Hello to all of my caffeinated chums out there, old and new! Last month saw me order the top speciality coffee boxes in the UK so I could share the experiences here and relay back with what I thought. There are so many amazing subscription boxes on the market nowadays, all with specific selling points - it's just the case of finding out which one suits your lifestyle the best. Decision fatigue is real, which is why I ordered a bunch of boxes and drank my way through them - so you don't have to. I hope you enjoy the read! One Click Coffee As if the selection of coffee was not stellar enough, e ..read more

Hello everyone! Long time no talk (well, type)! Let's get down to the nitty-gritty from the get-go: I've been having a bit of trouble with this space. Don't take that personally, my dear blog - I do love you to pieces. Simply put, I've just had a bit of a confidence knock with you. I wish I could pinpoint a particular event which led me to feel like this, but alas that just isn't the case. In some ways, that's even more frustrating; since I can't pinpoint the catalyst and thus find it even trickier to find a way out. That's the tricky thing with 'imposter syndrome', it tends to develop over ti ..read more

Hello 2020. Wait, didn’t you get the memo? I’ve come back. I mean, it took a bit longer than usual: what was only meant to be a short hiatus turned into an entire year. There’s some great coffee blogs floating around nowadays, and I have no doubt that these were brilliant enough to keep you company in my absence. They sure were great fun to read in my mentally fuzzy days - so thank you, you bunch! Turns out I needed to take an entire year off to feel comfortable writing again, but no one really needs to know those details (unless you’ve got me sat down in a swanky bar with an open tab for espr ..read more

Well hey, what a year! What was quite a turbulent time (which has yet to slow down!), has turned into one of my best and most memorable years to date. Instead of me getting all emotional and gushy in the introduction, let’s get straight into this post and look back on my year of coffee in posts. New Years Resolutions Do you remember my New Years Resolution that was to write (and publish) a new blog post every single day? Well as much as my mind has tried to wipe away the horrific memories, I still remember that too. To be honest, I did surprise myself with how long I stuck with it, however I s ..read more

I once wrote a post on my blog about the idea of ‘fifth wave coffee’, back at the time when I was actually working in management at a company who fell into this category. Therefore, when looking back over it quite recently, I realised that I subconsciously leaned over to its favourable side, when actually my true beliefs aren't all that rosey. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t going to be a post which just sits down and slates the concept of micro-chain coffee shops and how terrible they are. Instead I do want to weigh up why I personally find them quite the difficult subject to discuss when it c ..read more

Last week saw World Mental Health Day, and it was great to see all of the online and physical support being offered across the globe to combat what is still a huge problem for many. People big and small spoke out about both their own mental health experiences, but also the ways they had dealt with their situations, which inspired me to draft this piece. I don’t keep quiet about my own experiences with anxiety, as I definitely suffer and understand the frustration caused by it. I’ve already written a post on the relation between anxiety and coffee before, which you can find here. Seeing everyon ..read more

If you're sat in a specialty coffee shop, it's pretty likely that at some point you'll spot someone rearranging their mugs, cakes and avocados on toasts to make their layout as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Why? Well it won't fit the theme of their Instagram feed, of course. This blog post is all about the influence that Instagram has had on the growth of the specialty coffee industry (and vice versa). These two are partners in crime: I honestly believe you couldn't have had one without the other, and each of their growth has definitely complimented the other. Instagram began its journe ..read more

A couple of weeks ago me and Sam took a well-deserved long weekend away to Brighton. Growing up in the Midlands, it wasn't easy to go to the seaside - but living in the South now means it's a simple (and relatively cheap!) train journey away. Whilst there, I managed to visit a handful of coffee shops which had been on the radar, and I'm happy to say that none of them disappointed me. I mean heck, how disappointed can you be when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing and happiness levels are at 150%? Day One Is it really the first day of Brighton if you don't run to the pier at the first op ..read more

Alrighty - one of my favourite events of the coffee calendar has recently come and gone, and needless to say I’m here to tippety-tap away and tell you all about it. Guessed what it is yet? I’d be slightly worried if you hadn’t - it is in the title of this blog post after all. Yep, the Birmingham Coffee Festival was in town! Triple yays all round with an extra double shot of yay on top! Location + Event Space This year's Birmingham Coffee Festival was situated in the Custard Factory: the same location as last year’s debut. That meant it was much easier to find this time round (for someone who ..read more

This was meant to have been uploaded a very long time ago, and to be honest: I have a good excuse. Want to hear it? Of course you do.  It wasn't a very good, or nice, review.  Yep, I complained in it a lot, and after revising over it I didn't feel comfortable with the things I was saying. So, I'm going to quickly address the negatives of the festival (in my honest opinion), bullet point style..I always feel super uncomfortable complaining about stuff, but I'm obviously not going to lie to you lovely people. Hopefully if anyone from the festival reads this, they'll take it constructiv ..read more