On Tuesday 30th July, we were named among the top food and drink producers globally this year, picking up an outstanding Twenty-Two Great Taste awards, including Three 3-Star Awards, Ten 2-Star Awards and Nine 1-star awards. Taking us well over one hundred awards in total over the past seven years.

We recently approached designer Tim Denton to collaborate with us to make a retail stand to showcase our coffee at festivals, exhibitions and trade events. Based in Manchester, Tim is a designer, maker of furniture, objects, and structures. Our Darkwoods stand has been built to be reconfigurable and updatable, made from beautiful American black walnut veneer ply and Ash timber.

A new coffee to our producer series here at Dark Woods, Honduras Abeja Honey is a mixed varietal made up of Catuai, Caturra and Icatu. This honey process coffee is sweet, delicate and super juicy, with a crisp grapefruit finish.

It finally happened. Seven years of telling people we don’t really buy Indonesian coffee and now there is one on my desk waiting to be brewed, picked apart and hopefully, enjoyed. Given that Indonesia is one of the worlds best known and largest producing countries I should probably start by explaining exactly why it took so long for us to feature one.

International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW) is happening this week (5th – 11th May) the largest and most comprehensive education initiative of the compost industry. It is celebrated nationwide and in other countries each year during the first full week of May. The goal of @icawusa is to work together to raise public awareness on why we all should be composting our organics and using compost to create healthier soil.

Sitio Serra e Leite is located in the coffee growing region of Poços de Caldas, renowned for its high quality, volcanic soil and unique micro-climates. This is a relatively small coffee farm compared to others in the Serra do Selado micro-region and the easy-going Luiz Zanetti focuses on using hands-on, traditional techniques rather than a mechanised approach.

In 2023, we launched our Community Small Grants Programme, providing a more transparent, accessible and equitable approach to our local giving. We allocated £10,000 and opened for applications from any grass-roots community organisation within our local area, adopting a simple application process, offering grants of £100 to £500.

Are you ready for a jampacked April of exciting events at the mill, and that’s not even mentioning our Open Days coming back! A series of collaboration with promoters, music lovers, farmers markets and more – there’s something for everyone – we advise to get booking those tickets as spaces are limited, unfortunately due to popular demand the Coffee and Calligraphy event has already sold out. Hope to see you soon.

B- Corp Month continues throughout March and to coincide with this week’s International Women’s Day we would like to talk about our investment in our supply chain partners and for this amazing project in Peru. During 2024 we are funding the construction of Casa Café Femenino in the Jose Huanama Community. This will be a community centre for gatherings and will also be used as a temporary shelter for women and children fleeing abuse or violence.

We are thrilled to re-launch our Community Small Grants Programme; this year now expanded to encompass all areas of Kirklees * During 2024 we are inviting grass-roots community groups and organisations within the Kirklees area to apply for a share of the £10,000 we have made available. As a local business, we aim to support community activities and groups within the area, but we recognise that this can be a little hit-and-miss and unfocused

This is big news! This week we have been recertified as a B Corp, with an outstanding score of 147.4, reflecting our commitment to environmental and social sustainability.  

For our much-loved Lamplight Decaf we have always used washed Central American coffees that have been "Swiss Water Processed". This means they are decaffeinated in fresh water without the use of the kind of harsh chemicals associated with cheaper processes. It is scary to think that many commercial grade decaf coffees have spent time in the kind of industrial solvents that you’d really prefer to be kept as far away from your kitchen as possible.