Review & Giveaway: Union Hand-Roasted Coffee Club Subscription
We have a very exciting competition for you all today! This is one for all of you coffee lovers, the ones out there that really appreciate the difference between an average and spectacular cup of joe. We have to tell you that we’re pretty fussy when it comes to our coffee preferences and this is some of the best coffee we’ve ever tasted.
The Union CoffeeClub is ideal for those keen to discover the world of speciality coffee, with a range of different blends and Single Origin coffees to choose from.
- 100% Speciality, Arabica coffee
- All their House Blends
- A selection of Single Origins
- Information cards for each coffee
- 32p per cup
Union have been sourcing, roasting, living and loving good coffee since 2001. They find and work directly with talented farmers, paying them a fair price so they can invest in their farm, families, and workers It’s called Union Direct Trade. Those fair prices, and Union’s investment in smallholder farmers, make their specialty coffee extra special.
They hand-roast their coffee in small batches. Tiny, carefully-tended batches. To them, roasting is an art. And it shows. All of their coffees are scored 84 and above on the SCAA’s international scale – the definitive measure of coffee quality. And their micro-lots? (Small quantities of rare, incredible coffees, grown in the best conditions possible.) Those typically score more than 88.It’s all thanks to their people. The farmers who grow their coffee. The roastmasters working tirelessly to perfect each roast. And the trainers, who teach baristas, enthusiasts, beginners – everyone – how to brew exquisite coffee.
Union was founded by Steven and Jeremy, two scientists who quickly became ex-scientists when they fell in love with coffee. Fell in love with coffee – but not with the coffee industry. So they did something different. Today, they source, roast, brew, teach, and celebrate great coffee.
Excitement, passion, partnership. All these have defined Union. For over 20 years, they’ve been a proud part of the story of UK coffee. And a proud partner to hundreds of coffee farmers, worldwide. It’s hard to imagine today, but in Britain a few decades ago, you’d never see someone drinking a takeaway coffee in the street. There were no baristas. There was no café culture. No-one paid much attention to the quality of their coffee.
So their story begins in San Francisco, where their founders, Steven and Jeremy, were working. One day, they ducked into a tiny café. Inside, they were roasting fresh coffee. They watched the beans come tumbling out of the roaster: hot, fresh, aromatic. And that was that. Inspired, they threw themselves into the world of coffee, learning anything and everything they could. Then they decided to bring that West Coast inspiration to London. So they quit their day jobs. Packed up, shipped out, settled in, started pitching. Sold everything they had to rent a workshop and buy a roaster. And a fax machine (cutting edge, back then).
Above all, Union was a whole new approach to coffee. Buying great coffee, roasting it in small batches, creating a more flavourful cup. Even talking about a more flavourful cup – and introducing flavour profiles – was new.
In 2001 Steven and Jeremy were in Guatemala, on a research trip, when Arabica prices fell to their lowest point in 30 years. They saw, first hand, the impact on farmers, who now couldn’t earn a living from coffee. They saw fourth generation farmers pull up their coffee trees – their birthright – with their own hands. Farmers had never been part of the coffee story. In contrast, they were anonymous even to exporters, combining their crop into one mill.
Steven and Jeremy wanted to do things differently. Consequently, they bypassed the brokers. Invested long-term in farming communities. Paid farmers a fair, sustainable price. Today, Union does more than tell their farmers’ stories: they create new stories together. Furthermore, they work together, long-term, pooling their knowledge – on coffee varieties, harvesting techniques, sustainable farming, post-harvest processing – to create the perfect cup of coffee.
Union are very kindly offering our readers the chance to win a 3 month CoffeeClub subscription, just enter via the rafflecopter below. Good luck!
