Category: Blog

Sometimes, a coffee fad comes along that we can completely see the point of (anything involving chocolate, or baked goods for example). At other times, though, a fad arrives that leaves us scratching our heads in bewilderment.

The lemon coffee trend

Popular on TikTok at the moment is ‘lemon coffee’, which is exactly what it sounds like – coffee mixed with lemon juice. The idea, apparently, is that the ‘superfood’ powers of caffeine and fresh lemon juice will combine to make an amazing superfluid, capable of leaping tall buildings in one go. Or something like that.

Can lemon coffee help you lose weight?

The mixture of black coffee and lemon juice is also being touted as a weight loss potion. In a way, we can sort of believe this – after all, drinking anything that sounds that nasty probably would put you off eating for the rest of the day! According to The Metro, nutritionists have debunked claims that lemon coffee could help you lose weight or have any particular health benefits. In fact, the combination of acidic lemon juice and caffeine could have a deleterious effect on your teeth, if you drink it regularly.

Great wholesale coffee

Honestly, to us it just sounds like a waste of good coffee. Adding lemon juice to our favourite brew just doesn’t appeal at all and sounds like it could be a really bitter, unpleasant combination. As vitamin C is sensitive to temperature, we also wonder if there’s going to be much benefit left once you’ve added it to hot coffee. On the whole, we’d rather enjoy our coffee ‘straight’ – with coffee as good as ours it seems a shame to add anything but milk and possibly a spot of sugar. To browse our range of great quality ground coffee and coffee beans at sensible wholesale prices, please visit our main website.

If, like most of us, you love the smell of fresh coffee then you’ve probably already experimented with cooking with it. Coffee cakes and bakes are the usual go-to recipes, but have you ever thought of trying a savoury dish?

Coffee grounds work surprising well as rubs or marinades for meat. Not only do they add a good depth of flavour, but they’re readily available and can help you reduce kitchen waste. Once you’ve brewed your coffee, just pop the grounds in a sealed jar in the fridge and use them within a week. Coffee works particularly well with other strong flavours such as paprika. It doesn’t really taste like coffee when used in this way – in fact, if you’re cooking for a dinner party and challenge your guests to identify the earthy flavour they’ll probably struggle!

Coffee grounds rub for meat recipe

To make a rich , thick paste suitable for most types of meat (including beef, chicken and pork), you’ll need:
A good single handful of coffee grounds
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon chilli flakes (according to taste)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tsp garlic granules, or two cloves garlic, minced

What to do to make a delicious coffee grounds meat rub

Mix everything together until you have a very stodgy paste (if it’s too thick to be workable you might need to add a little more oil).

If you use coffee grounds as a rub and then fry or roast the meat, the grounds may burn and taste bitter. The best way to cook coffee-rubbed meat is as part of a pot roast. Pat a thick layer of the rub onto the meat until it forms a crust. Fry off a couple of onions and anything else you fancy putting in, such as carrots or celery. Lay the meat on top of the vegetables and add enough liquid to cover the vegetables. For liquid, you can use a mixture of red or white wine and water, or just water.

Cook at 240 degrees C for around 20 minutes or until the liquid is boiling, then turn down the heat and cook for around three hours (depending on the meat you’ve used – beef will take longest). The meat should be very tender and flavourful. Serve with green vegetables and the potatoes of your choice.

If you’re a coffee aficionado, you’ll love our range of top-quality coffee beans, all available at great wholesale prices. To find out more, visit the coffee beans page of our website.

Have you ever accepted someone’s offer to make you a cup of coffee and wished you hadn’t? While you might appreciate the gesture, the coffee itself might be less welcome – particularly if it’s too milky, too sweet or over or under brewed.

Coffee drinks are fussy, according to new study

A new study commissioned by a major Italian coffee company found that of the 2,000 participants just under half would be reluctant to let anyone else make them a coffee. The actual concern varied, with some worried the finished drink would be too weak and others that it would be too strong. A surprisingly large 14 per cent even worried about the mug it would be presented in! Other factors included the amount of sugar, temperature and the type of coffee – i.e. instant or beans. Of those surveyed, around 300 people considered themselves to be expert coffee makers and to be able to deliver the perfect brew.

First cup of the day is the most importanty

Participants were particularly keen to make the first cup of the day themselves, as it has to be perfect. Almost one fifth of those asked wouldn’t even trust their other half to make the morning coffee, and a similar number wouldn’t rely on their boss to get it right. Around 14 per cent have even argued with someone over a cup of coffee they judged to be not up to scratch.
Around a fifth of participants use a bean to cup machine to get the perfect brew, while a surprisingly high number (73 per cent) were happy to settle for instant.

However you drink your coffee, here at the Wholesale Coffee Company we know that the best way to get the perfect result is to start with good quality ingredients. We stock premium quality coffee beans and accessories, all available at great wholesale prices. Just visit the coffee page of our website to find out more.

If you’re a coffee aficionado and send time in a lot of coffee bars, you might have noticed a new name popping up on menus – the cortado. It’s a small, strong black coffee, shot through with steamed milk in a half and half ratio. It’s popular in Portugal and Argentina as well as its place of origin, Spain. It is now making its way to the UK. The name comes from the Spanish ‘cortar’, meaning ‘to cut’, as the coffee is ‘cut through’ with milk.

It’s slightly different from anything else on the menu – it’s less milk than a latte, doesn’t use frothed or textured milk like a cappuccino or a flat white and is smaller and milkier than a macchiato. You might not see it on menus nationwide, but specialist coffee shops are making room for it. In the USA, the same drink is sometimes confusingly called a ‘Gibraltar’ but here it seems to be firmly a cortado.

Why are cortados so popular?

already on the market, you’d be forgiven for thinking there isn’t really room for another! Apparently, the preparation method of the cortado results in the steamed milk reducing any acidity in the coffee. The pairing gives a strong but rich flavour.

Can I make a cortado at home?

You can indeed! You’ll need to have the equipment to make an espresso, and to steam the milk. Just make a regular espresso shot (around 30ml) from your favourite freshly ground coffee beans. Pour it into a cup – glass cups are traditional for cortados. Steam the milk without letting it get too frothy. Pour out the same quantity of milk as you used for your espresso (around 30ml) and pour it over the espresso. And enjoy!

For all your coffee supplies, including coffee beans, at great wholesale prices, please visit our main website at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

If you know your coffee, you might think that’s a easy question to answer – after all, espresso is stronger, yes? Well, yes – but only by default and that certainly isn’t all there is to it. Order an espresso, and you’ll get 60ml of strong, full-caffeine black coffee. Order regular, and you’ll get a much larger cup of something less full-on. The main difference, though, is in the preparation.

‘Espresso’ is so called because hot water is pushed through the ground coffee at speed. With filtered coffee, the water drips through the coffee at a much slower speed. The two drinks may well start out using the same beans, but the different preparation methods will produce very different results. Most of us can produce a decent cup of regular coffee at home using the brewing method of our choice, but to make a decent espresso you really need a proper espresso machine.

As espresso contains a stronger coffee-to-water proportion, it has a more concentrated and richer flavour. It also contains more caffeine to the millilitre, which is why it’s traditionally served in such small cups. Due to its flavour, espresso is often used as a base for other drinks – for example, a latte is a shot of espresso topped up with hot milk. The stronger flavour means that the coffee taste is preserved, even when there’s not that much coffee in your glass.

Espresso beans are traditionally a darker roast than those used for standard coffee, but that doesn’t have to be the case. They are generally a finer grind, though, to extract the maximum amount of flavour in a short brewing time.
Visit our coffee beans page to view our range of premium coffee beans, all available at great wholesale prices for your coffee business or just to drink at home.

We do love an interesting coffee story, and this one has all the ingredients of an unusual tale. Bumblebees are vital for helping to pollinating Britain’s crops, but in recent years they’ve been declining in number. Climate change is part of the problem, and the increased use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers is having an impact too. With wild pollinators on the decrease, fruit growers are turning to ‘managed pollinators’ to help them produce food crops. These can include ‘commercial bumblebee’ colonies, which have been raised for the specific purpose of helping pollinate crops. The farmer can simply purchase a colony and position it near his crops.

However, these commercial bees aren’t as efficient as wild bees so researchers are undertaking experiments to see if they can be ‘trained’ to recognise specific flower scents. These experiments include spraying robotic flowers with a specific scent and seeing if they recognise it. As part of the project, bees were offered caffeine which appeared to make them more motivated and efficient at their job. The caffeine was used to help reward the bee when it found the correct flower sent – and the results were positive. Bees raised on the special mixture were much more likely to head to the correct flowers, and not get distracted on the way.
The study may have significant implications for UK agriculture, although researchers did add that a full scale trial needs to take place to confirm the findings.

We’re delighted to hear that it looks like Britain’s bumblebees may love caffeine as much as we do! If you’re a coffee lover too, then take a look at our main website to discover our range of top quality coffee beans, coffee accessories and more. All are available to buy online at competitive wholesale prices, perfect for use in your commercial coffee business or just at home.

Yes, you read that right – coffee flavoured bacon. Sometimes a coffee trend comes along that’s so off the wall that we can’t quite decide whether it’s a genius idea or a terrible one. Perhaps it’s both at once. We’ve had the rainbow latte, we’ve had the candyfloss coffee, we’ve had the avocado latte – and now, coffee flavoured bacon has hit the shelves in a popular budget supermarket. Honestly, we don’t really know what to think.

Does coffee flavoured bacon make the perfect breakfast?

We’re not denying that coffee and bacon can make great partners for breakfast. After all, many people’s idea of a perfect start to the weekend is tucking into a full fry up with a couple of mugs of their favourite brew. What we’re not so sure about, though, is whether combining two admittedly great things into one single thing is going to end well or not.

Is coffee flavoured bacon just a trend?

There’s no news yet on what it does to the flavour and whether or not you can actually taste the coffee. If the meat has a strong coffee taste then we can’t imagine it’s going to work well. If the coffee lends a slightly darker colour and a subtle sweetness though, then it could be a genius idea.

We think on the whole that we’ll be keeping our coffee and our bacon separate on the breakfast table – just call us old-fashioned traditionalists! We think that good quality coffee and bacon don’t need any improvement, they’re both pretty good by themselves. To find our more about our range of top quality coffee beans and ground coffee, all available to buy online at great wholesale prices, just take a look at our main web page at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk. We’ve got coffee accessories and tea, too – and absolutely no bacon!

We always like to follow the latest coffee trends, and compared to avocado lattes, candyfloss lattes and more the Biscoff latte seems pretty mainstream! After all, Biscoff biscuits and coffee have a long standing relationship. For those who didn’t know, Biscoff biscuits were developed in Belgium in the 1930s by Lotus Bakeries and they’re still thriving today. Flavoured with spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves they’re often found balanced on the side of the saucer when you order a coffee, and make a great partner for your drink. Lotus also make Biscoff ice cream and Biscoff spread, and it’s the latter that has lead to the latest summer drink – the Biscoff latte.

This drink ticks all the boxes for a hot-weather caffeine fix – it’s long, iced and looks good in a glass! It’s simple to make at home, as well. Just brew up a strong, black 30ml of your favourite coffee, and stir in a couple of good spoonfuls of Biscoff spread. Leave it to cool, then add to a blender with the milk of your choice – dairy, almond or soy all work well. Pulse until smooth, taste and sweeten if necessary. Pour into a tall glass and add ice. Serve with a Biscoff biscuit or two on the side! You could also drink this hot – just stir the spread into the hot coffee until it dissolves, then add milk to taste. If you’re serving it hot, you could also add a spoonful to whipped cream to the top and sprinkle a crushed biscuit over it.

If you’re looking for ingredients for any summer coffee (or you’d just like some top quality coffee beans at a great wholesale price) then you’ve come to the right place – just take a look at the coffee beans page of our main website.

We don’t whether it’s lockdown or whether it would have happened anyway, but the results of a new survey seem to indicate that we’re drinking more coffee than before. The last time a similar study was carried out in 2018, of the 2,000 people who took part, around a third said they drank no coffee at all. Now, of the latest batch of 2,000 people studied, 86% drink coffee regularly. On average, UK coffee drinkers consume 1,352 cups a year each. Instant came out as the most popular (or possibly just the most practical!) with 312 cups each a year, followed by156 Americanos and even 104 espresso martinis! The average coffee-lover apparently consumes 26 cups of coffee or coffee-flavoured drinks during a typical week, which can include anything from iced coffee to coffee liqueur.

The study goes on to say that over an average lifetime coffee drinkers will be consuming over 85,000 cups of coffee, which is pretty impressive! Three fifths of us are also reluctant to go a whole day without coffee. It also seems that during lockdown we’ve discovered the espresso martini – well, it has been a very stressful few months! Coffee lovers have made an average of each of the cocktails at home during the last year.

Stuck with making our own coffee at home during the last few months, many of us are enjoying visits back to our local coffee shops now restrictions have eased enough to allow indoor dining. Supporting small businesses and enjoying our caffeine fix at the same time is a great thing for everyone!

However you like your coffee, it’s important to use good quality beans and that’s where we come in. We stock top quality beans and ground coffee, all available at competitive wholesale prices so you don’t run out! To browse our main range, take a look at www.wholesalecoffeecompany.co.uk.

No, that isn’t our opinion (except for the coffee bit, that’s always welcome) – it’s the result of a new study. Car insurance company U-Switch and behavioural science consultancy CX Lab got together to study how a group of drivers reacted under certain conditions.
The drivers involved in the study was varied, with a third of the sample having held a UK licence for more than 25 years. Most of the group drove regularly, at least for times every week.

As you might expect, researchers confirmed that coffee (or rather, caffeine) was the factor that improved response times the most. When travelling at 70mph, those drinking caffeinated coffee were able on average to stop around 24 metres before those who hadn’t had any coffee.

The surprise factor in the experiment was the fact that your choice of music could affect your reactions while driving! Many of us have a driving playlist containing anything from pop to heavy metal, depending on our tastes, but it seems that rap music is the genre most likely to keep us alert. Scientists trialled different genres of music and rap was found to have the most positive impact. Participants were able to stop around 15 metres sooner than if they’d been travelling in a silent environment with no music at all. Some music, in particular R&B, actually had a negative effect on responses – obviously it makes us just too relaxed! (Don’t worry, the tests were carried out in a driving simulator rather than in actual cars so participants and passing pedestrians were quite safe!)

If you’re not sure you’ve got the courage to add rap music to your driving playlist, then why not stick with the coffee?! We supply top quality coffee beans and ground coffee, all available at competitive wholesale prices – just take a look at our main Wholesale Coffee Company website to find out more.