On our radar: Dualit cups

Hot off the press! These pretty Dualit cups are a brand new product that’s on our radar this week. They’re really tactile, with their vertical fluting echoing the grooves found on the company’s compostable coffee pods.

No matter your favourite type of coffee, the bone china cups are available in four different sizes; from smallest to largest – espresso, doppio, cappuccino and latte. Each cup comes with a snug-fitting saucer for those unexpected little spills.

They’re safe for putting in both the microwave and dishwasher.

BUY THEM HERE

Win a £100 gift card to spend at Black Insomnia Coffee Company

The Black Insomnia Coffee Company produces the world’s strongest coffee, packing a minimum of 1105mg of caffeine in each 12 fl oz cup. That’s over four times the average strength of other typical high-street brands.

Are you curious to sample it? Well you’re in luck! We’ve teamed up with them for this month’s competition to offer one of our buzz-loving readers a £100 gift card to spend in their web-shop.

You can choose bags of roasted beans or tins of ready ground. If you prefer your coffee to come in capsules, Insomnia does those too. Their pods work with Nespresso© machines and are completely compostible – being made from 100% cornstarch. When they’ve been used, simply dispose of them on your compost heap or put them in your food waste recycling caddy.

In business since 1932, Black Insomnia small-batch roast their beans using a traditional Italian method. They describe their coffee – a blend of the finest Robusta and Arabica beans – as having:

Caramel, hazelnut, and macadamia aromas, on top of a luxurious dark chocolate flavour.

They’ve recently added drip bag coffee to their range; all the rage in China and Japan, pour-over coffee is gaining in popularity over here. Because of their eco-ethos, their bags are made from paper, so are biodegradable and easy to recycle.

As well as fine, real coffee in all its forms, Black Insomnia sells giftware including branded coffee mugs, hoodies and t-shirts for super-strong coffee fanatics.

To win the £100 gift card, tell us in the comments section below how you like your coffee best. Me, it’s a soya flat white alongside a fresh, buttery croissant. Good luck!

£100 gift card to spend at Black Insomnia Coffee Company

Mocha dalgona

Apparently, there’s a South Korean coffee drink that’s currently a social media sensation! It was only when it found its way on to the BBC website that we got to find out about it. Always late to the party, but hey… we’re here!

The beverage in question is called dalgona coffee, named after the Korean version of honeycomb toffee aka Crunchie here in the UK. My version is mocha dalgona, where I substituted half the coffee with cocoa powder.

There are only 4 ingredients – that you’re likely to have in your post-Covid lockdown food cupboard; coffee, cocoa, sugar and milk.

The knack to the drink is in beating the hell out of the topping so it’s light and airy as a cloud and forms soft peaks.

The mixture is spooned on top of hot or cold milk (or any vegan alternative). It’s sweet, rich and intense; use decaf coffee if you’re worried about it giving too much of a buzz!

It would also work really well spooned on top of an ice cream float or sundae.

Save the recipe to Pinterest here

Dalonga mocha

2020-04-02 12:56:30

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 tbsp instant coffee/espresso powder/granules
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsps brown soft sugar
2 tbsps hot water
2 glasses of cold milk (leave 1cm/⅓" gap to rim)

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Instructions

Put all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl
Pour over the hot water and begin to beat by hand using a balloon whisk - try to get as much air into the mixture as possible
Mix until peaks begin to form (as much as 5 minutes... it depends how many breaks you need to give your wrist and biceps!)
Spoon the mocha mixture equally over the glasses of milk

Notes

This can be made with either hot or cold milk; use cows' milk or soya, almond, oat, coconut milk for a vegan option

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

This coffee is something to rave about!

We’ve been sent the Espresso Lover Taster Pack from Rave Coffee to review. Regular readers will know that we’re big coffee lovers, so we were really looking forward to the task.

The trio of beans arrived swiftly after we placed our order. They’re packaged in oxo-biodegradable bags to ensure they’re delivered as fresh as possible, in an eco-conscious way.

We love really strong, rich roast coffee, hence the reason we chose their espresso assortment. I must say, ‘The Italian Job’ is my favourite of the three. It’s the strongest, yet has a smoothness and nuttiness that works in a classic espresso, doppio or macchiato.

Not that the other offerings weren’t enjoyable too! The ‘Signature Blend’ is their popular all-rounder; so if you like your coffee a different way each time, this is the one for you. The Chatsworth is big on chocolatey flavours, so suits a caffè latte, espressino or caffè mocha.

Don’t worry if you don’t own a coffee grinder, Rave also supplies all their coffees as ready-ground beans (in a choice of five different grinds) as well as compostable Nespresso compatible pods. Whether you prefer to make a one off purchase or have a regular subscription deal, Rave has a coffee option for you. Single origin for the connoisseur, decaf for the insomniac, green beans for the home roaster and taster packs for the inquisitive.

What better way to start today’s lazy Sunday than with warm croissants straight from the oven and delicious, freshly-brewed coffee… especially with the extra hour in bed?!