It’s UK Coffee Week – we’ll drink to that! If like us, you’re pretty useless before your first cup of coffee in the morning, you’ll want to read on for our suggestions of the brews that will help you start your day in the right way.
Now in its tenth year, this year’s UK Coffee Week (19 – 25 October) is its most important to date after the hospitality industry has had a very challenging six months due to the coronavirus pandemic. This week-long fundraising campaign sees everyone in coffee disregard the competition and come together to celebrate one of the largest and most powerful industries in the world, and raise funds for the communities at its source.
Over 500 billion cups of coffee are consumed globally each year, so millions of people across the globe rely on it to fund their livelihoods. Throughout UK Coffee Week, businesses donate money from every cup of coffee served, every bag of coffee sold, or by running competitions to a charity of choice. This year, every penny goes straight to Project Waterfall, which is working to end the water crisis in our lifetime.
It wouldn’t be us if we didn’t want to combine our two loves – coffee and CBD – though. Here’s the CBD-infused coffee we’ve bean loving lately…
London Nootropics
London Nootropics takes its name from the “brain boosters” that are known to enhance brain performance and improve memory, focus, motivation and creativity. So, you can expect its adaptogenic coffee blends to come with more than a buzz.
Zain Peer, co-founder of London Nootropics, told us, “Each of our adaptogenic coffee blends are designed around finding balance and your ‘flow state’. We wanted a blend that people could consume if they were anxious or irritable, as it’s hard to achieve flow state when you’re in a state of mental or physical stress. We combined ashwagandha, which works on your adrenals, and CBD, which works on your endocannabinoid system, to form our Zen blend.”
You can expect a calming blend that’s designed to promote a sense of peace and alleviate anxiety – something which we could all do with right now, especially on days when everything feels a bit too much.
Zain added: “We’ve had lots of customers, who are usually sensitive to the effects of caffeine, tell us that they love Zen and that it’s enabled them to enjoy coffee again – Zen helps them to feel mellow instead of ‘on edge’. We use water-soluble CBD in our Zen blend and it’s the perfect combination with coffee as it has a high bioavailability, meaning you absorb more than if you were to mix some CBD oil drops in your coffee.”
As well as being 100% natural and made with powerful nootropic and adaptogenic ingredients from around the world, London Nootropics’ blends come in a slim, letterbox-friendly case that can be delivered straight through your door – for on the odd occasion you’re not working from home right now. Zen Coffee costs £15 plus £2.49 postage and packaging for a 12 sachet box.
Trip
The husband and wife team behind Trip, Olivia and Dan, first discovered CBD in 2018 when it helped Dan recover from knee surgery in time for their wedding. Armed with their own experiences, they set about to create a range that was as tasty as it was beneficial to the body.
The result is a mix of CBD drinks and oils that help to give your body balance and mind clarity, and have earned quite the reputation. The oils were even voted the ‘UK’s best’ by Grazia.
As well as lightly sparkling Elderflower Mint, Peach Ginger and Lemon Basil flavours, its range includes Cold Brew Coffee (£17.99, six pack), which is designed to give you a hit of jitter-free energy. As well as being infused with 15mg CBD, it contains a deliciously rich, Guatemalan speciality grade coffee that’s brewed for 24 hours in East London. It’s not only jitter-free either, it’s also dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan, contains no added sugar and comes in 100% recyclable 250ml cans.
The TRIP team said “We created TRIP to share a bit of calm in the everyday chaos. CBD experiences that are just as enjoyable to taste as the feeling after. Products with amazing flavour that leave you more productive, less stressed and more you.
“We believe that the flavour of our products is truly a game-changer and has changed a lot of peoples’ minds about CBD.”
Silly Goose Coffee
The team behind Silly Goose Coffee wanted to create something that was disruptive but in a positive way. Their mission is to make coffee that benefits not only the drinker, but their suppliers, partners and the planet. Not only do they source delicious and ethical coffee but they work with a pod manufacturer that makes home-compostable and biodegradable pods, and Ecologi, who help plant trees to offset Silly Goose Coffee’s carbon footprint.
Founder Tom Hazledine said: “We have a range of Nespresso compatible pods, bags of whole beans and ground coffee. All pod coffee is organic and comes in Lungo, which has a subtle flavour, notes of chocolate and nuts (it’s also available in decaf and an espresso, which is stronger and fruitier with a fuller finish). The organic and organic decaf is a slow dark roast, full bodied with a smooth chocolate finish. Classic is a roast with carefully selected beans from Asia, South America and Africa and delicious notes of caramel.”
Silly Goose Coffee’s CBD pods (£5.50-£9.99) deliver 10mg of CBD per serve and its 200g CBD bags (£14.99-£16.99) contain 200mg of CBD. The brand has also added non-CBD options to its range and will be adding a canned cold brew CBD and organic CBD honey in the future, and is talking with cafes and delis about on-premise and takeaway opportunities.
