Monthly Archive for
January 2010

All you need is Love…and Books!

From our Urban Coffee HQ

Urban Coffee Company will be the venue for something a little bit different this St Valentines Day. We will be helping Birmingham Book Crossing with a fundraiser to support Birmingham based charity LUCIA.

Between 2pm & 4pm on Sunday 14th February we will be holding a “book dating” event! Could you make somebody fall in love with a book you really love in just 2 minutes?

To find out more on either Book Crossing or LUCIA follow the links below;

http://www.bookcrossing.com/ http://www.luciacharity.org.uk/

Author R.J Ellory will be coming along to speak about his latest novel and life as an author and will know doubt mention Book Crossing. To find out more about him follow this link to his web page;

http://www.rjellory.com/

We look forward to seeing you all on Sunday 14th!

Music coming to Urban Coffee Company!

From our Urban Coffee HQ

This Friday (22nd Jan) we are very pleased to announce that we have the band Faded Cadence performing live in our very own establishment!

They are going to be performing an easy-listening acoustic set for you guys to enjoy whilst drinking your yummy coffee! They shall be with us from about 6pm so come along and see what you think!

You can get a sneak preview of their songs on their Myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/fadedcadence

Look forward to seeing you!

Yummy Offers

From our Urban Coffee HQ

So guys, those times still haven’t gone away-we’re STILL talking about the credit crunch and it’s just plain depressing!

So come to us for Muffin Monday or Cupcake Friday where you can get a large americano, cappuccino or latte and a yummy homemade muffin from Clam’s Cakes (a welsh bakery who’ve won awards for their wonderful cakes!) on a Monday, or a cupcake from those lovely ladies at Kissmecupcakes on a Friday…you’ll feel much better-honestly!!!

Coffee Cupping!!

From our Urban Coffee HQ

Now this may sound rather bizarre, but it’s actually very much like wine tasting but with coffee. There’s quite a lot of science behind a good cup of coffee, but we won’t bore you with that side of things just yet…!

Last night we held an event for the Institute of Directors, where they got to have a go at a bit of coffee cupping themselves. We had three different filters for them to try and they had to guess which one was which.

Our very own trainer Youri came down from Halifax to take the session and explain just how you can work out which coffee is which-whether you are looking for floral, aromatic smells from the Ethiopian Mocha, or a ‘dark’ smell from the Monsoon Malabar.

It all starts off with the exact right amount of freshly ground coffee in a ‘Cupping’ Cup (rather like a small bowl) which then has a specific amount of not-quite boiling water added to it. It is then left for 3-4 minutes in order for a crust of the filter to form on top.

You then take a deep spoon and push the crust away and get your nose right up close in order to really inhale the amazing smells! After you have done this, you remove the rest of the crust, and then take a spoon full of the coffee underneath and take a big slurp, making sure you swoosh it all around your mouth to get the full taste of it!

We’re looking to host another coffee cupping event in February, so if you’re interested, get in contact!! cath@urbancoffee.co.uk

Chapter One

From our Urban Coffee HQ


It’s time to go and purchase or borrow the first novel chosen to launch the Urban Coffee Book Club.

The title of the first book is;

The Little Stranger Sarah Waters (Little, Brown)

It would be great to hear from you if you will be coming along on Thursday 28th January. Just get in touch via the blog or send us a tweet!

You better go and get reading!

Later Opening Times

From our Urban Coffee HQ

Good news everyone! We’re now going to be open a little bit later in the evenings on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays until 7.30pm!
This is in preparation for when we start serving alcohol, to get you all accustomed to being with us that bit longer!

Thursday 14th Jan we shall close at 6pm as usual to the public as we have a private function happening.

We look forward to spending our evenings with you!

Book Club

From our Urban Coffee HQ


Following lots of requests, we have finally started to put together some information regarding the Urban Book Club! The plan so far is to stick with the More 4 reading list which follows the same format as the infamous Richard and Judy Book Clubs. The first meet will be on Thursday 28th January 2010 at 6.00pm and the book will be The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (Little,Brown).
I would love to hear from you if you intend to come along. Either tell me in person when you visit the cafe or email me at cath@urbancoffee.co.uk

I’m really looking forward to meeting you all over coffee and a book!

ALCOHOL!

From our Urban Coffee HQ

So we’ve had the alcohol licence applicton accepted-now it’s time to work out what alcohol we’re going to have, which is easier said than done!

We’re thinking bottled beer, wine and maybe cider too. We like the idea of getting locally produced alcohol, but as i’m sure you’re aware, England aren’t high up on the list for fine wines!!

So keep an eye out for anything you may see that would look/taste great and go with our cafe/bar type feel that we’re aiming for!

Coffee Menu-Now We’re Talking!

From our Urban Coffee HQ

You may already know that we have always planned to have a variety of filters to choose from, and just like you would have a wine list, we’re going to be having a coffee list starting next week. The coffee will have been roasted on Monday and shipped out to us ready to use on Tuesday.

For those of you who are like us and are complete geeks when it comes to coffee, here’s some info on the choices we shall have;

The Kenya AA is a bright lively coffee with a medium body. Great for filter coffees. AA stands for the highest grade of the Kenyan coffees available.

Indian Monsoon Malabar is a high quality Arabica coffee which has been exposed to the monsoon winds for 6 weeks. This makes the green beans swell and turn pale in colour. Wonderful aftertaste, great long body and very unique flavours.

The Ethiopian Mocha Djimmah is the birth place of Arabica coffee. It is called Mocha as the coffee has chocolate notes similar to a Caffe Mocha. Caffe Mocha is actually called after this coffee from Ethiopia. Grown in the east side by a country with a real coffee history. Medium bodied, chocolaty coffee with a wonderful aroma.

We shall still have our Panama Filter for those who want it, but it is a limited filter and when it’s gone-it’s gone!!

Take Two!

From our Urban Coffee HQ

You may remember that a couple of weeks before Christmas we had a film crew in the shop for the afternoon. Well they are returning for the second take on Thursday 7th January. They will be here over lunchtime and into the afternoon. We hope you will be here to have a coffee and get your fifteen minutes of fame!

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