Category: Blog

How to say ‘thank you’ to your customers this Christmas

Posted on by Sara Walker

As we all know, loyal customers are the backbone of any hospitality business. Whether you’re a small high street coffee shop or a larger business, it’s more important than ever to help customers feel appreciated. Here are a few ideas to say ‘thank you’.

Start a loyalty service

This doesn’t have to be complicated – all you need is a small printed card and a stamp. Offering every 10th drink free, or offering bonus products, is a great way of keeping customers returning. Also, remembering regular customers’ names or how they like their drinks will help them feel appreciated.

Offer bonus products

Everyone loves a bargain, and Christmas specials such as a free mince pie or festive biscuit with every drink for a limited period will help people remember you.

Organise events

Invite loyal customers to ‘members only’ events at your venue. You can offer anything from tastings of new coffees and other products to a talk or book reading. The element of exclusivity means that people will feel appreciated for their loyalty. Alternatively, if you’ve got a milestone coming up in your business (anniversary of opening, or fifth Christmas, or new premises), throw a bigger bash for customers to help celebrate.

‘Just because’ discounts

In this age of relentless promotions, deals are often just seen as a form of marketing. Go spontaneous with a ‘just because’ discount (offering 20% off hot drinks, for example, for the week before Christmas). The unexpectedness of the discount means it will be appreciated by customers.

Shout about it

If you don’t tell your customers you appreciate them, they won’t know! Create a big poster, and stick it up in the window or behind the bar area, thanking them for their custom. Encourage people to take snaps with the poster for social media, and offer prizes for your favourites.

Merry Christmas from all at the Wholesale Coffee Company, the home of wholesale coffee beans and coffee supplies for the restaurant and catering industry.

 

Top three coffee cocktails for Christmas

Posted on by Sara Walker
Image: Pixabay

Whether you love it or hate it, you can’t ignore the fact that the festive season is almost upon us. We’ve put together a round up of these delicious, sophisticated coffee cocktails, guaranteed to get any celebration off to a great start, or end the perfect dinner party.

Coco coffee punch

To make one serving, combine 60ml cold iced coffee with 60ml of coffee-flavoured liqueur such as Tia Maria or Kahlua. Mix in 30ml of coconut milk, and add sugar to taste. For a more visual impact, mix all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with some crushed ice, tip into a martini glass and top with coffee beans. The shaking gives the drink a frothy head like a cappuccino.

Coffee almond kick

To make one serving, you’ll need:

  • 60ml espresso coffee
  • 6 ice cubes
  • 1 measure (35ml) Amaretto
  • Sugar to taste
  • 30ml single cream

Put all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, and shake vigorously before 10 seconds or so. Strain the cocktail through a sieve into a martini glass, and serve immediately.

Very cherry cocktail
Cherries and coffee might seem an odd combination, but trust us, it works surprisingly well!
To make one serving, you’ll need:
  • 1 measure (30ml) whisky liqueur, such as Glayva or Drambuie
  • 40ml sour cherry juice (also called ‘tart cherry juice’, this is available from health food shops, online and from certain supermarkets)
  • 80ml cold coffee
  • 60ml original Coca Cola
  • 1 teaspoon sugar

Before you start, chill all the liquid ingredients in the fridge for at least an hour. Then, put everything in a large glass (you’ll need it to hold about 300ml), mix it up and tip in the sugar. The sugar will cause the Coca Cola to effervesce (which is why you needed a large glass!) – it looks spectacular, and tastes delicious.

For all your commercial coffee needs, including coffee beans, flavoured syrups, coffee accessories and coffee catering supplies, take a look at our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

Top three healthier coffee drinks for Christmas

Posted on by Sara Walker

Many coffee shops and restaurants offer seasonal specials on their drinks menu, but these options can often be loaded with extra sugar and cream. While Christmas is traditionally the time of indulgence, not everyone wants to blow their calorie budget on their morning coffee! We’ve put together some healthier suggestions that will still mean you can get your menu into the Christmas spirit.

Gingerbread latte

For one serving, you’ll need:

  • 1 shot of espresso coffee (60ml)
  • Around 300ml skimmed milk
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 tsp black treacle

What to do:

Put the milk and spices in a small saucepan, and heat until almost boiling. Stir in the coffee, and add the treacle, stirring to dissolve. Alternatively, use a milk foamer to heat the milk.

Seasalt caramel creme brulee latte

This drink has a complicated name, but is very simple to make. For one serving, you’ll need:

  • 1 shot of espresso coffee (60ml)
  • 1 tsp whipped cream
  • Squirt of caramel syrup
  • Pinch of seasalt
  • 300ml skimmed milk

Make the latte as usual, by foaming the milk and combining it with the coffee. Top with a single teaspoon on whipped cream, and drizzle with caramel syrup. Just before serving, sprinkle with a tiny pinch of seasalt, which adds texture and brings out the sweet flavours. For a hazelnut mocha version of this drink, replace the seasalt with a pinch of chocolate powder and the caramel syrup with hazelnut.

Chocolate almond latte

Using a small amount of dark chocolate chips adds flavour without too many calories.

For one serving, you’ll need:

  • 1 shot of espresso coffee (60ml)
  • 300ml unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 teaspoon dark chocolate chips
  • dusting of cocoa powder

Heat the milk either with a milk foamer or in a pan, and combine with the coffee. Add the chocolate chips and stir until dissolved. Top with a dusting of cocoa or chocolate powder.

For all your wholesale coffee ingredients, including flavoured syrups and coffee beans, all at competitive bulk prices, take a look at our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

 

 

 

 

Take a break, have a coffee

Posted on by Sara Walker
Image: Pixabay

Is your working day packed with a dozen urgent tasks, all vying for your attention? If so, you’re not alone. Most of us have repeated demands on our time and energy during the course of a normal day, and making a sustained effort to concentrate for long periods can lead to us become less rather than more productive.

As humans, we’re designed to operate at maximum capacity under short, sharp periods of stress (running away from predators or hunting, for example), followed by long periods of downtime. Modern life often forces us to operate in exactly the opposite way, which is exhausting both especially and mentally.

 

New research suggests that there’s a good reason we sometimes find it so hard to concentrate. Sustained focus involves using our frontal cortex, which requires more energy than other regions of our brain. If you continue to try and force concentration, eventually your brain will flip into ‘daydreaming mode’ to take a break.

If you’re under pressure, then deliberately stopping work for a little while may feel counter intuitive. There’s a lot of research to support the theory that doing something completely different for a while can actually increase productivity, though.

What you choose to do depends on how much time you have available. Exercise is a always a good option, offering the twin benefits of distraction and physical activity. If time doesn’t allow, then try chatting with coworkers (preferably on a different floor so you have to walk down the stairs!), or filling in a crossword or sudoku puzzle. If you can only spare a few minutes, then the most efficient thing you can do is make a cup of coffee. Not only will the ritual of filling the kettle and making the brew help to give you a break, but the caffeine itself helps improve reaction time, memory and attention span in the short term.

 

 

 

Here at the Wholesale Coffee Company, we’ve got everything you need for your office, cafe or commercial hospitality business. To browse our range of coffee beans and accessories, take a look at our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

 

Hallowe’en coffee specials for 31st October

Posted on by Sara Walker
If you like to offer seasonal specials in your coffee business, we’ve come up with some Hallowe’en ideas that are sure to grab those menu headlines.
Dripping blood cappuccino
This idea isn’t confined to cappuccinos, but you do need a coffee with a frothy top! You’ll also need to serve in a glass rather than a cup for the full effect.
Before you pour the coffee, drip the rim of each glass in a saucer of strawberry or raspberry syrup, just enough to colour it. Then, make the coffee as usual and drizzle more syrup across the top so it runs down the sides just a little. Garnish the saucer with glace cherries.
Marshmallow ‘ghosts’
Any regular coffee can be ‘spooked up’ with the addition of a little marshmallow ghost. All you need is marshmallows in two different sizes. Thread the larger one onto a cocktail stick, and follow with the smaller one. Using food colouring pens, draw eyes and a mouth onto the smaller marshmallow. Use to garnish the coffee itself (note – it will melt into the coffee!), or serve on the side
Screaming cream
If you offer whipped cream with drinks such as hot chocolate and cafe creme, add a ghostly touch. Either whip cream freshly from scratch and add a few drops of red or green food colouring, or spray it into a bowl and mix the colouring in. Top the drink with ‘normal’ cream and add a couple of blobs of the coloured cream for effect – you could also use it to make little faces.
Here at the Wholesale Coffee Company, we’ve got coffee beans, supplies, accessories and everything else you need for your commercial coffee business, all available at great wholesale prices. To browse our full range, take a look at our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

Why coffee and cake are the perfect combination

Posted on by Sara Walker
Image: Pixabay

The Americans like coffee and doughnuts for breakfast. Here in the UK, we prefer to keep our caffeine-and-sugar for coffee break time. Now, a new study in the The Journal of Food Science has produced evidence to explain why coffee and sugar is such a popular combination.

The research suggests that caffeine could decrease your sensitivity to sweet tastes and alter your perceived sense of taste, meaning that after a cup of coffee you’re more likely to want sugary foods.

New coffee research explains ‘coffee break’ cake

The research involved asking two sets of volunteers to ‘blind taste’ either decaffeinated or regular caffeinated coffee, and add sugar to the drink they’d been given. The participants who drank sugared caffeinated coffee considered it to taste less sweet than those who drank decaf. The next step was to ask people to guess whether they were drinking caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee by considering their state of mental alertness. All the members of the group said they felt as though they’d received a boost in their mental state and not many were able to correctly guess which drink they’d had.

Our brains contain a chemical called adenosine, which helps us switch off our alertness and go to sleep at night. Caffeine helps suppress the adenosine receptors and fools us into thinking we feel more alert.

The artificial caffeine boost is a temporary one, as is the effect that caffeine has on our tastebuds. That doesn’t stop us reaching for the cake to go with our coffee, though – and now we know there’s a scientific explanation to back us up!

For all your commercial coffee supplies, including coffee beans and accessories such as milk, sugar, cups, lids and stirrers, take a look at our main website www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk – we’re the perfect partner to serve with your cake.

 

Coffee fads – ‘coffee in a bag’

Posted on by Sara Walker
Image: Pixabay

Teabags, introduced as a quick, easy, mess-free way of brewing up, have been with us for a while. In fact, patents for hand-sewn fabric teabags were first filed as early as 1903. So, with coffee now firmly ensconced as the UK’s favourite drink ahead of tea, have you ever wondered why no-one’s invented a ‘coffeebag’?

 

Step forward Raw Bean Ltd, a small, artisan producer based in Winchester, who earlier this year launched Bean Bags – pre-roasted and ground specialty coffee, in a single-serve bag. While it’s not quite the first such offering on the market, it is the first to use high-grade specialty coffee. The bags themselves look like the design of a certain major tea company – pyramid-shaped and larger than normal teabags. Each one contains 12 grams of pure arabica coffee, which is roasted specially for each order to make sure it’s as fresh as possible. The larger bag leaves room for the coffee to infuse. So far there are three products in the range – a single origin, a blend and a Columbian single-origin decaff. More varieties are also planned for the future.

Are coffeebags the future?

So is this the future of homebrew coffee? It’s a great idea – to deliver a hit of high-quality caffeine with the convenience of a teabag. No more messing around with coffee machines or filters – just pop the bag in and off you go. However, we’re included to think it won’t knock home coffee machines out of pole position. With a bag, it’s too easy to get the water temperature wrong and end up with a bitter brew. The main danger, though, is forgetting you’re in the middle of something and leaving the bag in too long for a result that’s only fit for the bin. Most home coffee machines just require charging with coffee and water and leaving, and they’ll take care of filtering, water temperature and brew quality with no further input. Standing over a coffeebag, waiting for the right moment to whisk it out with a spoon, might be more trouble rather than less. We can see a place for them as a convenience product though – for example if you’re camping. We suspect that these won’t catch on with coffee aficionados, who prefer a more purist brewing method, but that doesn’t mean there’s no place for them at all.

To browse our range of (traditional!) coffee beans, coffee accessories and coffee supplies for your commercial catering business, restaurant or cafe, take a look at our main website www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

Espresso cupcakes for National Cupcake Week

Posted on by Sara Walker
Image: Pixabay

Organised by British Baker Magazine, National Cupcake Week is designed to get more of us into this kitchen between 18th and 25th September. It’s aimed at both individuals and organisations, and there are events planned up and down the country. We’ve put together an easy cupcake recipe using our favourite ingredient – coffee! If you run a cafe or coffee shop, you can get involved by offering a batch of our caffeine-packed creations alongside your normal menu. Alternatively, just pull on your best apron and get the wooden spoon out, as these are perfect for coffee breaks. Here’s what to do:

To make 10 to 12 cupcakes (depending on size), you’ll need:

Espresso cupcakes recipe ingredients

For the cakes:

  • Either 30ml freshly-made espresso coffee plus 200ml hot water, or 230ml strong, hot, black coffee
  • 60g cocoa
  • 180g self raising flour
  • 110g softened butter or margarine
  • 200g brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 freerange eggs

For the buttercream topping:

  • 1 tablespoons warm milk
  • 1/4 teaspoon instant coffee powder
  • 225g icing sugar (plus a little extra)
  • 3 tablespoons melted butter
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa, sifted

Optional: chocolate-covered coffee beans for decoration

What to do:

Preheat the over to 180 degrees Celsius, and prepare a muffin tin with paper cases. Mix the cocoa and coffee together with the hot water, if using.

In a separate bowl, beat the butter or margarine and sugar together until fluffy, then add the eggs a little at a time. Add the flour, and beat until you have a smooth batter. Add in the chocolate/coffee mixture and beat until smooth.

Divide the mixture between the muffin cases – you should get 10 to 12 depending on how big the cases are. Don’t fill the cases more than 3/4 full or they’ll overflow when baking!

Transfer to the over, and bake for around 12 to 15 minutes until well risen and springy on top. Remove from the tin, and leave to cool on a wire rack while you make the topping.

For the buttercream, dissolve the coffee in the milk and add in the other ingredients. Mix everything until smooth, adding a little more icing sugar if it looks a little thin. Pipe swirls on top of the cupcakes, and add a chocolate-covered coffee bean if like.

For coffee ingredients, including coffee beans, coffee supplies and coffee accessories for your commercial coffee business, take a  look at our main website www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk

Coffee fads: could this be the world’s strongest coffee?

Posted on by Sara Walker

More crazy coffee news from (have you guessed it? That’s right) Australia. From the country that brought us the avo-latte, the carrot-cino and the flat white (OK, that last one might have been a good idea) comes what could be the world’s strongest cup of coffee. Invented ‘for fun’ but available to brave customers, the drink, named the ‘Adelaide Asskicker’, contains 80 times more caffeine than a standard cup of coffee.

It’s made up from four espresso shots, 120ml of cold brew coffee (where the beans were left to steep for 10 days), and eight coffee ice cubes (made from cold brew coffee where the beans were left to steep for 48 hours). Phew! Each ice cube alone is thought to contain caffeine equivalent to two espresso shots. The owner of the Viscous Cafe, who invented the drink, advises that it should be drunk very slowly over a three to four hour period, and the resulting caffeine buzz may take several hours to wear off. He says he put the super-coffee together on request for a shift-working nurse who needed to keep awake. The drink is now on the menu, but comes with a health warning that customers should drink it at their own risk.

While we like a nice strong cup of coffee as much – if not more – than the next person, we won’t be advocating putting a week’s worth of caffeine in a cup and drinking it all at once! We believe coffee should be savoured, so that’s why we’re committed to tracking down the best quality beans and roasting and grinding them ourselves to maintain quality control. To browse our range of top quality coffee beans and coffee accessories, all available at great wholesale prices and suitable for every commercial coffee business, visit our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

How to make your own coffee spread

Posted on by Sara Walker
Image: Pixabay

This year’s UK Coffee Week saw the launch of the world’s first Espresso Spread, a caffeine-packed spread designed for livening on your morning toast. With 35g of coffee per 285g jar, the commercial brand has a slightly bitter, caffeine-heavy taste that’s designed to appeal to adults only. We’ve come up with a couple of variations for a slightly less intense alternative.

Coffee breakfast spread recipes

Creamy chocolate and coffee breakfast spread

You’ll need:

  • 150g low fat cream cheese
  • 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
  • 1 teaspoon instant coffee
  • 30g good quality plain chocolate

What to do:

Gently melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl with short burst in the microwave. Allow to cool slightly, then add in the cream cheese and coffee. Taste, and add sugar to your liking. Add a little more instant coffee if you prefer a bigger caffeine hit. This spread will need to be kept in the fridge, and should be used within a week.

Coffee bean breakfast punch

This one’s slightly more serious, and contains real coffee beans for a caffeine hit.

You’ll need:

  • 230g mascarpone
  • 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
  • 50g good quality plain chocolate
  • 30g roasted espresso beans

Start by grinding the beans. If you don’t have a coffee grinder, use a food processor and continue to grind until you have a very fine powder. Melt the chocolate in the microwave and allow to cool, then mix together all the ingredients. Add the sugar a little at a time, to taste. This spread needs to be kept refrigerated and should be used within two to three days.

For all your commercial coffee needs, take a look at our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk. We’ve got everything you need for your coffee business or restaurant, including coffee beans, milk, sugar, accessories and ground coffee, all available at great wholesale prices.