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If you are a gardener that has ever used old coffee grounds to deter the pests (slugs / snails) because you do not want to resort to chemicals or just thought it a great idea then you are in contravention of EU regulations and technically face a heavy fine. Yes true…  

It is well known that caffeine in the coffee deters slugs and snails but Brussels bureaucrats have made it known that any “home-made” remedy that has not been approved by Brussels is against the law. This law is to stop people using dangerous mixtures on plants that may be eaten in future or spreading chemicals that may harm wider wildlife.

Brussels in their wisdom thought it easier for the EU to include chemicals that have been tested and approved as pesticides on a list, and impose a blanket ban on everything else, rather than produce a longer list of ingredients that are potentially dangerous. "All chemicals being used to control or deter animals are classed as pesticides in the UK and EU, and must be registered and approved for this purpose by our own government and the EU. Coffee ground is not on the list and thus can’t be used. So in theory gardeners could face heavy fines - although I guess the chances of being prosecuted for scattering coffee grounds in a garden are, I suspect, remote.”

However - you are able to compost coffe grounds and then use on the garden - so what a pile of rubbish Brussels.

We get asked all the time on how best to store coffee once it has been roasted. 

We continually want to better represent certain origins and one way to do this is through building our direct relations at origin. We already roast a couple of estates from India, but we would like to find a few smaller more obscure quality estates to offer our customers so we have just finished planning our next origin trip to India. 

Coffee Real is pleased to announce the opening of a Coffee Real branded Café at the Arora Hotel Gatwick. This new café forms part of a wider licencing agreement between Coffee Real Ltd and Excel Hospitality Limited (EHL) and is part of a £100,000 refit at the hotel within the lobby area, café and restaurant. 

Whatever we are buying we all have a budget and generally speaking when it come to espresso machines and grinders most people (domestically speaking) will spend a few hundred pounds on an espresso machine and twenty pounds on a grinder – give or take a few pounds.