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Edgcumbes Speciality Coffee

Edgcumbes Speciality Coffee October 14, 2015Lifestyle0 Comments

As well as running this online fashion magazine for five years, I have worked in fresh produce for ten years. I’ve travelled the world, like the man from Del Monte, saying “yes” to fruit from Guatemala to New Zealand, Peru to Portugal. I love exploring the world via the products that we grow and one product that has always fascinated me has been coffee.

I came into enjoying coffee rather late in life, at the age of 22, in South Africa one evening after dinner and I have never looked back. If you follow me on instagram then you’ll know that I love exploring new places to enjoy coffee and it’s the one constant in my life as I explore the world. Finding the best coffee to taste and savour is key to making sure my day starts off in a good way!

Edgcumbes Speciality Coffee

A few months ago I had ran out of my coffee supply that my friend Michelle in Wellington normally posts over to me from New Zealand. So I hot footed it to the local corner shop and rather than going for the mainstream brands, I found the locally soured shelf and an amazing brand of coffee from West Sussex. Clearly the coffee isn’t grown there, but it’s roasted there and the ideas come from there – Edgcumbes, based in Arundel, ever since then I haven’t looked back. I’m not talking freeze dried coffee granules here. I’m talking heady rich roasts, premium coffee blends and single origins from around the world. I always buy ground coffee for my cafetiere at home and now that I am totally in love with the Brazilian and Columbian Blends I have them in my travel cafetiere for the car journey to work each morning.

Normally I am a mass coffee drinker. I am talking seven or eight cups a day, although none after 4pm. Now that I start my morning with premium Edgcumbes coffee, I now usually only have two or three cups a day. Nothing beats the Edgcumbes blends and I have been known to take my cafetiere into the office specifically to make my own coffee, even though we have an awesome from the bean coffee machine at our office.

Edgcumbes is an artisan coffee roaster dedicated to sourcing, roasting and delivering the finest speciality coffees from around the world. The beans are roasted on site in Arundel, West Sussex where they now have a shop and a coffee bar, so you can enjoy the taste of coffee on site and talk through with the team the best blends, the provenance of the product and learn everything there is to know about the coffee bean. Edgcumbes are also tea blenders; the company was started by Christopher Rendle in 1981. Christopher has a long history of tea trading and buying and brought his own experiences into the Edgcumbe business. The have top estate teas, infusions and speciality blends.

“To small roasters like us, specialty coffee represents carefully roasting each batch and creating the particular roasting profile for each of our coffees to be enjoyed by particular brewing method. We invest a lot of time and effort in sourcing and selecting exemplary coffees” Edgcumbes

I took a trip to the roastery in Sussex and met with Alice and Christopher Rendle who told me all about the history of the business and how keen they are to make great tasting, premium coffee more well known on the high street and in our homes. Over the past 35 years they have developed strong relationships with growers, processors, brokers and shippers of their teas and coffees. Having being an importer myself, I love that they know where their product comes from, they’ve visited the farms, they know the communities from which the pickers come from.

Edgcumbes have a wide range of super-premium coffees from light roast to dark and including decaffeinated, which I have tested and I can’t taste the difference – so if you need to lower your caffeine intake but still love coffee.. it is the way forward! Their tea grange started with a single black tea but now encompasses fruits, herbals, greens and oolongs. I’m not a big tea drinker but I enjoyed sampling a range of oolongs and fruit teas during my visit to the shop and the berry tea, infused and cooled is one of the most refreshing drinks I have tried, and it’s caffeine free!

Also at the shop in a gorgeous converted old Dutch Barn near Arundel they have an amazing array of gadgets and accessories to boost your tea and coffee drinking experience. Definitely a good place to look up for some Christmas shopping or gift hunting. The key to good quality coffee is freshness and the right beans. At Edgcumbes you can see the green bean, the stamps of authenticity of origin and you can find out all about the smallholdings and cooperatives from Guatemala to Brazil, Ethiopia to Kenya where the coffee is sourced from.

There has been a coffee revolution in the last three years or so in the UK. Consumers are now demanding better coffee and a lot of coffee shops haven’t caught up yet. This is where Edgcumbes are trying to educate and encourage better coffee buying. There is a movement away from high roasting to medium roast which tastes so much better, with better depth of flavour. Edgcumbes are all about speciality tea and coffee, it does cost more than your average, but trust me it tastes so much better.

You can visit Edgcumbes Tea and Coffee at The Old Barn, Ford Lane, Near Arundel, BN18 0DF – 01243 555775 and buy online they have, for a limited time, free shipping on tea and coffee.

Tell them LadyM sent you and check out their instagram whilst you’re at it – for coffee inspiration and tea tantalisation.

Tags: Coffee Roasters, Edgcumbes, Edgcumbes Tea, Speciality Coffee