was well and truly spoiled with choices here. 

The compostable cups unlike some I've had, seem quite sturdy and relatively thick material (I think we can all say we've had those cups that are so thin you need about 3 to be able to hold the damn thing!) 

The paper straws are really cool - they're not just straight paper straws like most companies have, they actually have part where they curve over, making it easier to drink drinks out of! I've never seen this on any other paper straw I've been given, so it's definitely a huge win

The coffees that ECO Coffee currently offer are

- New Forest Blend

Light roast

- Jurassic Coast Blend

Medium Roast

- Spinnaker Blend

Dark Roast

- Corfe Castle Blend

Decaf

Because I wanted to try them all, and I hadn't done a cupping session in far too long, I thought what better way to try them all out.

(now I'm not an expert at cupping, and I really don't pretend to be - I just follow the basic guidelines on the SCA website) 

When next to each other, you can clearly see the difference in roast profiles, from light to dark roast. 

Again, you can see the vast difference between the light and the darker roasts (woohoo, science)






Top Left

New Forest Blend
Light Roast
 Brazilian and Guatemalan
Bag Taste Notes - Caramel, Raisin and Coco with Light Earthy Finish

Tastes - Sour fruits with subtle light syrupy notes, slightly harsh on the acidity
Would make a super delicious espresso



Top Right

Jurassic Coast Blend
Medium Roast
Indian, Ethiopian, Brazilian and Colombian
Bag Taste Notes - Black Cherry, Milk Chocolate and Pecan

Tastes - Super fruity, definitely more smooth than the light roast, actually really delicious
Would make a great espresso, I suspect it would also mix really well with milk, this is definitely my favourite out of the 4 


Bottom Left

Spinnaker Blend
Dark Roast
Brazilian, Ugandan and Colombian
Bag Taste Notes - Cedar and Bourbon

Tastes - ashy and woody, I'm not so much of an expert on dark roasts, because they're typically not to my taste. I'm sure to someone who enjoys darker roasts this would probably taste great. 



Bottom Right 

Corfe Castle Blend
Decaf (Medium/Dark Roast)
Swiss Water Process
Honduras, Ethiopian, Brazilian and Indonesian
Bag Taste Notes - (there isn't any I can see on the bag!!)

Tastes - again, this decaf isn't to my taste, I really prefer my decafs to be light-medium roasted instead of dark roasted. There's definitely some earthy flavours in there, but I find it super hard to try and get any other flavour notes out of anything roasted this dark. 
And again, it might be to someone who likes their coffees dark roasted tastes more than me. 







What I love most about these coffees are the fact that they're named after places that are super close to me - in fact I live in the new forest, and a short drive away from the Jurassic Coast, Spinnaker Tower and Corfe Castle, which is super epic. 

This coffee is also roasted right in the heart of Dorset and uses a super sustainable way of roasting.


As I'm sure many of you have heard of the way that old, dried coffee grounds can be made into "Coffee Logs" to be regenerated back into fuel in order to roast coffee, that's exactly what this great company do. 
It goes round in a big zero waste circle - amazing

Why is zero waste and sustainability so important to ECO Coffee? With over 500,000 tons of waste coffee grounds being disposed of in landfill in the UK alone each year (THAT IS SO MUCH) the worlds ever growing coffee consumption is significantly contributing towards global warming. Coffee grounds can accelerate the decomposition of other food wastes that are sent to landfill. As they decompose, they create methane, which is a greenhouse gas with more than 20 times the global warming capacity of carbon dioxide. 

So how does it work?

Stage 1 - The process starts with the consumer, enjoying a delicious cup of coffee in a coffee outlet - the coffee outlet is collecting the used coffee grounds in special (re-purposed) containers issued to them by their supplier. These containers are then collected at the same time as the outlets next delivery of fresh coffee 
Stage 2 - The next stage of the process once the grounds have been collected, is to sieve out any foreign objects and dry the coffee grounds. From there the dried coffee grounds are fed into a large mechanical press that forces the coffee under huge pressure through a die and this forms the Bio-Fuel we require for our Eco Roasters
 Stage 3 - The third stage of the process is roasting. Custom made Eco Roasters are used to turn the Coffee Bio-Fuel into the heat energy needed to roast delicious fresh coffee beans. The Eco Roaster is so energy efficient that it only uses approx 40g of Bio-Fuel to roast 1000g of fresh coffee! It even stores excess heat in large thermal storage tanks for heating the roastery! 
Stage 4 - The final stage of the process is the beans that have just been roasted, these are then quickly cooled, de-stoned and packed in valved bags to lock in the freshness. Boxed ready for delivery to the customers. For those customers adopting the Coffee-Eco System, these beans will be delivered at the same time as their coffee waste is collected. Ensuring a carbon neutral journey is achieved. And repeat then the process starts all over again with a delicious cup of Eco Coffee



It's quite an incredible thing to think about, roasting coffee, with ... well, coffee! It's pretty genius and helps the environment at the same time.


If you want to get your hands on any of the products I've talked about here, and lots more they have on offer on their website (coffee2u.net)
You can also use the code JASS10 for a whole 10% your purchase.



Find more of ECO Coffee 

Website - here
Twitter - here
Facebook - here
Youtube - here
Instagram - here 

Discount code for 10% off your order - JASS10

A goal I am working towards whilst being 21 is being better at self promotion - and it's come to my attention (not only that I'm absolutely crap at it) that I haven't even done a blog post on the soaps I've been creating and selling - so that's exactly what this blog post is about.

Something that has been in the works for just over 6 months now, are my new little project... Coffee Soaps.

It's taken me ages (and I mean it feels like forever) to perfect these little beauties, to find the right ratio of base to coffee, to find the right moulds, to find the right packaging, and to be perfectly happy with them. 

Although they're definitely not perfect, you can tell that they are made with love, and that is my main goal. I am passionate about them. 

You're probably thinking "but why soaps, you big big weirdo" and well yeah, I don't have the answer for that, it came to me one morning in October 2018, and from then on it's been a project of mine to get them off the ground (ha, excuse the coffee pun) and turn them into an actual product worth selling. 

So introducing

The Coffee Life Zero Waste Exfoliating Soap