Your box contains a unique product.
Cofaidh beans which are hand roasted within the Outer Hebridean Archipelago using the senses of sight, sound, smell, and of course taste. Our small artisan roastery is nestled in the shadows of Benn Kenneth situated alongside turquoise coloured waves. Where the coffee is roasted to a medium profile, and cooled by the Atlantic Ocean winds. Then gently smoked using the blooms of hand-picked wild heather and locally sourced and environmentally considered, sphagnum moss peat.
Failte / Welcome
Heather / Fraoch
Outer Hebridean heather blooms in the late summer months, peaking in August, when the moors and slopes of the uplands and mountains are covered with a blanket of beautiful mauve, lilac and purple shaded buds.
'Fraoch', the local Gaelic name, is an abundant plant, which is hardy, fast growing, and provides a home to both insects and birds. Furthermore local families believe the shrub to have medicinal properties which are able to treat many conditions and ailments.
The Celts brewed Heather Ale as a restorative tonic and the plant is widely used in aromatherapy products as an internal cleanser and detoxifier.
I pick the Heather when it as its most pungent and leave to air dry.
PEat /mòine
For crofting families, the annual peat cutting is a time-consuming, process driven task which uses traditional methods at its heart, passed down over generations. Peat has been the main source of fuel in the Outer Hebrides for hundreds of years with specific areas of the croft allocated for cutting. Allocating areas means there is less of an environmental impact and when the yearly quota runs out coal is used for warmth instead.
The first process is to dig by hand, the top layer of the sedge marsh, in Gaelic; 'Am Barr Fhad'. There is soft peat under this upper layer and it is easier to cut. Once dug it is sliced and laid across the ground using a tool called a 'Tairsgear' which has a long wooden handle with an angled blade, a foot or so in length that both lances and turns the peat.
The peat bricks are then stacked in a specific way reflecting thefamily heritage and township. Known as a 'Cruach' the peat mound is left to dry by the winds. Mounds are often curved at each end which tapers to a point approximately 2 metres high.
Our peat bricks come from local crofters Iain and Anne Campbell whose working croft is within walking distance of our roastery in South Uist. Iain and Anne use these traditional methods to gather the peat and then leave to dry on the moors for almost one year, before it is ready to be used.
We are privileged to be able to utilise this unique natural resource. For our purposes, one small peat brick smokes an awful lot of coffee.
On the tongue, expect wild berries with cream, hints of dried banana chips and dark spiced cacao. The smoked heather enhances the beans natural sweetness and lends overtones of cherry kirsch and vanilla with a spiced clove base note. Wrapped around all those subtle nuances lies a gun smoke injection of flavour, which quietly lingers on the tongue.
In bean form ready to be appropriately ground for your brewing appliance.
Small batch roasting.
Hand packed and labelled.
Fully recyclable packaging (4).
Percentage of sales can go towards re-instatement of peat lands. Scotland will probably meet, if not exceed, its goal of restoring 50,000 hectares of land back to its original state.
Thank you and a good day to you.