I hope from this post that you become inquisitive and curious to what the whole deal is with Specialty Coffee. I am sure you must be thinking what makes it 'that' much better as 'its only coffee...'
But as you will find out its more than just coffee. You don't just buy coffee, you buy the experience, the story and then enter another way to think about coffee. Like - where it has come from, how it was made and roasted and how best to drink it?
So here is my first coffee review about a very popular and well known coffee roasting company called Workshop Coffee. They started off as just a roasting company providing beans to coffee lovers all over the world and now they have multiple coffee shops open all over London. (which I am yet to visit!)
I first become aware of the Workshop Coffee from a friend of mine, James. He presented this box from what you receive from Workshop when you order beans. We had a chat about it and all the different types of beans they roast from all over the world.
I looked on their website and was overwhelmed by the amount of choice there was!
After taking this box of fresh beans home and trying them I was hooked. The quality and pure freshness of the beans was amazing. The first selection I tried was called Ruben Guagala from Ecuador, sounds exotic right?
I opened up the box and was presented with a very neatly and carefully wrapped packet of coffee. It was wrapped in a white tissue paper with a Workshop sticker to seal the wrapping. First impressions, very good.
Underneath is a small (but detailed) leaflet and a postcard. Within this leaflet Workshop have perfectly portrayed the story of the coffee before turning up on your door step.
Workshop have put real effort to give gratitude to the farmers of each individual bean. Telling you exactly how much effort has been put into growing the cherries, what obstacles have been overcome and the different processes that the beans have been through. Workshop actually go out to see all there partnered farmers to work on different types of beans. Reading this leaflet really lets you appreciate the hard work and extensive effort that have been put into having this quality bean for your morning 'get up and go'.
Now to the good bit.. Drinking!
Breaking the bags seal is certainly satisfying and after taking a first smell of the fresh beans inside I was looking forward to getting them ground and into my cup!
The process was detailed on the back of the packet along with the growing altitude which makes an enormous difference to the taste and notes the coffee gives off.
The coffee was fantastic. Once my Sage espresso machine was set up to pull the perfect shot, I was hooked. The different notes in the coffee were subtle and not too overpowering. The blend was balanced and not too harsh of an aftertaste. It was a very pleasant espresso with a satisfying and strong caffeine hit.
Afterwards I made a flat white with a double shot. The milk was hugely complemented with the coffee, a definite winner for me!
It may sound rather silly for some calling coffee an experience. But when you really read about the story of how that cherry from the coffee tree is taken from a fruit state to how we know it in society it is quite remarkable. I believe it is also important to companies such as Workshop Coffee to keep spreading the word about all the hard work and effort that is put in to making the perfect coffee.
I would recommend anyone to try Workshop Coffee for its truly special efforts to bring us the best of specialty coffee.
After chatting to my friend James about this coffee and how great it was he then brought me more, a lot more. Still now the coffee community is showing me example after example how awesome they are. He has given me over 10 boxes all different types of beans to try!
