Launch of Dark Fluid Coffee and UKBC 2nd place...

I have recently gone into partnership with my friend Lawrence (some of the Exchange crowd down at Lewisham will be familiar with him as the coffee nut down there and the guy that did open air roasting last year for Coffeekids on the stall). Our new coffee venture is Dark Fluid Coffee. Please do go and have a look at our new website (www.darkfluid.co.uk), coffee will be available to buy some time next week hopefully, we have a nice selection lined up for you to get up and running, else you can come and find us and say hello down at the 'Cheese and Wine Festival' this Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the Southbank behind the Royal Festival Hall.
So.......we entered our own roasted coffee in the UKBC competiton this year (a little under cover) and ended up coming in second place, which was great. To compete with the established roasters out there in the UK and be rewarded so early on is hugely encouraging for us. We got the award for the Best Cappucino and shared the Best Signature drink prize with the winner John Gordon. (www.scaeuk.com) The picture above is us with our awards afterwards, doesn't Lawrence looked chuffed!!! So please do go and take a look at our webpage and see the quantum journey of coffee that we are embarking on, and maybe even consider trying some of our coffees when they come along next week, we'd love you to try us out and give us some feedback. All the positive spirit of Exchange Coffee that I have fostered will be rolled into our new venture and I hope all of my followers at Exchange Coffee will come and join Lawrence and I on the next step forward. We'll be tweeting and blogging etc etc much more regularly than I have been here at Exchange over time, so come and join us at Dark Fluid Coffee and enjoy the ride.

Peace

Neil

Exchange Coffee back at Lewisham this Saturday.

After an extended break from the stall, (I have just got back from Australia after having had a good look at the much spoken about coffee culture there while I was travelling through, especially in Melbourne), I'll be back at the Clocktower serving up some nice brews again tomorrow (8ish til 4/5ish). Come down and say hello if you get this blog, and help keep me warm. I look forward to seeing some of you regulars again over the coming weeks. A belated Happy New Year to everyone out there.

Peace

South Bank Centre Cheese and Wine Festival

Last weekend was the return of The London Cheese and Wine Festival and we found ourselves in a beautiful spot at the Southbank.

Amongst a delicious selection of Cheese and Wines from around the world and opportunities to experience tutored tastings and demonstrations we were making our delicious coffee.

The weather was wonderful and crisp for most of the weekend, the Espresso flowed thick, and heavy and we were back onto Monmouth's Espresso blend once again after a long period of enjoying a variety of Single Estate Coffees. It was great to have our friend Richie (Farmer's fellow roaster down at Monmouth) for 2 days brewing his own roasted coffee on our linea. Richie had a great rapport with the customers and it was a pleasure to work with him behind the machine. Mid air tamping in full flow is a joy to watch from the DJ from New Zealand (our best kept secret).

For those who couldn't make it to the Southbank we would really encourage you to venture down next year to sample some of the wonderful food and drink offered by a variety of passionate and independent suppliers. Thanks to the girls next door for providing us with delicious wraps of food for our sustenance throughout the festival, and to our Scottish friend for the chocolate coated cheese fare?!?!


If all this talk of food and drink spikes your interest then do be sure to visit the upcoming Chocolate Festival which is a free event Friday 10 Dec 2010 - Sunday 12 Dec 2010 where you will find us making our coffee amongst a variety of award-winning chocolatiers.

This week we'll be back home in Lewisham and can't wait to catch up with our regular customers, come down and keep warm with us.

Om Shanti.

Chilli Festival 'Best Show' award for Exchange Coffee

At the recent Chilli festival 2010 down in Brighton a couple of weekends ago Lawrence, Toby and I managed to concoct the 'World's Hottest Chilli Espresso' which fortunately took the plaudits for the 'Best in Show' product. Toby created a Naga chilli infused palm sugar syrup, Lawrence muddled a small amount of his brownie in the base of the cup (the old Michelin wizard), with a couple of pieces of finely shaved lemon peel, which we then combined with our Caravan (Brazil, Costa Rica and Nicaragua) ristretto dosed on top. It was extremely hot but after the 'fire' had lulled there were some very distinct flavours emanent. Have a gander at our friend Darth Naga's home video to get a feel of the festival www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRUXdRFQVXQ. I would really recommend a visit at the next one they hold, even James and Annette were at this one!? http://www.fieryfoodsuk.co.uk/.

So this Saturday Chris will be at the stall under the clocktower at Lewisham from 8-5. He'll have 3 different single origins from Monmouth for the day which he'll making his espressos with. I am sure he'll be blending some of these too at times, it should be a positive experimental day for him. He's nearly the got the hang of good solid hearts on his latte art now, so get along and pay him a visit! I'll be up in Northampton helping Steve of the newly found 'Peel and Peel' with his little concession for the day up there. I am sure Farmer will make a great success of his venture, and we wish him good luck. His Lever I know will be pulling some delicious shots of Monmouth's blend, and I'll hopefully be making some tasty milk to go with them.

Exchange Coffee are also fully supporting Body and Soul's expected 3,000 sell out at the Barbican soon. It sounds like a good line up and there are special guests too so they tell us. http://www.bodyandsoulcharity.org/. Get yourself along on ") October, Annie Lennox is playing.

Peace,

Neil