There was a moment over Christmas when I thought I was hallucinating. It was as if I’d stumbled across a hairy mammoth in St James’s Park. I was presented with an Irish coffee. You know, the proto-Bailey’s Irish Cream - coffee, whiskey, sugar with whipped cream floating on top. It looks like a Guinness but doesn’t taste like Guinness. There’s some debate as to when, how and by whom it came to be invented (some dispute as to whether it was first created in Ireland at all, but in America), but it became the sophisticated way of relaxing at the end of dinner. It first put in an appearance in the 1950s and became really quite fashionable by the 1980s,...
"The new season’s olive oil from my brother Johnny’s smallholding in the Monte Lucretili, the hills above Rome. To my mind, it is the finest olive oil ever produced - lucent, lambent, potent but elegant, muscular but refined."
“Venice, its temples and palaces did seem like fabrics of enchantment piled to heaven” wrote the Victorian critic John Ruskin. It was night as I approached the city in one of those elegant, speedy water taxis. I sensed rather than saw the fabrics of enchantment, although the short journey from the airport had a magic of which even Ruskin never dreamt. The ghostly outline of the city ahead, lights glimmering on the polished black surface of the lagoon, the stakes marking a marine highway leaning this way and that. The shapes of other boats glimmering through the darkness and then gone, the rush of wind in the face and the intoxicating brew of sea and salt and seaweed and diesel....
With COP26 in session at the time of writing, sustainability has never been higher on the world’s agenda. There is a growing appreciation within the global community that we must take urgent action on climate change now. Even small variations in our daily habits can have a significant impact, including our choice of morning coffee. Our focus on the complete lifecycle of the Francesco coffee bean blend, from plant to cup, has resulted in an award-winning, sustainable, Italian-style espresso that doesn’t cost The Earth. Now read on to learn more about sustainable coffee and our exclusive Francesco tote bag offer. Sustainability and Ethics At Point of Origin Sustainability addresses environmental impact, whilst ethics addresses other moral issues such as working...
We'd like to inform you about forthcoming Lavazza price rises at Piano Coffee. We have not increased our base prices on beans for the past 4 years, but a number of factors have now prompted a review: The global price of coffee has skyrocketed this year due to a number of factors. This has led to a notable increase in our buy prices from Lavazza. An ongoing shortage of delivery drivers has led to our freight costs increasing. Warehousing costs have also crept up over time which has also affected our margins.Which prices will increase?All of our Lavazza Coffee products will be subject to some level of increase. Our award winning Piano Coffee products Luisa and Francesco will not be...
