The new way to drink Coffee plus giveaway

I’ve always thought that are basically two ways to make coffee at home, either using ground or instant. Of course there is a lot more choices to the ground method. Are you going to grind your own beans? Do you have a coffee machine, a percolator or a cafetière? We’ve always kept it simple by just having a cafetière, but it broke last year. I’ve been trying to see if we can get by without replacing it, since we usually only got it out when we had guests. And I certainly wouldn’t wish to upgrade to a coffee machine, as I imagine there must be a lot of waste with all those pods.

Therefore I was very interested to find out more when I heard via the Ethical Influencers network that there was such a thing as coffee bags. These passed my deal-breaker test with no plastic in the bags, so I put my name forward to review New Kings Coffee gourmet coffee bags. I had been putting teabags in the food waste bin for years when I first heard that most brands of teabags contain plastic. Now I either buy loose tea or better still, cut a sprig of fresh mint from my garden, and then compost the waste.

I didn’t even know coffee bags existed, but they definitely sound the way forward, being biodegradable. I was pleased to receive 3 free boxes of New Kings Coffee gourmet coffee bags to review, each containing 10 bags. These currently retail at £6.99 for a box of 10. There was a dark roast from Indonesia, a medium roast from Guatemala and a light roast from Ethiopia. They also do a decaffeinated roast from Peru, which unfortunately I didn’t get to try. Slightly ironic since my coffee of choice whenever I’m in a coffee shop would be a decaf skinny latte.

Plus points for the packaging they used to post me the coffee. The box had been sealed with paper tape. No sellotape in sight. I think this is the first time I’ve received a delivery using paper tape. So no need to remove the tape for recycling. Ideal since it can be so frustrating trying to pull plastic tape off parcels before the boxes can be recycled.

Their coffee is organic and fair-trade, two more ticks. The coffee bags are made from Bioweb, which is a 100% biodegradable product made from a totally renewable and sustainable source of corn starch. These can go in your food waste bin. Or home composting is possible for the bags but the temperature required to fully decompose them is not always sustained in home composters, especially as we enter the colder months.

But they are currently using individual sachets made from a mixed foil and plastic laminate to help keep the coffee fresh for longer. I’m not so happy whenever I hear about mixed materials like this. However they have taken the initiative to team up with TerraCycle, so that these can be recycled by sending them back. As they are a fairly new start-up company, I don’t believe there are any local drop-off points yet, like the way I take my old pens to our library. Plus the outer boxes are made of 75% recycled cardboard. And since they are currently working with their suppliers to find a more environmentally friendly alternative to the foil sachets,  I’d say that still adds upto 9.5/10 on the environmentally friendly front. So well done.

Hopefully they will come up with an alternative idea to the foil sachets soon, which doesn’t compromise on freshness. Perhaps the bags could be sold loose in a jar, as there is always plenty of reuse options for jars.

Simple to make. Pop a bag in your cup. Add hot water, stir, leave for 3-5 minutes, stir again, squeeze and remove bag, add milk if desired. And of course, you have been waiting for a verdict on the taste test. I enjoyed all three varieties, but I’m not a connoisseur of coffee, so although each pack describes what notes the flavour comprises, I personally couldn’t pick those out. I’m similar when it comes to wine.

However I experimented and came up with a variant that I absolutely loved. I tried adding one of the light roast bags to a cup of very hot milk instead of water. For me this was perfection, a real comfort drink. I’m also planning to try the same with both the medium roast and dark roast for comparison.

You can purchase the bags in varying quantities from 4-100, either on a one-off basis or with 10% off via a monthly subscription. The boxes I received have varying best before dates ranging between June 2020 to October 2020, so again thinking about those pesky foil sachets, even if they are needed for keeping the larger quantity boxes fresh, a box of 10 is going to be drunk relatively quickly. Even one foil inner packet containing all the bags which the consumer clips shut after opening would be a step in the right direction, rather than individual sachets.

Also I was very pleased to read that New Kings Coffee support the people and communities in the coffee growing regions, by making a donation to the charity, Grounds for Health, who provide screening, treatment and training to support cervical cancer patients in developing countries.

And I have an offer to pass on to my readers – 20% off any order at New Kings Coffee with discount code: YABM20.

Plus I’m hosting a rafflecopter competition to giveaway 3 boxes of coffee courtesy of New Kings Coffee to one lucky winner. That is one each of dark roast, medium roast and light roast, each box containing 10 bags.

a Rafflecopter giveaway – Please click on the link to enter.

And you may see my other giveaways here.

Now to enjoy my next cup of coffee whilst I browse online to find some environmental projects which I could consider contributing towards to help offset the carbon footprint of coffee being flown halfway across the world for my consumption. Coffee is not a plant that can be grown here in the UK.

I’d love to hear about your favourite cup of coffee.

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Disclosure.  This post is a review of a product I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.

My journey towards a Plastic Free future – part 8

Latest update on reducing our plastic usage and other waste. Although I’ve baked my own crackers quite a few times now, I was very pleased to discover some crispbread packaged in paper in a nearby village. Son1 can polish off the crackers so quickly, that it is good to have something in the store cupboard again.

I’m now a regular customer at the local independent shops, so I felt able to challenge the greengrocer when I popped in early one morning and saw him chopping off all the outer leaves from the cauliflowers. I asked why he was doing that and he said customers prefer them like that. Well I’m a customer and I would prefer them left on, but I felt my request fell on deaf ears. So it remains a choice between a cauliflower with leaves in plastic from the supermarket, or a plastic-free cauliflower minus leaves from the local greengrocer. I would use the outermost leaves in soups and stock, the next ones in I would steam and the innermost ones I would eat raw in salads. I also asked what would happen to all the wastage. Apparently it goes for the pigs to eat.

And here’s a recipe I promised to share for apple pulp pancakes, made using the pulp from my juicer.

Pulp Pancakes

Ingredients

250g apple pulp
25g melted butter
2 eggs
125ml milk
200g plain flour
2.5 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

Melt the butter in a jug in the microwave.
Add all ingredients except oil to a large bowl.
Beat the ingredients together to a batter.
Gently heat oil in a frying pan.
Pour pancake size spoonfuls of batter into the frying pan, to make about 3 pancakes at a time.
Cook for about 2 -3 minutes until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes.
Turn and cook the other side for about 2 minutes until golden.
Repeat until all batter has been used.
Serve either warm or cold, either plain or with your choice of topping.
Enjoy.

These are delicious and can be made with other types of pulp. They also have no added sugar, just the sweetness from the pulp.

I mentioned previously that I had saved some seeds to plant. Initially it was just ones like melon, butternut squash and pepper to avoid them ending up in food waste. But then I thought, well why not also try saving a few of those that you would typically eat like tomato. Well I can report that I’ve had mixed success. The tomatoes and peppers came up but no luck initially with either melon or butternut squash, so I had to plant some more of those, which happily did germinate. Of course the real proof of success won’t be until later in the year, as to whether I actually manage to harvest anything from them.

I’ve also bought a few packets of seeds including cauliflower, which are now at the seedling stage. So hopefully I’ll be harvesting my own cauliflowers later and avoiding the chopped off wasted leaves issue.

And on the topic of seeds, which ones can be roasted to eat? I’ve only ever roasted pumpkin seeds. I regularly buy melons, peppers and butternut squash. Anyone know if I could roast any of those seeds?

I’ve never particularly had green fingers but I’m gradually enlarging the area that I started as a vegetable patch last year. Certainly hard work digging as there seem to be so many weed roots. Only managed a few carrots, tomatoes and one pumpkin last year, so hoping for better results this time round. Very pleased with the “reduced to clear” stickered chive and mint plants from the supermarket that I planted in the autumn. They are flourishing marvellously.

I’m always experimenting with chopping up various greens from my garden into my salads, not only chives and mint, but things like carrot tops and beetroot leaves. Recently I tried radish leaves but they were rather bitter, maybe the taste will grow on me. I’ve been wondering about dandelion leaves, as there are lots of those growing here, so I was very interested to read Becky’s blog post on Dandelion Tea Benefits & How to Make Dandelion Tea. I shall certainly have to give some of these suggestions a go.

Also I made a suggestion to the cafe at work a few months back that they reduce waste, by offering the coffee grounds to employees for their gardens and I’m pleased to say that they finally implemented my idea last week, so I’ve brought a couple of bagfuls home. Just drying it out first, but I plan to use some of it as a mulch around the plants and some in my compost bin. That is a much longer term project but slowing filling with a mix of grass mowings, leaves, fruit and vegetable waste plus torn up butchers’ paper. But don’t think I’ll have any compost ready this year.

And I found another crowdfunding initiative to help fund plastic-free organic dry shampoo from KiteNest. See details here. I’m enjoying making a small pledge to these campaigns.

I’d love to hear your eco friendly suggestions and tips please.

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