Dark Woods Coffee

We are delighted that Common Grounds has won a coveted 3-star Gold award in both the 2017 & 2018 Great Taste Awards. GTA judges commented that it “has great nose; feels like you can taste the barrels in the aroma. It delivers a big hit of blackcurrants and forest fruits. With milk, the fruits are even more pronounced. Funky, sweet, rich, and smooth. Delicious. 3 star.”

Last year saw the launch of Common Grounds, a collaboration with ourselves and Magic Rock Brewery, to make the the ultimate triple coffee porter. This collaboration has now gone even further.

Magic Rock use whiskey barrels to age some of their beers in. This mellows the flavours of the beer and adds complexity from the wood and the traces of whiskey. The same effect can be found when you store green beans in the barrels. We use washed Ethiopian coffee from Yirgacheffe, that is “aged” in a Bourbon barrel for a couple of week before roasting

The results are stunning. A faint aroma of the whiskey (especially when you grind it!) gives way to a sweet smooth vanilla flavour. Just delicious.

Please note that, as each batch has to be aged in the barrel for up to two weeks, there can sometimes be a short wait for coffee to be roasted. Also the intensity and flavour may vary as different barrels affect the coffee in their own unique way, just like a single cask whisky has its own unique signature.

Dark yet bright, Crow Tree is a rarity amongst speciality coffees. Top quality, high altitude Arabicas are more commonly left light but we felt that this only tells half their story. By using the cleanest available green coffee we are able to roast darker to develop bold yet defined flavours that match those found in the very best single estate chocolate.

Crow Tree utilises coffees sourced from farms closely involved with the Café Femenino Project. This ground-breaking organisation supports women farmers and producers in what can be a challenging and male-dominated industry.

Crow Tree is a multi-award winning coffee (winning one star at the 2017 Great Taste Awards and two stars in 2018). For the team at Dark Woods, the quality of the coffee and a strong relationship with our producer friends goes hand in hand. Here, we’re looking to develop a coffee with a wide appeal – quality dark chocolate flavours, clean with a hint of fruit.

The current blend comes from Peru Asproagro Community (washed arabica) and Honduras Finca La Guadalupe (washed arabica)

We were getting requests for a traditional Italian style espresso. This made us nervous as cheap Italian espresso blends can be bitter from over roasting and cheap robusta.

So we set about making a much higher quality version, an elegant modern interpretation in the Dark Woods style.

The blend starts with specialty arabicas from South America and India. Finally, we add in the very best quality robusta from the award-winning Harley Estate in India. It’s just mid roast resulting in a smooth rich bodied espresso that will make people reassess this style.

With a medium roast, Deer Hill delivers a soft, but full-bodies espresso with notes of fudge, toasted nuts and milk chocolate. 

Deer Hill won a coveted 2 Stars at the 2018 Great Taste Awards.  

Not so much stuck between extremes as offering the best of both, Milk Wood was not only the first blend we roasted but the concept around which Dark Woods was built. A medium roast delivers familiar caramel sweetness but adventurous sourcing takes it beyond the perceived limits of this style. Validation of our approach arrived in 2016 when Milk Wood won a prestigious Golden Fork for best Northern Product in the Great Taste Awards.

Awarded a 3-star award and the “Golden Fork” in the 2016 Great Taste Awards for the best product in the North of England; it has also won a great taste award in 2017 & 2018.

This espresso blend is designed to melt into milk to give you a wonderfully caramel flavoured cappuccino, using high-grade single estate coffees to deliver familiar flavours rather than challenge.The roast level is carefully balanced to avoid the bitter flavours associated with some tradition style espresso blends, or acidity of some lighter blends, letting the sweetness shine through. Under milk Wood is very versatile and works well as a filter coffee too, in cafetieres and drip filters.

Flavour: Melts to smooth caramel in milk

The current blend is Brazil Fazenda Passeio (pulp natural arabica), India Kalledevarapura Estate (washed arabica), Ethiopia Aricha (washed arabica)

The lightest espresso, Arboretum is a celebration of nature and origin. It changes regularly to reflect the freshest and most interesting coffees that they can find and may take the form of a harmonious blend or a stunning single estate. Sweet and vibrant in milk, bright and juicy when drunk black, Arboretum is a coffee for the curious and the bold.

Arboretum is a multi-award winning coffee (two-stars in the Great Taste Awards 2017, and one star in 2018). Taking the best of current crops, this espresso is designed to highlight the fruitier side of coffee, left lighter roast to retain those citrus flavours. 

Lamplight Decaf is gently decaffeinated using the Swiss Water method. This process not only removes the caffeine without resorting to harsh chemicals but also imparts a breaded sweetness that resembles rich fruit cake. Delicious brewed in every method Lamplight is coffee without caffeine or compromise.

Black Hill is our newly award-winning, modern interpretation of deep, rich espresso flavours. Inspired by our popular Deer Hill recipe, it’s named after one of the highest points in our local moorland scenery. We blend speciality-grade arabica with a “Kaapi Royale” specialty robusta from the Harley Estate in India and fully develop the roast, to produce a uniquely rich and full-bodied coffee. Sweet and satisfying with milk, complex and smooth without, Black Hill delivers familiar flavours without compromise.