Mega purchasing power: Bring us to your Uni!

posted at 4:50pm, 11 Mar 10 by Whitney [ 1 comment ]

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending an Environmental Technology MSc seminar at Imperial College London.  I was there  with our Head of Supply Chain, Paul Rodin, to speak to the students about how we take on the challenge of being a sustainable company.

One of the most interesting topics of discussion was whether or not ‘trade offs’ were necessary, to which I promptly replied ‘absolutely!’.  Even for a business like ours, where our social mission is clear, trying to balance interrelated social, environmental and economic needs is complex and often requires subjective opinions and decisions. It’s a constant balancing act and is enough to make your head spin.

While we didn’t have any easy answers for the questions posed by the students, at least we could all confidently sip our early morning caffeine because Imperial College serves Cafédirect!

When a Uni (or workplace or café, etc.) chooses to stock ethical products such as ours, it can make a huge difference.  Not only does the Uni itself make a statement about what they stand for, all the patrons are exposed to the products and can then spread the word beyond the Uni itself.

On that note, if you’re keen to get Cafédirect products into your Uni, email Harriet, our Trade Marketing Manager here.

Then you too can put the purchasing power of your Uni behind a company like ours, not to mention getting your hands on our delicious tea, coffee and cocoa.

Recipe of the month – Tiffin-tastic!

posted at 2:56pm, 10 Mar 10 by Siobhan [ 1 comment ]

The humble Tiffin, or Hedgehog Slice (as it’s also known) is an amazingly simple way of making a great lunchbox treat or afternoon tea snack. John, our Sales Operations Manager, made this one up, late one night, after a gig with his band, and it came second in our bake-off.

Ingredients:
1 Pack digestive biscuits
4 tablespoons Cafédirect San Cristobal Drinking Chocolate
160g butter
1 handful of raisins
2 tablespoons Fairtrade golden syrup or honey
300g Divine Dark Chocolate

Instructions:

John's Tiffin

1. Crush the digestives in a large bowl. Ideally you should have a mixture of crumbs and some small pieces.
2. Add the San Cristobal and mix the bowl well so that the digestives turn brown.
3. Melt the butter.
4. Add the butter to the mixture and stir in. This will help the mixture stick together.
5. Add the raisins and the golden syrup/honey and mix it all up.
6. Press the mixture into a shallow tray and try to make it as smooth as possible.
7. Melt the chocolate (in a bowl over some simmering water). You may want to add a little milk to think the mixture.
8. Pour on top and smooth over the mixture.

Put it in the fridge over night (or if you can’t wait, pop it in to the freezer!) and you’re done.
Enjoy!

Friday Fun – Caption competition!

posted at 11:21am, 05 Mar 10 by Yasmin [ 42 comments ]

The last two weeks have seen Tea ladies invading the streets of Westminister, Teadances all over the UK including the London dance at Spitalfields last Saturday,

There are only 2 more days left of Fairtrade Fortnight but, in the same spirit of a dog being life and not just for Christmas, there is still loads of stuff you can do to make your Big Swap to Cafédirect Tea!

* host your own Cafédirect Tea Party using one of our exciting kits

* tagging yourself and your friends on Facebook

* uploading your own photos or videos onto our Tea Party page for a chance to win a gourmet cupcake-making class

* send your friends a tea-greeting and get 50p off Cafédirect tea

* make the office tea-round fairer by persuading your workplace to go Cafédirect

* Swap your clothes for a pack of our delicious Everyday Tea at Oxfam shops

* and enter this week’s Friday Fun….

Here is a photo of Cafédirect Tea Lady Chrissie preparing for her Tea Party. We’d like to call this photo ‘One lump or two’ but realise that that’s a bit of a lame effort. So if you can come up with a better caption you could win some Fairtrade goodies!

The rules are simple:
Think of a creative caption for this photo and  post it to the comment box of this blog post.
You have until 5.30pm today to post your caption.
The winning caption will be chosen and announced on Monday on our blog. (Prizes can only be sent to a UK or Ireland postal address.)

The chosen caption will win some Cafédirect goodies, a Bodum cafétiere, two Cafédirect mugs and some gorgeous Divine chocolate with raspberries!

this week's prize!

Fair Espresso Martini – not for tea-totallers

posted at 1:53pm, 03 Mar 10 by Alex [ 4 comments ]

As we head towards the final weekend of Fairtrade Fortnight you are probably all looking for ways to put the finishing touches to your Tea Party plans!

FAIR Fairtrade quinoa vodka

For those of you that aren’t tea-totallers, the world of Faritrade is your oyster, and you can even join The Big Swap and round off the party with Fairtrade Vodka!

We’ve teamed up with our friends at Fair Vodka to bring you the Fair Espresso Martini, in a couple of simple steps…

What you’ll need (for each cocktail)
4 cl FAIR™ – Fairtrade quinoa vodka (available online here)
3 cl Cafédirect coffee

2 cl Fairtrade Vanilla infused sugar syrup (can be home made)
Dash of cream
Plenty of Ice!
Ideally cocktail shaker too!

Step 1
Prepare the vanilla syrup.
Add 500g Fairtrade golden sugar to 400 ml water, bring it to the boil, add the vanilla pod and allow to cool. You can keep it in a bottle for a while and reuse at your leisure.

Step 2
Prepare the coffee!

Ideally you’d use a 3cl shot of Cafédirect espresso coffee, but if you don’t have access to an espresso machine, don’t let this put you off – simply prepare some strong Rich Roast – our friend Theo knows all about this . Then allow to cool.

Step 3
Add all ingredients to the shaker
Shake vigorously (do not stir – if you want to create a stir go here)  Serve in a Martini glass and strain the ice off.
It you want to make it very fancy (like our delightful photo here) you can try to float a dash of cream on top and garnish with a few Machu Picchu coffee beans, or perhaps a sprinkle of Fairtrade cinnamon or San Cristobal drinking chocolate!

Fair Espresso Martini

Remember – Drink Responsibly!