How did you hear about Cafédirect?
I came across Cafédirect whilst looking into the Fairtrade industry in the UK

What is your favourite Cafédirect drink?
Machu Picchu coffee

Have you always been passionate about chocolate? When did you decide to turn it into a business?
My earliest souvenirs as a kid are about chocolate. It became obvious 6 years ago that I had to make it my profession, then the opening of the shop followed 3 years ago.

If you could only recommend ONE product in your shop in Peckham to our readers what would it be and why?
The Hot Chocolate! Hot, thick, smooth, dark but sweet and to spice to your taste.

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?
Drink a mocha, half Melange hot chocolate half Machu Picchu coffee with a slice of cake or muffin.

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Peru as it grows my favourite chocolates and coffee.

Sunset or Sunrise?
Sunset!!!

If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
1)Travel to cocoa growing countries
2)Eat as much chocolate as I want without gaining weight
3)Grow cocoa trees in my garden.

Glass half empty or half full.
Half full !

If you’d like to feature as a Friend of the Month email friends@cafedirect.co.uk – we’d love to hear from all of you and if you’re featured you will receive some Cafédirect goodies!

The post Friend of the Month – Isabelle Alaya appeared first on Cafedirect.

June’s friend of the month is taking on a new dimension as we feature our first family of the month! We met Tim, Emma, Lucie and Katie at Hay Festival and WOMAD last year and were delighted to come across them stewarding at Hay Festival again this year. They live down the road from the festival at the bottom of the mountain in an old stone house that Tim is doing-up to be a super eco-build – everything from wood-burning for fuel to a permaculture garden.

What is your favourite Cafédirect coffee?
Machu Picchu. We drink it twice a day – everyone. In the morning, whoever is up first makes a full flask of coffee and that keeps us going for morning rush. We all have our coffee differently. Emma has espresso, Lucie & Tim make lattes (half coffee and half warm milk) and Katie likes a little bit of coffee with a lot of milk – a bit like a coffee milkshake.

How long have you been drinking it?
It’s been a year. We’ve been drinking it since last Hay Festival. We’d never heard of Cafédirect before. We used to drink Lavazza or Co-op’s Fairtrade. We were seduced by the aroma and staff at the Container House, tried Machu Picchu and Kilimanjaro and loved the taste. We like all the coffees but Machu Picchu won us over – we like strong coffee but not so that it blows your head off!

What is the best thing about being a Friend of Cafédirect?
We feel like we’re buying to support the cause. As well as being great tasting coffee, Cafédirect is ethically & morally sound which makes you feel warm inside! And makes the coffee taste even better. We also like the people we’ve met at Cafédirect and everybody needs good friends!

Do you have any hidden talents?
We can all tightrope-walk & juggle (working towards doing both at the same time!). We tried it two years ago in northern Spain and set up a rope in our garden.

What’s your favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?
Tim – Takeover the kitchen to cook roast chicken for the family.
Emma – Read weekend Guardian from cover to cover
Katie – Chill out and read a book
Lucie – Most active on a Sunday! I dance with the Two-Faced dance company. We’re going to perform at the Big Chill this year, very exciting!

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
We’d love to go outside Europe. Before we had kids, we went to India for 3 months, clocking up 14,000km on the train all the way down east coast, back to west coast and ended at Delhi. We’d love to take the kids to India. Actually, would love to go without the kids again too!

Sunset or Sunrise?
Family divide here! Emma and Katie are early birds so they’re sunrise, whereas Lucy & Tim are definitely sunset.

If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
1. I’d like everyone to have 3 wishes for themselves
2. End to global bickering
3. Jedward off the TV!

Glass half empty or half full
Always half-full, always.

If you’d like to feature as a Friend of the Month email friends@cafedirect.co.uk – we’d love to hear from all of you and if you’re featured you will receive some Cafédirect goodies!

The post Friend of the Month – The Rawlins Family appeared first on Cafedirect.

May’s Friend of the Month is Maddy Harland, editor of Permaculture Magazine,  a magazine devoted to practical news and articles on permaculture,  self-sufficiency, farming, gardening, smallholding and sustainable living. Maddy is also co-founder of the Sustainability Centre in Hampshire, where you will find a fine cup of Cafédirect coffee being served in the cafe!

How did you discover Cafédirect?
My first business venture was to start a wholefood shop in 1988 in Portsmouth and I was very into supporting small, alternative enterprises. In the early nineties I became aware of your initiative to protect small growers and that seemed very cool in those days that we could vote with our pocket as consumers. I watched the birth of the Fairtrade movement with great enthusiasm.

What is your favourite Cafédirect coffee drink and how long have you been drinking it?
Machu Picchu filter coffee. I recently discovered it at the Organic Café at the Sustainability Centre. We appreciate a great cup of coffee at weekends after a morning walk in the woods and have tried many but that’s my favourite.

You co-founded The Sustainability Centre in the South Downs. How did this come about?
The Sustainability Centre was a redundant Naval Communications Base. It was hidden up in the Downs in the Second World War when Portsmouth was being heavily bombed. It became surplus to requirement in the early 1990s. Two thirds of the site was sold off to developers but the local council negotiated one third (55 acres) to become a centre for sustainability. They invited a group of us to help form an educational charity. We moved Permaculture magazine’s offices there in 1998. It now offers courses and interesting activities for children and adults, has a woodland burial site, various associated businesses and a campsite and eco-lodge for guests, and is a vibrant place full of interesting people. We host the South Downs Green Fair every May.

You’re editor of Permaculture magazine. What is Permaculture all about?
Permaculture is based on three very positive ethics: people care, earth care and fair shares. It is all about taking insights and principles based on nature and using them to create low carbon homes, gardens, farms, communities, and businesses. Permaculture is intelligent, life-affirming and life-enhancing – a practical strategy for living lightly. It was originated in Australia in the 1970s. We started the magazine in 1992 with just 600 readers. We now have 100,000+ readers in 77 countries. Permaculture is a global movement now.

Sustainability is key to your work in both Permaculture magazine and The Sustainability Centre. When did you become interested in sustainability issues? Did you have an ‘awakening’ moment?
It was at university. I was studying English and was reading everything I could put my hands on. I wanted to know what life was all about and it became devastatingly obvious that without the values that make a culture endure for seven generations or more, literature and philosophy will all turn to dust, however profound in observation or beautiful it may be.

We’ve done a lot of work on reducing our carbon footprint. Do you have any tips for people to reduce their carbon footprint?
Food can account for up to a third of our carbon footprint so growing even small amounts can make a difference and also save money. I like growing Oriental veg and cut and come again salads, as well as garlic, all expensive to buy and not difficult. I also grow herbs that make good teas, but I haven’t tried making tea from a camellia bush yet, the soil is too chalky where I live. I am aware that my favouirte coffees and teas are imported, that for me is why it is important that they are fair trade. If we are going to import goods we need to know they are sourced responsibly.

What is 1 thing not many people know about you?
I ran away from rather a strict boarding English school to Scotland aged 14. It was a spur of the moment impulse that got me into a whole lot of trouble! I have always wanted to push the envelope, take risks and have adventures. That was the first big one in my life, and rather dramatic!

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
The Amazon because I would like to fully appreciate its extraordinary biodiversity first hand.

If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
1.Total nuclear disarmament globally and the cessation of the building of all new nuclear plants. We don’t know how to deal with the waste and we cannot control extremes in planetary weather systems or human conflicts.
2.The reversal of the legal right to own patents on seeds so that poor farmers in the Third World can save and swap seeds without risk of prosecution and also value their traditional agriculture and not feel it is inferior to Western industrial agriculture.
3.A warm summer in England, it’s been so rainy recently and I do love cooking and living outdoors.

Do you have any tips for people wanting to live a more sustainable life?
Think deeply about makes you happy. Write a list of the things that you value in your life and are grateful for. These are rarely about ‘stuff’, more about the people in your life and the simple things you love to do. Make sure you never miss a week without doing some of them. Becoming more ‘sustainable’ is ultimately about quality of life, and happiness is not always directly related to wealth but how we follow our joy and appreciate the good things about our lives. Be grateful for every day you are alive. Life really is a miracle.

If you’d like to feature as a Friend of the Month email friends@cafedirect.co.uk – we’d love to hear from all of you.

The post Friend of the Month – Maddy Harland appeared first on Cafedirect.

April’s Friend of the Month is Tracey Smith.  Author of the bestselling Book of Rubbish Ideas, she is also a columnist and broadcaster on sustainable living and creator of awareness campaign, InterNational Downshifting week.

She’s a maverick enthusiastic advocate for living with less and can be heard reguarly on Apple AM and BBC Somerset. She has a TV series in development and will yell from the rooftops when it’s ready to air and we will let you know on here too!

How did you discover Cafédirect?
I first discovered Cafédirect via a press release as I was searching material for an eco-article I was writing…they sent me delicious samples with their company info and I was hooked on the taste and the ethics!

What is your favourite Cafédirect coffee drink and how long have you been drinking it?
I kick my day off with my long-term love and favourite, the ground rich roast in my cafetière, which gets me through the trickiest of mornings, with lunch box and urgent-ironing nightmares!

Do you use an eco kettle when boiling water for your cuppa?
Yes, I do have an eco-kettle and I fill it up with water poured from the cafetière so I boil the perfect amount, no waste of water or energy.

You’re author of The Book of Rubbish Ideas, a guide to reducing household waste and stopping wasteful behaviour, so you must know almost every way there is to reduce waste! Did you also know you can reuse coffee grounds in a number of ways and what’s your top tip for reducing waste at home?

Thank you for your kind compliment on my book!  I love finding ways to use rubbish as a resource and use my coffee grounds for several things!  It’s a great way to keep my compost pile happy and I put a barrier of sharp sand, little stones and grounds around the edge of me veg plot, the slimy critters don’t like that at all!

One of my top tips for reducing water waste at home is to reuse all the hot water bottle water!  We use them every night to make our beds snug and they are great the next day to use on the plants, or to rinse grubby shirts in soda crystals (you need a bit of hot too of course), or to rinse out the bath or shower tray after cleaning around….water is water….a precious resource, reuse wherever possible!

Do you have any other tips for people wanting to live a more sustainable life?
Oh boy, that’s the million dollar question….well one element of living more sustainably can mean spending less and being more savvy with your shopping decisions.  If you take a positive approach to living with less and embrace the charity shops, 2nd-hand clothes and furniture from freecycle or passed down via family and friends, if you share your personal abundances too like tomatoes from your veg patch, you’ll probably find other great edible things coming your way from benevolent buddies and if you adopt skill exchange as a way of trading without money, your whole world could change colour; you’d have more cash in your pocket, which means you could work less and might be able to have a better work/life balance too, in favour of life!

Name 1 thing not many people know about you or do you have any hidden talents?
Despite the fact that I talk an awful lot (radio broadcaster/speaker/teacher), I’ve a secret desire to go on a Buddhist retreat to study meditation and enter periods of complete silence…..!

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
If distance and carbon were no issue (which they sadly are), I would love to stay in an Ashram in India…..maybe if I double offset my carbon, I’ll make my dream come true.

If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
Oh no, now you’ve asked the 3 wishes question…you’re fiendish!  Well assuming you don’t want me to plump for the obvious world peace/no nuclear/zero famine by writing off 3rd world debt and equal distribution of food….
No 1,  Have InterNational Downshifting Week printed on every calendar and in every diary (is that 2 wishes I wonder) so people in this country could ‘slow down and green up’.
No 2, I would love to see sustainable living lessons brought into the national curriculum and taught from nursery school upwards (composting/cultivating food/wormeries etc)
No 3, I would like to see a Transition Town movement in every town and village throughout the country, uniting communities and helping them stand on their own two feet, embracing the seasons, working together and positively thriving.

If you’d like to feature as a Friend of the Month email friends@cafedirect.co.uk – we’d love to hear from all of you.

The post Friend of the month – Tracey Smith appeared first on Cafedirect.

March’s Friend of the Month is green fingered Emma Cooper.
A writer, photographer and podcaster, Emma contributes
to many gardening blogs including the BBC, The Ecologist and
her own coopette.com

How & when did you discover Cafédirect?
Long, long ago! It must have been around 2001, when we bought our first house and I  started my first garden. I was starting to become very aware of where our food came  from, and started to choose Fairtrade and organic products in preference to conventional ones.

What is your favourite Cafédirect drink?
I love Cafédirect’s tea and feel very deprived if I have to go many days without it!

Last year for the first time at Cafédirect we grew fruit & veg on our balcony and as well as having fresh food to eat we saw  for ourselves how much hard work goes into growing crops. For you, what are the best & hardest parts about growing your own?
The best part of growing some of your own food is the joy of harvesting it and then eating it! Nothing can quite compare to that feeling, especially if you’ve gone to the trouble of using it in a meal you’re preparing for someone else. There’s a considerable gloat factor! The hardest thing is when something goes wrong, and a plant dies or doesn’t produce a harvest. Sometimes it’s your fault (because you forget to water) and it does feel like murder. But more often it’s because of things largely beyond your control – weather, or pests and diseases.

For our readers considering leading a more sustainable livelihood what is the first thing you would recommend they do in their home/garden?
I am an Oxfordshire Master Composter, encouraging people in my local area to take up, and keep up, composting. It really is the best place to start, because you can turn all your vegetable and garden waste into compost, which is then used to feed your plants. There’s no such thing as too much compost as far as a garden is concerned, it’s the best thing for the soil. And if you have healthy soil then your plants are far more likely to grow well and give you a tasty, organic harvest.

What vegetables are you particularly excited about growing this year?
I have a tendency to try exotic and unusual things  in the garden, and this year I have some chayote – which are climbing plants related to marrows and courgettes. Hopefully they’re going to grow spiny fruits about the size of a pear, but if they don’t then the leaves and shoots are also edible! But I’m equally excited about a far more mundane plant, because I have built myself a new raised bed in which to grow potatoes this year – something I haven’t had space for previously. Homegrown new potatoes are one of the highlights of the gardening year.

In your book The Alternative Kitchen Garden, An A – Z – What does A stand for and what does Z stand for?
The book is a collection of entries about plants, gardening terms and techniques, gardens and organizations and wider environmental topics. A stands for Achocha (another unusual crop), Allotments, Apples, Annual (plants) and Aubergines. There aren’t many things that begin with Z, so Z stands for Zero Waste, Zea Mays (sweetcorn) and Zucchini (courgettes)!

If you could put one item into time capsule now what would it be?
Gardeners may be familiar with the big seed banks that are springing up around the world, to preserve our biodiversity in the face of changing environmental conditions. It may not have occurred to them that a garden is also a seed bank, or time capsule, as you can grow plants through one season then harvest the seeds and replant them the following year. The plants in your garden will gradually adapt to the changing conditions and will help to preserve genetic biodiversity. Which is a long-winded way of saying I would like the whole of my garden to be included in my time capsule, but I suspect that’s cheating! So I would choose the book ‘Plants for a Future’ by Ken Fern, which is all about making use of the plants that are not currently grown commercially and which may well be a valuable resource for us in the future.

If you could spend a weekend in a bygone era, which would it be?
I love reading about the Second World War ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign and the way that people on the Home Front pulled together for the war effort. It would be nice to go back for a week and see what it was really like at the time. As well as the gardening aspects, there’s a lot we can learn from the era of Make Do & Mend – modern society is horribly wasteful.

Name 1 thing not many people know about you?
I read the Harry Potter books in Spanish. I learned Spanish at school, and by the time I left I was pretty fluent, but the lack of a conversation partner since means I am pretty rusty. I can still read Spanish well, though.

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I would love to visit the South American homes of some of the more unusual crops that I grow. The ‘Lost Crops of the Incas’ (including achocha, yacon, ulluco and oca) all failed to make an impact with the colonial explorers and haven’t made it  onto supermarket shelves, but other plants (particularly the potato) have become almost indispensable. These crops are not really lost, though, as they’re still grown and loved in their homelands and it would be great to see people growing and using those plants as they have done for centuries.

Sunset or Sunrise?
Sunrise. I have always been an early riser, and the weather is often nicer first thing . These days I have to get up to give our chickens (Cluck Skywalker and Chewbucka) their breakfast, and as long as the weather isn’t too cold that’s a nice part of the day for me.

If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
1.    A greenhouse with some sort of environmentally-friendly heating  that stays above freezing all winter. There are lots of interesting edible plants that just aren’t hardy enough to cope  on really cold days.
2.    A bigger garden. I have to plan and juggle things around and I never have the space to grow everything I want each year.
3.    A global acceptance of Bill & Ted’s “Be excellent to each other” philosophy, resulting in an end to war and exploitation and extending to other species so that we stop taking our environment for granted.

If you’d like to feature as a Friend of the Month email friends@cafedirect.co.uk – we’d love to hear from all of you.

The post Friend of the month – green fingered Emma Cooper appeared first on Cafedirect.

Ravinder Bhogal

February’s Friend of the Month is Ravinder Bhogal,  food writer; journalist; stylist and television personality (and big fan of our São Tomé Instant Hot Chocolate!) , also known as Cook in Boots.

What is your favourite Cafédirect drink?
I love the Machu Picchu Fresh Ground coffee because of its chocolatey notes. I sometimes mix it with a spoonful or two of São Tomé Instant Hot Chocolate to make a mocha as a treat.

How long have you been drinking it?
Around 4 or 5 months but I try to stick to one cup a day or I would be bouncing off the walls!

How did you discover Cafédirect?
At my local Oxfam store.

If you could spend a weekend in a bygone era, which would it be?
I really love the polish and decadence of Mad Men so maybe the 50s, or perhaps the 1920s Paris writers like Anais Nin and Jean Rhys evoked in their fiction.

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?
Sunday lunch but I always keep it casual because I love to relax with my friends too. I love slow roasting cuts of meat like shoulder of lamb which you can just leave to roast virtually all day on a very low heat. I think Sunday lunch is an important tradition we should try and keep alive.

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Right now I would love to be back in India – I was there at Christmas and got a little ill so don’t think I did justice to the eating – I would like to do that all over again. I have a particular soft spot for Kerala.

Sunset or Sunrise?
Both depending on how many hours of sleep I have had.

Glass half empty or half full?
Always half full. Probably more.

Read our blog later this week to get a yummy recipe from Ravinder!

If you’d like to feature as a Friend of the Month email friends@cafedirect.co.uk – we’d love to hear from all of you.

The post Friend of the Month – Ravinder Bhogal, food writer and cook appeared first on Cafedirect.

Cheers, with blue Royal Doulton tea-cups, Anne!

 Tea or coffee?
Tea every time. It suits any mood, complements any meal. High tea was a feature of my early life in Yorkshire – lashings of Yorkshire ham with salad and hot new potatoes, home made cakes and buns and masses of gorgeous tea. No sign of alcohol. Just tea.

What is your favorite Cafédirect drink?
The Cafédirect tea

How did you discover Cafédirect?
Through seeing it in Sainsbury’s.

What is the best thing about being a Friend of Cafédirect?
Information about the latest developments in Cafédirect projects.

Name 1 thing not many people know about you
There isn’t one. I am not a woman of mystery – I’m a devotee of stand up comedy and a special fan of Frank Skinner – raunch and all.

Do you have any hidden talents?
Sadly not. I tend to flaunt any talents I have. As a child I once went to an Irish dancing class. The next Saturday morning I had the neighbourhood children lined up on the back lawn giving lessons myself.

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I have always wanted to go to South America

Sunset or Sunrise?
Both. I cannot rise from my bed without a cup of tea served by my favourite man. Then  on to tea for breakfast all in blue Royal Doulton cups.
It’s so companionable to have a late night cup of tea after a night out, or when the guests have gone home.

If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
1. All the people of the world would have the chance to live life free from crushing worry about where their livelihood is coming from and how their children will be educated .
2.Young people – including my own children – find the courage to persevere in a tough world and explore their talents and gifts to the full.
3. Exuberance and friendship, gaiety and fun should flourish without inhibition.

Glass half empty or half full
Well for most of us in the West the glass is so clearly more than half full, if we don’t believe that we only have to look at those whose lives are so much more difficult than ours.

To become a Friend of Cafedirect you can sign up here

If you would like to be Friend of the Month, or would like to suggest someone, get in touch, especially if you have stories to share about your Cafédirect!

The post Friend of the month – Anne: tea lover & campaigner extraordinaire appeared first on Cafedirect.

What is your favourite Cafédirect coffee drink?
The Earl Grey tea is  delicious.  I’m quite a new convert to Cafédirect.

How did you discover Cafédirect?
I stumbled across the Container House at the Grand Designs Show in London.  I absolutely loved the look and was drawn in.  I loved the coffee sack chairs.  They got me thinking… I’d rescued a pair of skip-bound chairs from a neighbour saying that I’d renovate them.  They stayed in disrepair for two years.

Cafédirect kindly gave me sacks to allow me to copy Wayne and Tilly Hemingway’s look and I brought the chairs back to life.  They’re now at my kitchen table and I love them, not as much as my cat does though.

Alex's cat 'Claudia Winklecat' relaxes on her Hemingway-inspired upcycled chair

Do you have any hidden talents?
I have very few talents but am weirdly good at boules.  No idea why, I don’t practice and am hopeless at other games.

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Back to my friend’s parents house in Italy.  A group of my friends had a very happy week there in the summer.  Lots of laughing, wine tasting, homemade limoncello, a pizza making competition and very spirited volleyball matches in the pool.  Good times.

Sunset or Sunrise?
Sunset, everything looks so pretty and warm in the light.

If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
To live by the sea with my man and a dog.  (Pretty selfish wishes)

Glass half empty or half full
Always half full.  Usually with gin and tonic.

See more fab upcycling with coffee sacks on our Facebook page and upload your own photos too.

If you’d like to be a Friend of the Month, let us know at friends@cafedirect.co.uk

The post Friend of the Month – Alex appeared first on Cafedirect.

Tilly and Wayne Hemingway were the dynamic design team behind the Cafédirect Container House.

Tilly’s design expertise brought us the beautiful Container House wallpaper and her eye for spotting gorgeous vintage clothes also resulted in her choosing some incredible pieces of secondhand furniture for the Container House too.

What is your favourite Cafédirect drink?
I am a chocolate lover so it has to be San Cristobal Hot Chocolate but I am also a fan of the Machu Picchu coffee!

How long have you been drinking Cafédirect?
Sad to say, only since working alongside Cafédirect on the Container House project. I have been aware of Cafédirect for quite a while but never really thought of changing brands. Cafédirect San Cristobal Hot Chocolate is now my hot chocolate of choice. I don’t drink too much coffee at home but my boyfriend often puts a packet of Machu Picchu in our shopping basket!

What is your favourite aspect of the Container House? Most definitely the upcycled furniture. It is amazing what a bit of paint can do to dilapidated furnishings. Re-upholstering the reclaimed chairs using old Cafédirect coffee sacks also worked a treat!

Vintage at Goodwood was one of our favourite Container House stops. What was your favourite moment from the festival?
There was so much to see and do, so I cannot say I have a favourite moment.  The people-watching was fantastic…there were so many inspiring outfits! The shopping was also great; I found a few great additions to my wardrobe.  Musically my highlights were:  The Warehouse, Soul Casino and live performances by The Caezars, Kid Creole, Swing Out Sister, Leroy Hutson and Peter Hook.

If you could spend a weekend in a bygone era, which would it be?
My parents moved down to London in 1980 at the age of 19 and were regulars at clubs such as Le Beat Route. I would have loved to experienced life as a Blitz Kid and had the opportunity to dress up in some of the outrageous outfits around at the time.

Name one thing not many people know about you?
I am pretty good at tennis. I dreamt of becoming a professional and trained almost every day up until the age of 14.

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?
A picnic on Primrose Hill followed by a successful visit to a few of London’s second hand shops.

We know that you love cooking at home from your Tea for Tilly blog. What is your favourite food?
We went on a family holiday to India a couple of years ago and the food was incredible! On my return I bought a few Indian cookbooks and taught myself how to make real Indian food. Now I cannot get enough of it.

Have you ever made anything using coffee or tea or hot chocolate?
I have a bit of a sweet tooth and being vegan I often make my own desserts and sweets. I recently made coffee-flavoured chocolate truffles in which I used Cafédirect Machu Picchu coffee.

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
It is hard to beat England on a nice sunny day but perhaps a weekend break in a Scandinavian City, Tokyo or a family trip to Perth, Australia where my sister is currently studying.

Sunset or Sunrise?
Sunrise – I can’t do lie-in’s!

If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
Nothing. I have a great; job, family, boyfriend and friends. What more do you need?

If you have been inspired by our upcycling read our tips on to how upcycle your own furniture. Look out for November’s Friend of the Month who has experimented with re-used coffee sacks for her new dining room furniture….

Did you visit the Container House this summer? Check out the photos here and tag yourself & your friends.

The post Friend of the Month – Tilly Hemingway appeared first on Cafedirect.

Wayne Hemingway at the Container House launch at Grand Designs Live

Eco-design pioneer and curator of the spectacular Vintage at Goodwood Festival, Wayne Hemingway has been working closely with us on the Cafédirect Container House.

Wayne, along with his daughter, Tilly, designed the Container House, ensuring that we ended up with a super stylish and sustainable environment for people to sample our coffee in.

What is your favourite Cafédirect drink?
San Cristobal Hot Chocolate from Dominican Republic. I’ve been drinking it since I worked with Cafédirect on their Tastefair event at WholeFoods High St Ken. I’ve now become addicted … feel free to feed my addiction!

 How did you discover Cafédirect?
The philosophy drifted into my conciousness

What is your favourite aspect of the Container House?
That Tilly (my eldest lass) did such a good job with it. I also love that it has a great recycling/reuse ethic running throughout it.

Cafédirect Container House is an upcycled haven for coffee lovers

We loved Vintage at Goodwood. What was your favourite moment from the festival?
Seeing young + old sharing the fun + all those smiles!!

Thanks for donating your vintage mugs for our Sow Your Own campaign. Do you grow anything at home?
I grow lots … my favourites are the wild strawberries but the hens nick em!

Wayne teamed up with Cafédirect to create micro-allotments in stylish vintage mugs from the HemingwayDesign Land of Lost Content

If you could put one item into time capsule now what would it be?
Teddy Pendergrass – The More I Get , The More I want, he sadly died this year … he is THE VOICE

If you could spend a weekend in a bygone era , which would it be?
I quite fancy stroking a Wooly Mammoth or Riding a Sabre Tooth Tiger

Name 1 thing not many people know about you/ hidden talents?
Few people have ever beaten me  at table tennis … Tilly has …but only when not I’m not on my game!

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?
Watch my youngest play cricket + read the paper

Great vintage style at the Container House at Vintage at Goodwood

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
A field on a summers day in England … a field with Vintage at Goodwood happening in it … like many I have the post Vintage blues.

If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
Family stay close  – all stay healthy and  happy

Glass half empty or half full
…no chance it remains half with me!

Were you at Vintage at Goodwood? Check out our photos here and tag yourself & your friends! Look out for Tilly Hemingway as October’s Friend of the Month!

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