Pact’s 2019 Christmas Charity: Bowel Cancer UK
Christmas is the time of giving. So when you’re ending the day surrounded by crumpled piles of wrapping paper, empty Quality Street boxes, and the...
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Christmas is the time of giving. So when you’re ending the day surrounded by crumpled piles of wrapping paper, empty Quality Street boxes, and the...
40 years ago, in the rural regions of Huila, Colombia, coffee growers had a problem. When you think of difficult driving you might think closures on the M4, or meeting a double decker on a windy Devon lane, or the potholes and worn tarmac of your local high street. But that’s nothing compared to driving trucks full of coffee down the steep, twisting, rock-filled (practically off-road) tracks of Acevedo. So 8 local coffee farmers decided...
Marcus Carvalho. It’s a name that, if you’re a veteran Pact Coffee fan, you’ve probably heard before. After all, we talk about him a lot. And although we work with over 200 farmers, we’re going to do it again. Any one of those links will give you the backstory, but here’s the highlights: We met Marcus at a tragic time in his life. He’d recently lost his wife, Maria, to a car accident - leaving...
It’s going to get hot. Uncomfortably hot. We’re talking about watery Pimms because the ice melts too quickly, multiple outfit changes (‘cos you’ve sweated through your last two t-shirts). Having to escape inside every 15 mins, for a quick breather. When it comes to sunny weather and coffee, there are three schools of thought. The first is sacking off coffee completely, in favour of something more ‘British summer’-friendly. The aforementioned Pimms, a cold can of...
Millennial pink, pink gin… and now Pink Bourbon? You might think the coffee world is jumping on a very pretty, flower-strewn bandwagon – and in a way you’d be right. The Pink Bourbon varietal has only really been (re)discovered in the last 10 years – but we promise it’s got substance, not just style. And Ramiro Suarez Ramos from the Casa Loma farm has proved that, by growing us a batch! What is Pink Bourbon?...
In a dark, dark wood there was a dark, dark house; and in the dark, dark house there was a dark, dark room; and in the dark, dark room there was a dark, dark cupboard; and in the dark, dark cupboard there was a dark, dark shelf; and on the dark, dark shelf there was a dark, dark box; and in the dark, dark box there was a… batch of homemade pumpkin spice syrup! At...
Now, there’s nothing wrong with a greasy parcel of battered cod and chips. Far from it. And you couldn’t pair it with anything other than a builder’s tea with two heaped sugars. But it has to be said - some nations have the UK beat when it comes to cuisine. If there’s one thing we love almost as much as coffee, it’s carbs. Delicious, pasta-shaped carbs, that is. And there’s one country with a solid...
Watching the news is pretty stressful lately. Whether it’s (a lack of) Brexit developments, Trump’s latest fanatical fixation, or the state of the pound sterling, things don’t look great. And the sight of the Amazon rainforest on fire isn’t really helping matters… Brazil’s had a rough time of it, weather-wise. From the ‘earth’s lungs’ burning, to the worrying cold snap experienced earlier in the year, make no mistake - climate change is at least partially...
We all know the empowering qualities of a cup of coffee, and the restorative nature of a glass of wine. Yin and yang, light and dark, coffee and wine – it’s just the way things are. One gets you ready for the day, one lets you recover from it. And equally: one gets you ready for the night… one lets you recover from it. You know this. But did you know how similar coffee and...
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… It is a period of civil war.\ Rebel coffee companies, one striking\ from a Bermondsey-based...
In a world of squabbling politicians (no one mention the ‘B’ word!), rising rents and static salaries, not to mention all the usual daily pressures...
We know you can’t put a price (or a mark out of 100) on that first sip of coffee on a cold Monday morning… but a lot of people, as it happens, can! The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCA) is one of the industry’s benchmark scoring systems for ranking coffees, as we’ve explained here, and informs most green coffee competitions around the world. But there is one notable exception – and that’s the ‘Colombia,...
Now and then, we find an incredibly special coffee. And since our Head of Coffee is so good at hunting them down, we decided they all needed their own category! Introducing Gold Standard – coffees that are game-changers, taste- makers or just simply delicious. The Nyiramasoni Donatille is the perfect first example with cuttingly clear blackcurrant and black tea flavours, a delicate orange aftertaste and an elegant grape-like acidity. All that and a syrupy sweetness...
This is the fifth year we’ve had El Cairo on our menu – so it’s been around almost since the beginning! A Colombian burst of orange and mandarin flavours, it’s a delicious variety grown by Faiber Vega Salazar. Today his farm is thriving, but it wasn’t always that way… Year 1 El Cairo was actually one of the first farms Pact Coffee started a Direct Trade relationship with. Back in 2014, Head of Coffee Will...
What’s that delicious aroma on the wind? I’m getting juicy pineapple and delicious blackberry, and it seems to be coming from our roastery… which can only mean one thing. Nyaruszia Ngara is back. Winner of a Great Taste award in 2018 (deemed to be “simply delicious” by food ‘n’ drink boffins), it’s upholding its status as a genuinely incredible coffee. Leave your kettle to rest a little after boiling, and you’ll be rewarded with a...
Names mean a lot. Champagne and Cornish Clotted Cream, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Yorkshire Wensleydale. When you go to these product’s origins (and namesakes), that quality of flavour and the places themselves become intrinsically linked in your mind. There’s a reason there are laws against mislabelling sparkling wine from outside the area as “Champagne”, because reputation holds weight. But it doesn’t mean that sparkling wine is necessarily of a lesser quality. Imagine producing an amazingly tasty product...
This year, the International Women’s Day theme is #BalanceForBetter – and they can explain best what that means: “Balance is not a women’s issue, it’s a business issue. The race is on for the gender-balanced boardroom, a gender-balanced government, gender-balanced media coverage, a gender-balance of employees, more gender-balance in wealth, gender-balanced sports coverage … Gender balance is essential for economies and communities to thrive.” And this is why Pact Coffee is so passionate about gender...
The New Year is the perfect opportunity for a fresh start. And for Pact Coffee, 2019 was destined to be the year of the recyclable coffee pod. The same delicious flavour profiles, but packaged up into an environmentally friendly capsule (and ones that actually work a lot better with your Nespresso® machines). Check them out! From coffee beans to… Coca-Cola! Our shiny new pods (and they really are shiny!) are made entirely from aluminium. And...
If you’ve been enjoying our coffee for a while, chances are you’ve come across Buenos Aires – a Colombian coffee (despite the name!) with notes of red plum and a crisp, citrussy acidity. Often making up one half of our Fruit & Nut Espresso blend, providing the ‘fruit’ element, it’s a firm favourite that we’ve been buying for five years! In 2018, Will headed back to the farm to meet up with José Ramone Collazos...
1. Different doesn’t always mean good Describing someone’s style as “unique” could be considered a backhanded compliment. So saying the same of a flavour profile...