Coffee

Sourcing

Established relationships with producers and the coffee farming community means we can consistently source the best Arabica and Robusta beans from over 40 origins across the Coffee Growing Belt.
We work with many ethical certifications including: Fairtrade Certified, Organic, Rainforest Alliance Certified, Triple Certified and UTZ.

Investing in Roasting Better

We are unique in that we roast on a clean bed of air in small batches as opposed to conventional drum roasting - only 1% of coffee is roasted this way. Air roasting elevates the natural sweetness to give a smooth and pure taste. Unlike

This Christmas period is going to be unique in a lot of ways. However, we are committed to providing our festive offerings despite all that is going on.

We have a range of new Christmas products including the new Clipper Advent Calendar (102-235), our new KC Christmas Coffee Gift Box (400-000) and for some recipe ideas for Hot Chocolates creations, visit our previous Blog titled

Following on from our previous blog post titled “The Real Cost Of Convenience – Why Some Subscription Coffee Plans Are Flawed” (which if you have not read, you can find at the bottom of this post) we will look into claims and comments made about the ethicality of certain subscription coffees and Fairtrade.

From the outset, we should reiterate our support for and belief in the Fairtrade Project. Over the last 25 years it has driven consumers to consider the origins and ethicality of the goods that they purchase and to question the fairness of treatment for many. Fairtrade have enriched many lives and regions, with fair payments and management as well as tackling social issues and environmental issue. This is often done by working with small farmers who wouldn’t have access to the global market and improving the quality of the

A market trend that has emerged in the last few years and particularly through lockdown has been the rise of subscription-based coffee companies. The premise is simple, a monthly fee is paid for a monthly delivery keeping you topped up for your coffee hit. Typically, we try to keep these blog posts positive, but it is tough to see a positive spin on the business practices of some companies who do this.

With one of the leading companies that offer this subscription, they offer a free V60 kit worth £11 on their website. A free one-time "gift" of £11 is not all it seems though for several reasons. Firstly, this price is extremely high for a Hario V60 dripper in plastic. We sell the exact same model from the exact same producer for £5.82 (code 999-600). As such, the initial value of this "gift" is overstated by almost double the actual price.

Secondly and most shockingly is that this is used to tempt you into their subscription plans despite the considerable pricing. 250g of the lowest price coffee beans available will cost £7.95, or 46p per cup (please note this is the listed price, despite the fact that mathematically this does not make sense as the 250g, at £7.95, is listed as able to make 15 cups, and as such is actually at 53p per cup). Our lowest price offering in the 500g variant (103-840) costs £5.90, and should, by their calculations, provide 30 cups at a price of just under 20p per cup. This pricing disparity deepens when larger quantities are ordered. Our lowest price 1kg of beans costs £9.08, providing 60 cups per their calculations, at a price of 15p per cup.

As a result of all this pricing, the £5.82 "gift" you receive will save you money up until your 22^nd cup of coffee with comparison to our 500g offering, or your 19^th cup for our 1kg offering (please bear in mind we have given them the benefit of the doubt and used their 46p per cup calculation here as opposed to the more mathematically accurate 53p per cup). After that, this “free gift” will have paid for itself and the hope is that you will stay with said company for the convenience or simply because you don’t think to question the pricing. Some may claim that ease of use and convenience is worth it, but we believe that spending up to 67% more per cup of coffee is not a price worth paying.

We also believe it is inconsistent to preach of fairness and morality when overcharging customers by up to 67% per cup of coffee and overstating the value of a “gift” to make it look like

With working from home on the increase, having a good quality cup of tea or coffee to hand doesn’t need to cost the earth. We have adapted to the changing climate by bringing out our own at home range with a wide variety of products for all to enjoy.

Whether you need a home brewing solution, pods for your Nespresso machine or beans we have a coffee solution for you. From V60 filters and cafetieres to an at home bean grinder we can help you get the caffeine fix you need! And for the tea lovers out there, we have a wide variety of Clipper’s own unbleached and plastic-free teabags in handy consumer-friendly packaging.

Please click

An area of our Corporate Social Responsibility that we also try to encourage, alongside our charitable aims and support, is our environmental responsibility. This means adapting our business and the products we offer to ensure the greenest outcome. As such, we have a wide range of initiatives we have undertaken as well as a range of products available to ensure you meet your own personal targets and aims.

A few examples of what we have done to reduce our footprint:

In the Office

• - We utilise scrap paper and repurpose it for note taking as well as taking orders.

Whilst we all miss the beautiful summer weather, autumn does have some benefits. Namely delicious coffee and bakery treats infused with quintessentially autumnal tastes. We supply the following syrups that will help you embrace what has become such a large part of the café culture; Pumpkin (100-605), Gingerbread (100-662), Toffee Crunch (100-667), Toasted Marshmallow (100-628), Apple (100-625) and Cinnamon (100-616).

One of our personal favourites is the Toffee Crunccino, a delicious twist on the Cappuccino.

1 - Put two pumps of Toffee Crunch Syrup into a cup.

2 - Run an Espresso through into the same cup.

3 - Sprinkle with cinnamon powder.

4 - Warm up milk with the steamer

Coffee is such an integral part of everyday life that few of us stop to think what goes into growing the beans that make this hugely popular beverage.

The history and importance of coffee

Legend has it that the energising effect of the coffee bean was first recognised by a 9th-century goatherd in the Kaffa province of Ethiopia, where the coffee tree originated. Coffee was almost certainly cultivated in Yemen long before the 15th century when Sufi mystics reportedly drank it to keep awake during extended hours of prayer. The drink was spread by Muslim pilgrims and traders across North Africa and the Middle East, where Arabian coffeehouses became centres of political activity. The Dutch planted coffee in Sri Lanka, India and Java in the late 1600s and later in South America. Within a few years Dutch colonies became the main suppliers of coffee to Europe, its production associated with colonial expansion and slavery. Coffee soon became one of the most valuable primary products in world trade. The first UK coffee house was opened in Oxford in 1650, followed two years later by one in London.

Global coffee consumption doubled over the last 40 years from 4.2m tonnes in 1970 to 8.7m tonnes in 2015. Coffee producing countries consume 30 per cent of the world’s coffee, led by Brazil whose consumption reached 1.2 million tonnes in 2015. The remaining 70 per cent of coffee produced is traded internationally; the US is the biggest importer, followed by Germany and Italy while the UK is the 8th largest importer accounting for 3.6% of world coffee imports.

Coffee is grown in more than 70 countries but over 60 per cent of the world’s coffee is produced by just four of them – Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia. Latin America is the largest regional producer with a 60 per cent share, followed by Asia and Oceania (27%), and Africa (13%).

For countries that produce it, coffee exports generate a significant proportion of national income and are a vital source of the foreign exchange earnings that governments rely on to improve health, education, infrastructure and other social services. For instance, Burundi relies on coffee for 60 per cent of its export earnings, Honduras for a quarter, Nicaragua for nearly a fifth. In Ethiopia, 15 million smallholders, nearly a fifth of the population, depend on coffee for their livelihood – high global commodity prices contributed to record coffee exports in 2010/11 which accounted for 30 per cent of the country’s total export ea