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…
Category: Carvetii Blog
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…
New Espresso Blend
New components in our espresso blend This week the components in our seasonal espresso blend will change to coffees from Brazil and Rwanda. The Brazilian component will be Fazenda Pedra Redonda, which came highly recommended from our coffee broker, Mercanta. Pedra Redonda is situated within the Minas Gerais state in Brazil, which is a well…
Baristas who know their stuff
As I dropped off some coffee with one of our customers this evening I was greeted enthusiastically by a member of staff who wanted me to try the espresso. As a new customer to us, they are only just beginning to understand the importance of dialling in the grinder on a daily basis. This involves making…
Changing Trends
At Carvetii Coffee Roasters we have set up a variety of systems to help manage our business on a day to day business. These systems invariably throw up a lot of data. We use some of this data to manage the business on a day to day, and month to month basis, but some if…
A Year of Coffee 2014
Over the past couple of years I’ve enjoyed looking back over the coffees we’ve used over the previous twelve months. Up until now this has been a relatively easy task which I’ve mostly been able to do from memory. However, looking back over 2014 has proved very different and is probably a good indicator as…
Relaxing with a cup of coffee
This Christmas, due in part to my desire not to visit the Roastery for a few days, I have broken one of my own rules when it comes to making coffee at home – I’ve set up an espresso machine in the kitchen. Aside from a brief dabble in my early days as a barista,…
Making Espresso – a personal journey
I made my first espresso on a commercial machine in 2006. It was quite an exciting moment as, up until that point, I’d always been on the customer side of the machine. I’d received a little bit of training and knew how many times to pull the lever on the grinder hopper to get a certain…
Are sales the only success criteria?
Last weekend we took Carvetii Coffee Roasters on the road to the Cumberland County Show, which was held at Carlisle Racecourse. We’ve been to a few events this year, ranging from food festivals to agricultural shows and while the core elements of our stand remain the same, we take a slightly different approach to each…
Coffee Taste Challenge
At the Cumberland County Show this year our stand included a coffee tasting challenge. We brewed four flasks of filter coffee and challenged visitors to match each flask to a flavour descriptor. We offered a selection of prizes to anyone who correctly identified all four coffees, including a coffee brewing kit and lunch for two…