Golden Fork Nominee! El Placer ‘Yellow Fruits’ scooped a 3-star award earlier this month, and it has now been announced that it was one of the highest scoring products, meaning Dark Woods Coffee is now in the running to win a Great Taste Golden Fork: the highest accolades in the food and drink world.

In the Autumn of 2022, I finally boarded my flight to Addis Ababa for my long-postponed visit to see our friend Ashenafi, and his team at Ardent Coffee in Ethiopia. This trip was originally planned and booked for March 2020 but, of course we all know what happened then…

Here at Dark Woods, we have been getting very excited about compost – yes, you read it right. Let me explain. Everyone knows what composting is – chucking garden waste, food scraps, cardboard, and the like, into a container or pile at the end of the garden and hoping that, eventually, it turns into soil.

This month is Plastic-Free July, a global initiative to highlight the need for, and progress towards, removing more plastic from our every-day lives. We are using Plastic-Free July to highlight some of the steps we, at Dark Woods Coffee, are taking towards becoming plastic-free.

Welcome to our B Corp Report for 2021/22. This was our second year as a certified B Corp, and our second Annual Report. In this report, we update progress on some of the work we started (and reported on) last year and highlight some of our plans for 2023 and beyond.

Café Days are back for 2023! Running monthly on the third Saturday of the month, from April through to September. We have a very similar format to last year, however no bookings are required this time around. We have the following dates announced, please read the lovely FAQs below, it will help us immensely before visiting our wonderful space.

That's a bold claim; but, the outstanding work of the women farmers in Peru, supported by Cafe Femenino, means that it has become a reality. As part of B-Corp Month / International Women's Day, we recognise their amazing achievements over the last nineteen years and highlight why we all need to keep supporting their efforts.

After offering the public a sneaky peek at Manchester Coffee Festival back in November last year, we are proud to announce the official launch of our Blue Tin “Reserve Series”.

Sebastian Ramirez's El Placer, based in Calarca, Quindio, is a truly pioneering farm. We really feel that Sebastian is a producer at the top of his game right now, delivering complex, yet delicious and drinkable, coffees.

This month’s producer focus is Mikava Coffee from the highlands of Risaralda, Colombia. Harvesting some of the finest beans around, their approach has focused on both heritage and modern varietals of Arabica, and experimental, extended fermentations on the coffee cherries. The results are heaven in a cup. 

Ethiopia, its coffee and its people, are close to our hearts.

Our Head of Training and Customer Support Tom on how changes to our training programme can support you even better in 2022.