What a year already! If it isn’t just a continuation of interesting times, then who knows what it is. But we do know it is Christmas as the panettone and chocolate have arrived onto our counters, Hugo has his bow on, and we are ready to go with the traditional Christmas counter round up.
Now, if you have been reading these for a while you know what is coming first. Malacara A (El Salvador). That’s it; it’s pretty much all you need for a post-card Christmas. One where everything is just nicely balanced and the new goal of nothing-to-excess this holiday season is potentially achievable.
If you want a bit more than that though take a look at La Divina Providencia, also from El Salvador. Two coffees from El Salvador on the Christmas round up is a little extravagant but this is a great coffee to celebrate with if you want to dance into the festive break with something a bit fruitier.
Speaking of which if you want to go full jam, to combat or complement the Christmas lunch, then take a look at La Piragua from Colombia. Alexander produced a knock-out coffee this year and it is delicious with a slice of something.
A bit fruitier again and we should start discussing last year’s Christmas Eve date. If that natural coffee from Bolivia worked out for you then this year graduate to the original-best-ever-natural from Las Lajas, Costa Rica. This is a refined, dried strawberry, and funky acidity coffee and you will both be delighted.
Looking forward to a quieter Christmas? Thinking about that new dark chocolate we have from Chocolarder? One of the coffees from Brazil is for you. We have Sertão and IP on the counter on the lead up to Christmas and they are as chocolatey as you need them to be.
Bonus round this year goes to the Brazil IP Decaf. If you are at the time in your life when caffeine is a bit too buzzy, or maybe you just prefer to be sans buzz generally, then our malty chocolate decaf goodness is for you. We select this coffee specifically for decaffeination as its big-hug-in-a-mug quality really shines through.
To go with all this coffee goodness, we have our panettone from Pasticceria Triestina Ulcigrai. We’ve talked before about the amazing process that is panettone and we’re excited to have it again in our shops and online.
Before we go a couple of quick words regarding the new chocolate – it is awesome. We chose three bars from our new supplier Chocolarder this year – Millot Farm which is an 80% dark chocolate masquerading as something fractionally lighter, Oko Caribe which is a full flavoured 60% milk chocolate with burnt butter, and Pure White – this 40% bar is the milky bar of your dreams.
That’s it! What a year. We finished using paper cups in February and have been reusable ever since. We spent most of April tasting chocolate and are super pleased with the results. Our buyers started travelling again and we have been able to visit most of the farmers we work with over the Summer and Autumn. We have made other small changes around the shops that we hope make things a bit nicer and easier while you’re there. And what else? There is something else for sure; maybe it will come to mind later this month or in January.
Have a happy Christmas, a wonderful New Year and we will see you on the other side, with of course, your reusable.
Monmouth x
