New iPhone App Rates London Coffee Shops
A new application for the iPhone, created by Blue Crow Media, should help coffee lovers in the capital quickly locate somewhere to find quality coffee.
Enabling users to both map as well as rate their favourite coffee venues in London, the results provided through the app are said to be entirely organic, i.e. driven by consumer comment only, as opposed to by biased coffee shop owners, in an effort to boost their rankings.
The new, coffee-inspired app is positioned as the ideal tool for those looking for coffee in an unfamiliar corner of the city. Moreover, it is freely downloadable, as opposed to San Francisco’s Best Coffee application, which will become available over the festive season – at a price.
A concept of Derek Lamberton at the media company, London’s Best Coffee, is reportedly his first app. It is said to be user-friendly and already boasts a sixty-plus list of cafés, with this being added to on a daily basis and helping to take the guesswork out of finding a good coffee shop.
The app’s initial list is the result of Lamberton trailing London every day over a four week period, sampling numerous espressos across the capital every day and starting from Stratford in the east and tracing his way back to West London.
With the app getting a seemingly unanimous thumbs up from iPhone users, Android users are eagerly awaiting an alternative version of the app that should be available next year.
Small Steps, Big Impression
US-based Roastery 7’s Tiny Footprint Coffee has been talked about in the press. Positioned as the world’s first carbon-negative coffee, the company claims to offset any carbon footprint generated during its coffee production and distribution, with the planting of a carbon-loving tree per every pound in weight of beans sold.
Shipping and roasting each pound of coffee generates four times as many carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), according to the company. By planting fast-growing trees in the Ecuadorian Cloudforest, Roastery 7 is able to remove 54 pounds of CO2e from the atmosphere, which more than compensates for the four pounds used in the initial roasting and distribution stages at face value.
However, the maths is not quite so simple, as there is a footprint associated with growing the coffee, which can vary depending on the farming practices involved and at the consumer end, in terms of the energy needed to heat the water. This is not to mention the fact that, although fast-growing, each tree takes 20 years to reach the 54 pound CO2e capacity.
Although fairly approximate, Tiny Footprint’s numbers do highlight the positive steps the company is taking to offset its carbon footprint and the planting of trees through association with the non-profit Mindo Cloudforest Foundation is certainly a step in the right direction. Not only its carbon initiatives, but Tiny Footprint Coffee is also 90 per cent Fairtrade certified, not the full 100 per cent, since some of the farms the company sources its coffee from are not large enough to apply for full Fairtrade certification. However this does not affect its taste!
Recycling and Coffee Vending Join Forces
The Electronic Waste Company, a recycling firm from Redruth, Cornwall, has secured a contract with a leading UK coffee vending business.
As a result, the electronic equipment recycling company will now manage the re-use of thousands of discontinued vending machines every year.
Kafévend has over 11,000 of its machines positioned across the UK and a considerable number of these are upgraded on a regular basis.
As opposed to ending up in the waste stream, this latest agreement with The Electronic Waste Company will see any end-of-life machine dismantled and salvaged for working parts, as well as being correctly separated for the recycling channel.
The dismantling of the coffee vending machines will initially take place at the recycling company’s Cornwall premises. However, it is reported that an additional facility will be opened in Bristol in the New Year.
From its beginnings in the processing of computers and other IT equipment, The Electronic Waste Company’s business has grown to handle a greater variety of items. The firm is excited about welcoming Kafévend among its expanding list of clients and is confident that its team of highly skilled staff will be able to ensure that all machines are handled in the most eco-friendly manner possible, sending nothing to landfill.
Not only is Kafévend passionate about its coffee, the company is also concerned about creating a sustainable future for coffee farmers. As such, the firm has just introduced a new Sustainable Development Coffee, helping to improve both the social and economic environment for coffee-farming communities and give them access to medical care and education.
Say ‘I Do’ to Coffee Competition
Paddy & Scott’s, a coffee roasting business established by Suffolk deli/café owner Paddy Bishopp and Londoner Scott Russell, have announced a competition that gives people the opportunity to win enough coffee to keep their wedding guests fuelled for hours.
According to Bishopp, the coffee business started as a bit of fun, following the pair stumbling across each other at a five-a-side football game. United by their shared passion for coffee, the duo bought a second-hand coffee roaster named ‘Old Smokey’ from a South African coffee guru and started their own coffee roasting from Russell’s garage, as a way of unwinding after a day’s work.
When comments from family and friends suggested they could be roasting enough coffee to start a business, so the pair began. Paddy & Scott’s has now moved much further on from its ‘Old Smokey’ roots, but still remains true to the slow roasting process.
All production has been kept within the UK, with the company now making over 20 different blends of coffee and supplying in excess of 400 outlets across the country, including some of the top restaurants, trendy cafes and hotels.
The gourmet Paddy & Scott’s brand is also available through high-end independent food retailers Waitrose, House of Fraser and John Lewis Food Hall.
In terms of the business’s current competition under its ‘Seriously Good Coffee’ proposition, entrants must be able to correctly list the retail outlets where the Paddy & Scott’s brand is available, in order to win a wedding’s worth of the blend.
Beverage Group Acquires Coffee Machine Business in Australia
Through its locally based arm Segafredo Zanetti Australia, Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group has made a 100 per cent purchase of the Perth-based coffee and coffee machine distributor, Espresso Italia.
As a result of the acquisition, Segafredo Zanetti Australia, headquartered in Sydney, will reinforce its long-standing market leading position in the country, with Espresso Italia having a stronghold of its market in the State of Western Australia.
Set to be completed over the course of the next few years, the take-over and operational integration of the coffee distributor will mean that Segafredo Zanetti is then in a strong position to boost its coffee and coffee machine expertise yet further in both Australia and New Zealand, both identified as key drivers of the group’s overall global expansion.
Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group is a vertically-integrated and privately-owned organisation whose areas of business activity range from the growing, processing and sale of green coffee, to the sale and global distribution of over 20 consumer brands. These are all fully owned by the group and produced through the organisation’s 11 dedicated coffee roasting hubs across the globe, which are also involved in the production of tea and spices.
Meanwhile, the manufacture and sale of the business’s coffee machines, as well as other professional equipment, is done through the brand names La San Marco and Segafredo Zanetti Coffee System.
In other coffee machine news, superstar Julia Roberts has been signed up as the face of another Italian machine producer in a deal worth a reported US$1 million for a single TV advertisement.
East Sussex School Supports South American Coffee Farming Community
Young people studying at Heathfield Community School are helping to raise funds for an impoverished Ecuadorian community by relaunching a coffee in the run-up to Christmas.
Having developed and imported their own coffee through Minehead-based tea and coffee merchant, DJ Miles, the young students have already generated £1,400 for the small, 60 farmer-strong cooperative that they have developed a close relationship with over the years.
To achieve this figure, the youngsters have re-designed all the product labels for their own coffee, which has now been selling for three years, as well as putting together marketing materials and producing a promotional video.
For every packet of coffee sold, Heathfield Community School will be sending £1 back to the cooperative, helping to make a real difference to a coffee growing community operating on the hills of the Podocarpus National Park, where the Andes and River Amazon meet.
According to the project co-ordinator, Ian Grant, these proceeds are being used to support a local school in Ecuador, equipping them with tables and chairs and other basics, such as books and pens, helping to give something back to the community.
Ecuadorian coffee is known as one of the country’s dark secrets. Although Brazil and Columbia may be first to spring to mind where the sale and export of coffee is concerned, this small geography in the Andes was once among the world’s leading coffee exporters. Its tradition dates back to the early 19th century, with Ecuador’s coffee now considered on a par with some of the best coffees in the world.
Funding Helps Farm Shop Explore Coffee
Having secured a significant cash injection from the Rural Enterprise Grant programme, a Coventry-based farm shop in the Meriden vicinity is enjoying its renewed direction in the form of a new coffee shop.
Offering meat sourced from its own farm as well as various local food and drink products, Berryfields Farm Shop has been in operation since 2000. As the business has grown, its owners, Chris and Fiona Barber, have been exploring ways in which to lift progress even further.
As such, plans for a mezzanine level above the shop were compiled with a view to introducing a coffee shop to increase the outlet’s appeal to a greater audience, as well as giving existing customers an improved experience.
With plans having been approved, the couple received a £37,000 grant to fulfil their aspirations – the coffee shop now proving to be a great hit with visitors.
The Rural Enterprise Grant programme which, although it has only been supporting farmers and associated businesses for around a year, has already approved a reported £2 million in grants thus far. Programme manager, Dorothy Coleman, has praised Berryfields Farm Shop and its new coffee shop and she views the rural business as a fine example of growth through diversification. Coleman’s view is that the coffee shop is a great addition to Berryfields and is hopeful for its success.
Following a review by the group steering the grant programme, the breadth of farming activities that can apply for funding has been expanded to now also include education, farm shops, on-farm retailing and non-food processing.
Green Coffee Exports on the Up in Brazil
The South American country of Brazil registered green coffee exports of just short of 3 million 60kg bags in November 2010, which equates to an almost 24 per cent rise on the 2.4 million bags shipped during the same period the previous year.
However, November’s volume fell just short of the country’s record level of green coffee exports to date – 3.1 million bags, which was achieved just last month in October 2010, according to the Council of Green Coffee Exporters (Cecafe).
With regards to specific coffee types, shipments of Arabica increased by over 22 per cent on the same month in 2009, to 2.8 million bags, while Robusta coffee, albeit smaller in overall volume terms is gaining ground, almost doubling the number of bags shipped to 0.93 million. Exports of instant coffee showed a more modest 1.9 per cent increase to 0.24 million bags.
In terms of value, the Brazilian economy’s revenue from coffee exports reached US$615.6 million in November this year, an increase of 57.8 per cent on last year and an over-proportional jump relative to volume due to the higher prices the commodity has been able to command in 2010.
Cecafe is hopeful that the country’s total coffee exports will reach somewhere in the region of 33 million bags by the end of 2010. If its predictions are correct then this would be an all-time record for Brazilian coffee output, compared with a total of 30.5 million bags in 2009 and 29.7 million in 2008.
Barista Title for Australian West End Roaster
Manager of the locally-based speciality coffee roasting business, Veneziano, Jean Paul Sutton has been crowned Queensland’s 2010 Barista Champion.
Having won on a local level, JP – as he is more affectionately known amongst his colleagues, will now go on to compete for the national level title at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on 28 January 2011.
For the Australian title, all competitors will be required to craft four espresso creations as well as the same number of cappuccinos and signature drinks. This will be done using coffee chosen and roasted specifically for the purpose of the contest, with all drinks to be assessed by seven judges, comprising a lead judge, two technical judges and four reviewing the drinks on a sensory level – looking at criteria such as taste, aroma, consistency and appearance.
Categories to be contested in the upcoming Australian Specialty Coffee Championship include barista and latte art champions, in addition to cupping and coffee in good spirits title, the latter involving a signature cocktail that combines espresso with alcohol.
Veneziano Coffee’s planned participation in the event is designed to demonstrate the company’s support of furthering coffee knowledge in Australia. Following the national contest, the roasting business is apparently also keen to move on to the World Barista Championship that will take place in Colombia in June 2011.
Already worth multi-million dollars, Australia’s speciality coffee industry continues to gather pace, with both coffee growers as well as consumers benefiting from its increasing success.
Five-strong Range of Fortified Coffees
US-based South Beach Java has communicated news of its new weight loss coffee launch as well as the unveiling of four additional blends.
With the overall range of fortified coffee products designed to help individuals achieve their specific health goals through the use of various key ingredients, the five blends address concerns such as weight loss, energy, immunity, focus and detox.
All of the company’s coffee blends have been made from gourmet coffee beans that are ground, roasted and packaged up on a weekly basis at South Beach Java’s facility in South Florida. Given the gourmet, higher quality of the beans used in the blends, the flavours are said to be such that less sugar and milk/cream need to be added – further enhancing the coffees’ healthy credentials.
In terms of the specific health targets, each blend features a different combination of vitamins, nutrients and all-natural supplements to achieve a particular functionality. The company’s flagship and most popular weight loss offering, SoBe Dieting Blend, contains natural appetite suppressants and Garcinia Cambogia to enhance fat oxidation and energy as well as increasing metabolism. Meanwhile the company’s SoBe Extreme Energy Blend features green tea extract and B vitamins as its key active ingredients, whilst SoBe Immune Booster Blend derives its functionality from its Echinacea and multi-vitamin content.
Lastly the SoBe Focus Plus Blend and the SoBe Mushroom Blend are fortified with natural nutritional supplements and 14 beneficial mushrooms respectively, the latter blend said to be popular amongst those looking for a particularly smooth-tasting coffee.