Coffee is one of my little pleasures in life. Actually, if I was asked the desert island question, I really think coffee would be on my list. However, I am a coffee snob. I am not ashamed about it; I like proper coffee so much that I even go as far as to refusing to ever drink instant. Why should I drink something that has been freeze dried and dehydrated back into a brown slush 6 months afterwards?
Shudder.
Ok, I know there are some impressive brands out there who scream that this process either helps or doesn’t heed the coffee drinking experience, but to me, there is nothing better than sitting on a fresh and bright Saturday morning, radio on and a smooth flat white in hand….Or, to be honest, as I am very lazy, tasty coffee spooned into my little cafetiere and brewed quickly before I throw it down my throat every morning. Ahem.
I must admit though, as despite my love of real coffee, I have little explored the full range of tastes, beans, roasts and variety out there. I have learnt that I like Colombian and mocha beans (not mocha the drink) that Jamaican Blue Mountain is over priced and i’m not a fan of Italian coffee. But that is it. I know I should always buy fair-trade (I do, but more on this later) but I know nothing about where coffee comes from, or how it is grown.
Thanks to Kopi Coffee I am feeling much more educated today. This weekend I was sent a little bag of, wait for it: Malawi Geisha AB Msese District coffee and details of the Kopi coffee subscription service to review. The premise of Kopi is simple: subscribe and every month you get a 250g bag of single-estate / small co-operative coffee from around the world.
Kopi coffee service isn’t cheap I must admit – £9 a month, or £7 if you sign up for a whole year – but the packaging, and brochure about what, who and where the coffee was brewed is well designed and the coffee – and this is the main point – was bloody fantastic.
More please.
I also rather liked Kopi’s focus on small growers rather than corporations – whilst your coffee could come from Malawi or Guatamala, buying small still feels like you are buying local. In short it feels good.
Now, Kopi admit that many of their coffees won’t be certified fair-trade, although, I am encouraged by their explanation that they pay more than fair-trade prices to smaller growers, if this is correct then fair-play to them.
I am a big fan of the monthly box scheme format (JolieBoxUK in particular) and I love getting a surprise package in the mail each month, as despite the fact I am paying for it, if feels like a present just for me.
Coffee for me is a luxury treat; every month I’d looking forward to what was coming next. As Kopi say “we get our caffeine kicks from bringing you something special”.
Thanks Kopi, you have a new fan.
Miss S x
P.s: Kopi might be the indonesian word for coffee – although I must say that I cannot stop associating Kopi with the cat poo coffee from Indonesia which must be the most famous coffee in the world, along with being the most expensive, but, no, I wouldn’t drink it – would you?
This review is sponsored by Kopi who sent me one of their monthly boxes to review. This review is all my own thoughts; I never positively review something if I don’t like the product or the service. I am not for sale.
Well I can!
It is finally here – I’m off to Australia tomorrow. Whoop Whoop. The tan is done, the case (just about) is packed (mustn’t forget the bikini!) the cats are already sitting on the house sitter’s knee (traitors) the nails are shiny and the tan, well, quite dark. It is holiday time! I thought I just pop in to say au revoir and make you all rather jealous.
(Although I must tell you its raining in Sydney right now. Boo)
…and thanks to the lovely folk at Next I have found the perfect holiday dress and whilst i’m going to resist the urge to wear it on the plane (although do you reckon it will get me an upgrade?) I can just see me floating along the quayside in front of the Opera House, or wandering through the botanical gardens, or even perching on a bar stool with a glass of new world white….
Heaven.
Now i’d never looked at Lipsy dresses before (and I never knew Next sold so many brands) as, well, being in my 30s, shiny, short and tight is rather a no-no. Seriously, even with a tan I doubt I could get away with it, and anyway its just not me – I swing between twee and pretty and/or full on rock chick.
But look!
Birds!
Chiffon!
Bows!
Floaty!
Little puff sleeves!
Perfect.
I hope your Christmas’s are just as perfect as mine is looking. After the year I have had, the hard work, the heartbreak and dismal Scottish weather I think I deserve it.
I think you do too.
So Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to you all just in case I am too busy sunning myself instead of blogging, tweeting or updating my facebook status. You know where I am!
Miss S x
(Thanks to Next for sponsoring this post and sending me my lovely dress, If you want it for Christmas too, you can order from Next right up until the 22nd. Off you go!)
I’m popping this on the end of Food Fridays as the nice folks at Wish recently sent me a grow your own herb garden kit gift in exchange for telling you about their website. So, yeah, maybe rather a tenuous link but in about a year’s time I shall have fresh herbs to use on Food Fridays!
Anyways, yes this is a review, please bear with me, but I only do these if I think you might like to know about the site.
As you will know from previous reviews that I think that gift websites are all the same, unless they are local products for local people, well then, I really don’t bother, too corporate, too dull. No imagination. Not so with wish.co.uk – any site that greets you with zombies on the home page and describes their team as lunkheads cannot be considered normal. I like the fact they also blog and have a go at sending funny tweets. So, yes Wish is a gift website with a bit of personality.
But what about the core of what they actually do? Well it is no good being funny if you are rubbish at your actual job. Wish’s job is to provide you with gift ideas. Basically you buy a voucher for an experience or a gift and they send it to you. It really is that simple. They even have a phone number displayed prominently on their site so you can get in touch if you can’t click add to basket and pay. Or if you really can’t think of anything to buy.
But what can you buy? well like most sites Wish isn’t all hot air (balloons) instead you could get your dad to drive a steam train, your sister to go whale watching, go on a tour of Anfield (gift for me please) or the aforementioned ZOMBIE BOOT CAMP – “and here’s your chance to learn how to blast them to death! Except they’re already dead. So I guess you’ll be blasting them to extra-death. Which isn’t very nice at all.”
I think that is very nice actually. They are ZOMBIES.
Of course they do spa days and chocolate and grow your own herb kits for those who don’t like ZOMBIES.
Not like me. I love em.
The info: www.wish.co.uk, Twitter: wishcouk
Miss S x
I’m aging. Yes, so is everyone I know, none of us are getting any younger. But we girls hate the thought of wrinkles and bags and saggy bits, not to mention orange peel and grey hairs. So we fight it, we find tricks and techniques to make us feel, if not look younger.
My pet hate is the skin on my face. I have combination skin, dry and oily at the same time – moisturisers are a pain. I have to avoid my t-zone and slap loads on my cheeks and chin, highly frustrating. But I persist…and I’m always on the look for new products, what can I say, I’m a product junkie.
I’ve been using Natio products for a while and whilst my skin is lovely and soft, I so miss the bloom I used to have as a teenager. I have a few scars now and since I am working far too far hard I have dark circles too.
My skin needs love and right now it just isn’t getting enough.
When I can afford it I treat myself to a facial – my favourite spa in Edinburgh is Chamomile Sanctuary, an hour here is worth more than a whole weekend spent catching up on sleep in bed. However I’m not a movie star, nor am I made of money (and I am now on a holiday saving budget) so my trips to the spa have been sadly curtailed… (for now)
So I have been having spa’s at home. Baths, candles, bubbles, face scrub, face mask…blissful, but doing it at home just doesn’t seem to have the same effect as having else do it for you. Until I got sent a rather nice Weleda product for a review.
Weleda tick all my boxes. They are ethical, they are green, they support diversity, have high environmental standards and use big words like anthroposophy (I looked it up, its Greek and something to do with Rudolf Steiner) sustainability (no one knows what this means) and salutogenesis (balancing the relationship of health, stress and coping).
All sounding good so far but do the products work? Well, they have lots of celebrity fans (Demi Moore, Georgia Jagger, Claudia Schiffer and er Adele) and lots of good press, they are certainly a ‘celebrity’ brand with the equivalent price tag so I was hopeful. Told you I’m a sucker – give me something expensive with a celeb attached and im there.
Weleda sent me their Wild Rose Smoothing Facial Oil Capsules to try out. They are part of the wider Wild Rose Range (moisturiser, night crème, eye crème and mask) and retail at around £16.95 so not cheap, but as I said they are a luxury, ethical, sustainable product and help with you salutogenesis. Something, that right now, I need a lot of help with.
I’ve been using them twice a week (as directed by the nice instruction leaflet that points out that after the age of 30 the first sign of fine lines start to appear and that its time to encourage the skins elasticity..grrr) and I have yet to notice my skin bouncing up to my eyebrows, but it feels nice, smooth and they smell gorgeous.
They come in pots of 30 x 0.30ml, which for combination skin is a little too much in a capsule, but you can use them on your neck and hands, or like me slather it on at night and wake up looking like a baby. However, like other reviews I have read of them, I would prefer if the oil came in a little dispenser so I wasn’t wasting quite so much each time.
Weleda Facial Smoothing Capsules are available from all reputable retailers – they don’t seem to be on the Weleda site anymore, so maybe they are bringing it out in different packaging. Fingers crossed as I only have about 3 weeks of them left and I want some more…
Weleda – over to you!
The full range of Weleda products are on their website and on facebook.
Miss Sx
P.s I was given a pot of the capsules for this review, I didn’t receive any payment.