Real Food Festival Find: Azorieblue Coffee

'Imagine a coffee that’s smoother than a tiger in a tuxedo and more luxurious than a cashmere codpiece…'

The producers of Azorieblue Coffee make this seemingly crazy claim, but it's a good, if not creative description of their 100% Brazilian Arabica beans.

I have tasted it as a short strong espresso and as a longer filter version, with milk and can say that it's smooth, rich and chocolatey with a pleasing citrus acidity. The fact that it works both ways makes it a versatile roast not often found in many other coffees.

The beans come from world-renowned estates, all with BSCA accreditation. 

Not only does that mean it guarantees the quality of the beans, but it also assures us that it's ethical, so the estate workers get decent pay and working conditions.

The beans arrive in the UK and are then roasted to achieve a unique and special taste, which I could happily drink all day.

For more information about the coffee visit: azorieblue.com

Click here to read about The Real Food Festival


Product photo taken from Azorie Blue website

Real Food Festival

A good few days have passed, and I'm still reeling from the experience.
Described by its promoters as being Britain's biggest producer's market all under one roof, the Real Food Festival at Earls Court proved to be a very good show.

Making sure we arrive early – before the doors open, in fact – we manage to get round fairly easily before the major crowds begin to swell.

On entering, we are greeted by two adorable little pigs in a pen, which are there to remind us that 'pigs are worth it' and we should support our British pig farmer.
Supporting your 'local' producer is very much the theme of this show. It's not just about eating amazing food, but it dutifully urges us to appreciate the small people out there, who have a lot of pride and care in what they do.
This is certainly evident, as everyone we meet and speak to, are enthusiastic and passionate about their produce.

Sampling is definitely the order of the day and it's getting difficult to refuse all those little morsels. We are being offered everything from cheese to chocolate, bread to sausage, pickles… chutneys… jam… coffee and tea… beer… wine… spirits… It's all very good, but our palates start to feel a little tired, and there's only so much you can nibble on before you start to feel queasy!

Plus, it makes us feel guilty, when there is no way we can buy everything, but as many of the producers have online shops it is worth taking note for a later date.

We sit to digest and deliberate over coffee, as to what will be best to buy and go on a tour again to make our purchases. These I will go into in more detail, in later posts, when we've tested them more thoroughly.
After five enjoyable hours, we go home with bags stuffed full of goodies waiting to be tried and leaflets to be read.

Just one thing – what was with all that sawdust on the floor? Yes, it played the part of rustic shops and markets very well, but made our shoes exceedingly dusty. Not a good look on the train on the way home!

Food Heaven

This place can't be real! Am I really here, on earth? Or have I died and gone to heaven?

An extended London visit took us to Whole Foods Market in Kensington High Street, after a sleepless night's stay in Hammersmith, following a fabulous night out at a Björk concert.
We were still very hungry after the Holiday Inn Express breakfast, which to be frank, wasn't up to my standards. I hate sliced bread and I detest it even more when it goes through the conveyor toasting machine, only to emerge as dry hot floppy bread. I want proper toast and decent jam and marmalade to spread on it. Tasteless mini sachet portions of preserve will not do!

We came to Whole Foods Market in search of skyr, a delicious, yoghurt-like product from Iceland. On first tasting it, on one of our holidays there, we were seduced by it's creaminess – a creaminess which is not sinful as it's very low in fat.

Although we were on our mission, the rest of the shop could not be by-passed, so we made a grand tour.
I have never seen anything quite like it – everything you could possibly imagine, artfully arranged in piles of temptation. Everything is so fresh, colourful and enticing, that I fell into a state of culinary rapture!

Calming down after much excitement we bought our pots of blueberry skyr and ate it outside, (thankfully it comes with a spoon) our appetites now sated and bliss achieved!

For more information about skyr visit: www.skyr.is

So far, Whole Foods Market are the only stockists of skyr in the UK: www.wholefoodsmarket.co.uk

Photo taken from Skyr.is website

Roots and Shoots

It's been a while since my last post – three weeks, in fact – and a lot has happened in the kitchen garden since then. My tomato, pepper, courgette and pumpkin seeds have germinated and are well on their way to becoming good strong plants. They have produced their second true leaves, except for the peppers, which are slower to germinate and have only just popped out of the soil over the last couple of days.

As you can see from the photos, the plants are going so well that they're nearly ready to be potted up and put outside for a few hours each day to harden them off.

Two weeks ago, I also sowed some beetroot, carrot, radish, chive and spring onion seeds, directly into large containers outside. Nothing has happened yet, but the weather has been cold so I shall have to be patient.

We've also been to the garden centre and bought some thyme plants, which hubby and I put into some attractive galvanised metal troughs. I used to have some thyme in the garden, but it slowly disappeared – not due to any over zealous clipping on my part – I think it just got worn out of its own accord!

We also purchased some additional sage plants – not only are they useful for cooking but they make lovely fragrant shrubs.