January 2015 heralds a whistlestop tour of South America to visit our producers and maintain the fantastic relationships we've worked to build. We’ve always been proud to establish and maintain excellent relationships with our producer partners around the world. In the past we have visited growers in Kenya, Costa Rica, Colombia and more. And 2015 will herald the arrival of yet another whistle-stop tour – this time in South America. Our founder and director, Bryan Unkles, will visit three countries in eight days, taking in Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica. His visit to Guatemala is especially exciting as the Guaya’b cooperative there is the supplier of our new Bird Friendly coffee, which we launched at the end of 2014 with the SHOP and Smithsonian Institution . To take the journey along with Bryan follow this link to his blog , which will be regularly updated throughout the trip. It’s the perfect opportunity to see how your coffee travels from bean to cup.

We will be holding a coffee tasting event at The Crucible, Sheffield. If you would like to join us please contact us for further information and a ticket.

We would all like to say a very big well done to Anthony on competing in this year's UKBC competition in Newcastle on 17 February. It’s obvious that Anthony’s hard work and dedication paid off on the day as he attracted very favourable comments from the judges on this is first year of entering the competition. Watch out for 2013, he surely is a barista to look out for!