Coffee Flamingo Blog
Coffee Flamingo Brazil beans wins Great Taste 2022 award
Tasted by the experts, The Brazil Bean from Coffee Flamingo is awarded a Great Taste 1-star in 2022 Coffee Flamingo has been named among the top food and drink producers globally this year, picking up a highly prized 1 star Great Taste award for its “Brazil Coffee Beans”. More than 14,000 products were put through the the world’s most coveted food and drink award’s regious blind tasting process, and our Brazil bean was described as a “Lovely syrupy body to this espresso and a deep intense chocolatey flavour straight off the bat. A long, lingering finish and a great example of a darker roast.”. 4,078 products were awarded a Great Taste 1 star – ‘food and drink that delivers fantastic flavour’, 1,237 awarded a Great Taste 2 star – ‘above and beyond delicious’, and 241 were awarded a Great Taste 3 star – ‘extraordinarily tasty food and drink’. Further described as “a deep rich single origin coffee with Rainforest Alliance Certified and flavours of sweet almond and dark chocolate.”, it was a big hit with the Great Taste judges. Made with 100% arabica beans, Coffee Flamingo’s Brazil bean was one of 5,556 products to receive a Great Taste award in 2022 (which is only 39.1% of the total products entered). What is Great Taste? Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, values taste above all else. All products in the line-up for judging are blind-tasted: every product is removed from its packaging so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process. This year, the judging took place over 90 days across two judging locations (Dorset and London) with a panel of more than 500 judges. This year’s line-up saw food and drink products submitted from a staggering 110 different countries from across the world. Dan commented: “We are delighted to have won a Great Taste award for our Brazil bean. When starting Coffee Flamingo we dreamed of winning a Great Taste award, and now we have! James and I are so proud to be adding the iconic black and gold Great Taste logo to our coffee. Coffee Flamingo was born out of our passion for coffee, and a desire to ‘seize the day’ and make coffee for everyone. To be where we are today after only launching 18 months ago is just wonderful. Being recognised by the Guild of Fine Food a awarded a Great Taste award means so much to independent producers like us. It makes all the hard work and determination worth it! Great Taste is the most recognised accolade for taste and quality in the food and drink world, so it really is a big win!”. The Brazil coffee bean has a rich dark roast, with dark choclate and nutty flavours, and works perfectly as an espresso or for espresso based drinks. Coffee Flamingo recommend using 18g of coffee per cup, finally grinded to extract all of the beautiful flavours the bean has to offer. The Coffee Flamingo Brazil bean is available at The Barn at Sollo in Reigate, Queer Lit in Manchetsre and The Wine School of Cheshire. The Brazil coffee beans has a rich dark roast, with dark choclate and nutty flavours and works perfectly as an espresso or for espresso based drinks. Coffee Flamingo recommend a fine grind and 18g of coffee grinds per cup. The Coffee Flamingo Brazil bean is also available from The Barn at Sollo, Queer lit and The Wine School of Cheshire.
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5 things to do with your used coffee grounds
Whether you use an espresso machine, a bean to cup machine, a cafetière or any other coffee brewing method, one thing you'll always have is coffee grounds to dispose of. To reduce the waste we thought we'd give you some of our favourite ways to make use of them. First up, James loves his garden so most of our coffee grounds go to good use on our plants and veg. You can also chuck them in your compost bin, if you have one. Or you can put the grounds directly on top of the soil around your plants/veg or what ever you grow. It is a brilliant fertiliser because it has lots of minerals such as phosphorous, calcium, potassium, and iron amongst others. Plus it stops slugs and nasties getting to your veg and eating it all. Odor neutraliser, yes thats right, you can use it to remove smells. Coffee grounds have nitrogen in them, and nitrogen has the ability to neutralise smells in the air. With veg and food you tend to get smells rumenating from the fridge so we have a pot of old grounds in the fridge. The smells will disappear. Cook with it, many people use fresh coffee grounds in Mexican dishes, BBQ rubs and more. But used grounds are great for meat marinades. Just re-brew the grounds, let them cool, and pour the coffee over the meat. This helps to tenderise, keep it moist, and it will bring out the natural flavour of the meat. Just get rid of the liquid before cooking. If you like a good skin routine, you can use coffee grounds to create a great skin exfoliator. Coffee grounds are naturally rough so help remove dead skin and clear pores. You can also add some to coconut oil and make a paste, giving your natural exfoliator a great texture. But we're not Jonathan Van Ness, so if you like the idea check out some recipes first. Side note, if you don't know who Jonathan Van Ness is then you don't know what you're missing. Lastly, and it's a little niche, but if you live in a area that gets lots of snow, you can use coffee grounds like you would salt. The nitrogen in it doesn't allow ice to form so the snow melts. It can also provides some friction points to walk on. So there you go 5 ways to reuse and recycle coffee grounds, helping the environment and maybe even saving you a little money, so you can buy more coffee.
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Make your coffee sparkle with a sprinkle of cinnamon
We have been learning about making coffee for a number of years, from different ways of roasting to mixing flavour profiles. All of which have a big impact on coffee flavours. But we'd like to think we've got this covered. However we have recently learnt some different methods to elevate your coffee at home. Of course in the modern world coffee syrups are all the rage in your favourite high street coffee shops, even adding syrup to the bean roasting adjusts the flavour profile. Recently we have discovered a more purest way to enhance your coffee at home, and frankly a healthier way. Cinnamon! adding a sprinkling of cinnamon to coffee beans or grounds before brew is a fabulous way to enhance flavour. It will be a game changer. We found our Colombia bean went to new heights with the addition of cinnamon. The caramel and nutty flavours suite the sweet spice of cinnamon. Whats even better than the flavour of cinnamon is the brilliant health benefits it has. Not only does coffee taste even better but you're improving your health too. Some of my favourite benefits include: Increased antioxidants - one teaspoon has as many antioxidants as a half cup of blueberries. As per a study by Penn State university. Improve brain function - Wheeling Jesuit University reported improved visual and motor response. They actually report improvement from just smelling the spice also. Reduces the impact of fatty foods - Cinnamon reduces the triglycerides by upto 30 percent. Triglycerides is what causes arteries to become lined by fat and can lead to clots. This is Help with symptoms of colds - Drinking cinnamon in hot drinks can clear sinuses and reduce mucus production. Its also worth saying that cinnamon has a natural sweetness which reduces the need for adding sugar and I'm sure we all know the benefits of reducing our sugar intake. So in the words of the Spice Girls… spice up your life! with cinnamon. You won't be disappointed! Thanks for reading James
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