An Evening with The East End WI in Good Taste!

posted at 2:06pm, 19 Aug 09 by Alex [ 1 comment ]

I first met the East End WI at the Paradise Gardens festival in Victoria Park where they were serving Cafédirect tea and coffee as well as great cakes in the tea dance tent.

east-end-wi-meeting2

As you’ll see on page 15 of September’s WI Life, we have designed Coffee Tasting Kits for Women’s Institute groups (and Fairtrade campaigners and steering groups) to use to pep up their meetings, discover our world of coffees and become coffee connoiseurs!

Before going to print with these kits, we thought it would be a good idea to trial them for ourselves, so not knowing quite what I was letting myself in for I decided that trying them out with the East End WI would be a good way to spend a Tuesday evening!

The evening consisted of a presentation from Mind about a local event followed by our coffee tasting session, which was interspersed by the women making Morsbags – which I learnt are a brilliant initiative to reduce plastic bags.

Although I was slightly nervous about presenting to a room full of women, I actually enjoyed it!

We kicked off with a short clip about Cafédirect, which helped get people excited about what our company stands for and gives a taste of there the coffee is actually from. Then we moved on to talking about tastes, blends, roasts and origins. As well as the three different coffees we were tasting (Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu and Rich Roast) we also had some tasty additions from Divine Chocolate and Tropical Wholefoods which got the flavours flowing.

When tasting the coffees, it was clear that these women were no strangers to good taste (I knew that from the moment I saw all the home baked cakes on arrival). They have much wine tasting experience under their belts and that translated to their coffee skills. They detected the hints of blackcurrant in Kilimanjaro, dark chocolate in Machu Picchu and smoky rich earthiness in the Rich Roast – I was impressed!

I was also impressed by the multitasking, as two of the star coffee tasters had also whipped up a stylish Morsbag by the end of the evening!

Thanks to Niki and the East End WI for inviting us, and thanks to Carolyn, who described me as ‘full bodied with a fruity liveliness’ – could be worse!

If you are a member of a WI or a Fairtrade group and would like to hold your own tasting session, email us at campaigns@cafedirect.co.uk.