As each year draws to a close we quite enjoy looking back on the previous twelve months, reflecting on the highs and learning from the lows. 2015 was the ‘year of collaboration’ as far as Carvetii was concerned, a year where the important lesson was one of working together. The year started in an interesting…
Tag: Carvetii
The Cost of a Mince Pie
It’s that time of year again when the humble mince pie takes centre stage in many of our coffee shops, tearooms and cafes. I’ve visited a number of customers in the past couple of weeks where the prominent feature in their cake display is an enticing stack of homemade mince pies. On at least three…
Water continued
My previous post outlined some of the problems we face with the quality of water at our Roastery. In short, water can influence how a coffee brews and tastes. This in turn makes it difficult to determine whether the characteristics of a coffee are due to the influence of the roasting or the water. Having…
A post about water
I’ve long been interested in the quality of the water we use both at the Roastery, and also that used by our customers. I wrote a post back in 2012 where I tried to sum up the issues we faced and another shortly afterwards which compared the water we have to the ‘good’ coffee water. I’ve…
SkyCall Appeal
Each year we nominate a charity to support, raising donations through our pop-up coffee bar which we take on the road. This year we’ve been supporting the Cumberland News SkyCall Appeal . . .
Lowther Show
Our commitment to raising the profile of speciality coffee in Cumbria continued last weekend at the hugely successful Lowther Show, near Penrith. It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and a great opportunity to talk to coffee drinkers, many of whom can now be considered ‘regulars’. It is quite humbling to discover that people have walked…
Finca El Parasío
Finca El Paraíso is a single origin coffee from Nicaragua. It is a deliciously smooth and sweet coffee, making it very easy drinking.
The Price of Milk: Should we be concerned?
This weekend we’ve seen protests across Cumbria in response to yet another drop in the price being paid to farmers for their milk. Should the coffee community be more aware of this and can we help?
Carvetii Open Day 9th & 10th May 2015
UK coffee week is a time of year when the coffee industry unites to raise money for clean water projects in two coffee producing countries, Rwanda and Tanzania. Carvetii’s involvement this year is twofold: on the 1st May we travel down to the London Coffee Festival where we’ll be serving our coffee on the Artisan…
A rare visit to a coffee chain
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to sample an espresso from one of the biggest branded coffee chains. I don’t often frequent branded coffee shops but every now and again I like to pop in to see what they’re up to. The branded coffee chains will be watching current trends very carefully and will…
The Big Sleep 2015
We first heard about Cumbria Community Foundation’s Big Sleep last year and have been looking forward to spending a night under the stars in aid of such a good cause. It was also a great opportunity to support Gavin and Cheryl from Rather Be Cycling who had taken on the task of organising the event…
Espresso Extraction
We roast our coffee to a relatively light degree which allows the origin characteristics of the bean to shine through. The down side of this approach is that we run the risk of underdeveloping the coffee, particularly when it comes to espresso. Underdeveloped coffee can taste harsh and sour, which are characteristics we definitely do…