This is the first time that the Container House has travelled up to Scotland and we were excited to meet Cafédirect fans and first-time tasters in Edinburgh.

As well as tasting two of our single origin coffees, the Container House also became a popular pit stop for comedians, actors, production crews and festivalgoers too.

Here’s a snapshot of our ten days in Scotland …

Jennifer Coolidge drops by Cafédirect Container House for a well-earned coffee after her sold-out shows

Toasting their Cafédirect with Scottish Style

Basketball team from Franklin & Marshall, Pennysylvania refuel with before they take on the Edinburgh Kings. I think they chose Kilimanjaro because it goes with their outfits...

You can see more photos from the Container House at all other locations on flickr and facebook. Don’t forget to tag if you spot yourself or a friend!

We had so much fun in Edinburgh (and not just because it was a comedy festival!). Massive thanks to the University of Edinburgh, Shareholder & Friend of Cafédirect Ben Miller who gave his insider Edinburgh knowledge and all of the Container House visitors who spread the word about Cafédirect whilst we there!

NEXT STOP: Big Sussex Market, New Road, Brighton 11th and 12th September. See you there!

Cafedirect Container House at The Fringe

In the comments box below, share with us your funniest Cafédirect related joke, or even a funny story you’ve had with coffee – hopefully funnier than the experience we had yesterday when we made cappuccinos with sour milk – nobody was laughing after that!

Take some inspiration from the Fringe’s funniest jokes won by Tim Vine’s effort: “I’ve just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I’ll tell you what, never again.” or even the Fringe’s “worst joke” which I did chuckle to ‘won’ by Dan Antopolski’s; “Hedgehogs – why can’t they just share the hedge?”

Don’t worry, Yasmin tells me from Edinburgh that our coffee at the Container House is not like the comedy; it’s very tasteful, has a punchy kick and leaves you with a warm glow!

The rules are simple; Post your comedy entry in the comment box of this blog post by 5.30pm today – enter more than once if you like! The best (as decided by the Cafédirect judges) will be chosen and announced on the blog next week. We’ll send some Cafédirect Machu Picchu and Kilimanjaro to the person with the winning comment. Prizes can only be sent to a UK or Republic of Ireland postal address. Share the link with your friends to get some competition going!

Good luck!

Next week’s fun will be the last one – so enjoy it while it lasts!!! We have lots of other fun posts planned though so don’t worry, the fun will live on!

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's mixing bowl

Tim loves working with fresh, local produce. They have a big garden at River Cottage HQ which inspires him every day to come up with interesting and tasty recipes. Here’s a tip for all of you growing basil from Rocket Rob -  if you’re growing basil its best to water in the mid day heat, not in the morning when it’s chilly.  The main piece of advice from both was don’t be afraid to get growing! Grab any household item, a shoe, a handbag, a tea-cup, throw in some compost and seeds, keep it watered and watch your produce flourish!

If you haven’t heard them yet you can catch them here on BBC Stoke (go to 1hr 43 mins)or tune into any of the following programmes:
•     Dune 107.9: Friday 27th August, 8.15am
•     BCB 106.6 FM: Friday 27th August, 11.15am
•     BBC Cornwall: Saturday 28th August, 9am-12pm

You only have a few days left to enter our Sow Your Own competition. You could win a gastronomic trip to Gidleigh Park Hotel, including an overnight stay and morning in the prestigious two Michelin Star Kitchen of Michael Caines MBE, including a lunch for two.  All you need to do is email syo@cafedirect.co.uk a picture of a plant growing in an unusual object. Full details here.

Cafédirect goes beyond just Fairtrade, and we care about being a leading sustainable business and are working hard to minimise our environmental footprint. This summer we’ve teamed up with Vintage guru and designer Wayne Hemingway to create our stylish eco-chic Container House. We have upcycled the shipping container itself, used pallet wood to create stylish cupboards, and reupholstered furniture with coffee sacks!

This inspired us to get busy upcycling coffee sacks in the office, and we’ve created everything from tea cozies to fancy dress clothing and plant growbags!

Double Deckchair and Coffee Sack planters at the Container House

We love working with the Women’s Institute because they share our values – and interest in giving coffee sacks a new lease of life. We’ve had an incredible response from WI groups up and down the country, we’ve already handed out all our Sew Your Own kits – that’s over 3,000 coffee sacks!!

Coffee Sack Tea Cosy

We’ve also enjoyed hearing about how they will be put to use – our favourite one so far being a scarecrow – closely followed by coffee sack pannier bags for the Women’s Institute Triathlon!

If your group has managed to acquire the coffee sacks for your WI and are in need of more information or inspiration then you can find everything you need at the friends section of our website. If you weren’t one of the lucky ones this time, we’re sorry, but you can sign up to our newsletter and be the first to know about our future campaigns.

For all those who manage to create something magnificent (and from past experience with the WI we’re expecting that’ll be everyone), we would really love to see your efforts, at any and every stage of development. You can email them to us at campaigns@cafedirect.co.uk or post them to our Facebook page yourself. The best photo will win a year’s supply of Cafédirect Everyday Tea for your WI group!

P.S. If you find all of this hungry work, then check out this delicious recipe . The chocolate should fuel your creativity!

I’m not feeling very creative today, so my best caption offer is “Yasmin found it hilarious when the captain’s trousers fell down to reveal his vintage boxer shorts” – I’m sure you can do better….

The rules are simple; Post your caption in the comment box of this blog post by 5.30pm today – enter more than once if you like!

The most creative (as decided by the Cafédirect judges) will be chosen and announced on the blog on Monday.
We’ll send some Cafédirect Machu Picchu and Kilimanjaro to the person with the winning comment. Prizes can only be sent to a UK or Republic of Ireland postal address.

Share the link with your friends to get some competition going!

Good luck!

It was especially exciting for us to be at this festival curated by Wayne Hemingway as he also designed our super stylish Container House too! It was great meeting all of you there and having such stylish people visit the Container House!

Here’s a selcection of our favourite photos from Vintage…

Rene is originally from Tanzania came into the Container House after her sons spotted the Tanzanian flag! She told us that her family have been coffee farmers for generations. Unsurprisingly - the whole family voted Kilimanjaro as their favourite!

Great vintage style at the Container House!

Rain doesn't faze these stylish ladies! Machu Picchu or Kilimanjaro...

Were you at Vintage or at any of the other stops on the Container House tour?

We’ve uploaded photos to Flickr and Facebook so make sure to have a look and tag yourself if you’re there. Even if you couldn’t make it to Vintage check out the photos to see the style and glamour from the weekend.

August’s recipe of the month comes from our friends at Rachel’s who have some creative and tasty uses for their yoghurt and our coffee! These moist coffee cupcakes with a mocha frosting  are a perfect afternoon treat!

Ingredients for 12 cupcakes

For the cakes
- 2 tbsp Cafédirect Machu Picchu Freeze Dried Coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp warm water
- 225g butter, softened
- 225g Fairtrade caster sugar*
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 225g plain flour, sifted
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp Fairtrade cocoa*, sifted
- 2 tbsp Rachel’s Low Fat Bio Live Natural Yoghurt

For the frosting
- 250g icing sugar, sifted
- 80g unsalted butter, softened
- 25g Rachel’s Low Fat Bio Live Natural Yoghurt
- Decoration (optional)
- San Cristobal Drinking Chocolate

Method
1. Preheat the oven 170°C/Gas mark 3 and line a muffin tray with paper cases.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the eggs and then the flour, baking powder, cocoa and mix thoroughly.  Add the yoghurt and mix again.
3. Spoon into the mixture into the cases and then bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and firm to touch.
4. Leave to cool slightly in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. To make the frosting mix all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth and glossy.
6. Spoon and spread the frosting over the cup cakes and then decorate as you wish.

*If you’re feeling adventurous, you could try using our San Cristobal Drinking chocolate in place of the cocoa and use slightly less sugar to compensate!

All Friends of Cafédirect will have the chance to win a Rachel’s Summer Hamper in August newsletter which goes out this week. Sign up here to receive our newsletter.

Vintage will host a fully functioning pop-up High Street, with renowned brands from the past and present, including Waitrose and The Body Shop as well as Oxfam recreating their first ever 1948 store! There’ll also be catwalk shows,  vintage hair and beauty salons, a cinema, the Vintage Marketplace of vintage clothes  – and much more!

So, today we’d like to know if you could have one vintage item – maybe a favourite toy from your childhoodor a retro piece of furniture from your house when you were younger – what would it be? Alex would love a Nintendo Gameboy. Yasmin would have her collection Sylvanian families (she might check out the Sylvanian Family shop at Vintage!). I’d go for some vintage furniture so will definitely spend some time looking at Vintage!

Post your comments below by 5.30 today to be in with a chance of winning. The person with the most imaginative entry (as chosen by Cafédirect judges!) will be announced on Monday on ur blog and will win a vintage Cafédirect tea-towel & tea caddy set!

Good luck

Northern Nicaragua, where our partner Prodecoop is located, has been a traditional coffee growing region since the middle of the nineteenth century. The district of Segovia produces excellent coffee which is internationally recognised for its quality and balanced taste.

Prodecoop are finalists in the “Cup of Excellence” competition in Nicaragua; one of the most prestigious coffee quality contests around the globe. This great quality coffee goes into our Cloud Forest Gourmet Coffee, as well as our Medium, Rich and Espresso blends.

“Cupping” (coffee quality tasting) in Prodecoop is undertaken by Alex Medina and Fatima Lopez, some of the best “Cuppers” in the region with several years of experience and many coffee cups over their shoulders. Each container of coffee is tasted at least eight times before being sent to Cafédirect to ensure it is of the highest quality.

According to Alex, coffee tasting is similar to wine tasting  – you look for five components: Body, Flavour, Acidity, Aroma and Aftertaste. All of these elements together create the best quality coffee.

Prodecoop's Alex & Cafédirect's Violeta "cupping"

Great quality coffee is also a result of  good quality soil and importantly the care given by the small-scale farmers. Along with some of the Cafédirect HQ team I visited Alexa Marin, Prodecoop Board member and coffee farmer, to find out more about this. Alexa lost almost 2 hectares of coffee during Hurricane Mitch back in 1998. Nowadays, she is using organic techniques in her farming because this helps prevent erosion and pest infections. That way if there is another hurricane she will hopefully have less losses than last time.

Alexa and family pictured with Cafédirect staff on her farm

Dona Alizia and Christian

What impressed me most at Alexa’s farm (or ‘chacra’ as it’s called in Nicaragua) was the engagement of the whole family in the farm. The farm used to belong to Alexa’s mother, “Dona Eliza”, now 105 years old and still drinking 2 cups of coffee a day!!! (Who said coffee is bad for your health?).

Now, her sons and nephew, Giovanni, Christian and Roberto work in the field on a regular basis. Giovanni and Roberto are co-operative members, have some land of their own and are already harvesting some coffee. Christian is very enthusiastic about coffee and when he older would like to get a piece of land and to harvest his own coffee.

After the tour of Alexa’s farm and chat we finished the day the best way – with a nice  meal (chicken soup, rice, beans, tortillas and quajada), and a home-brewed coffee, Nicaraguan style!!

Katharine won a Friday Fun competition to contribute an item made from coffee sacks to the Cafédirect Container House. She wove a beautiful rug made from Cafédirect Machu Picchu coffee sacks and sheep’s wool from nearby farms in Perthshire.

How did you discover Cafédirect?
My husband I discovered Cafédirect through Traidcraft around 20 years ago.  At that time it was mail order only, it is so much easier now I can buy it in most supermarkets.

What is your favourite Cafédirect drink?
It is difficult to say, I like different drinks for different jobs in my house.  The Kilimanjaro ground coffee for girly chats with cakes and treats, while I like the Machu Picchu as an after dinner coffee. Classics instant for a quick cuppa and Machu Picchu instant for indulging me when I want a quick treat. Everyday teabags are my husband’s choice for work and my daughter has run off with the Earl Grey teabags.  We like all the Cafédirect drinks!

What is the best thing about being a Friend of Cafédirect?
Knowing that my continued support of a fairtrade brand is helping not just the growers but the planet.  Recent greenwash in the shape of the rainforest alliance gets nowhere with me

Do you have any hidden talents?
I make a mean Sloe Gin.

What’s your favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?
Catch up on all my recorded TV programmes whilst doing a bit of embroidery … or a bit of coffee sack weaving!

Katharine weaving with coffee sacks at home

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Orkney, I love it there.  As a feltmaker I would fit in with the creative community.

Tea or coffee?
Coffee, unless it’s a fry up and then tea.

If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
1. That politicians accept the damage they allow to happen to our planet through failing to legislate for its protection.
2. That all trade should be fairtrade.
3. A chocolate fairy would deliver some whenever I needed it – as long as it is fairtrade!

Glass half empty or half full.
Half full, because there will always be room for more.

Katharine’s coffee sack rug fits in perfectly with the Container House and has been a popular place to relax whilst tasting our Machu Picchu and Kilimanjaro coffee.

Family relax on Katharine's coffee sack rug at Brecon Jazz Festival

Come and test out Katharine’s coffee sack creation and the rest of the upcycled furniture for yourself at the Cafédirect Container House. We’ll be popping up at Vintage at Goodwood this weekend, Edinburgh Fringe Festival (20 -30 Aug) and Big Sussex Market, Brighton (11-12 Sept).

If you’d like to be a Friend of the Month, let us know at friends@cafedirect.co.uk