I recently had the pleasure of meeting Norfolk-based coffee roasters ‘Give It Some Beans‘ and the lovely Jo kindly gifted me a couple of their coffees to try out for a review on my blog. I am not normally much of a coffee drinker but my brother is so I knew he would love to try out these locally roasted coffees.

I went to ‘Give It Some Beans‘ HQ to collect the review samples and I was offered a cup of coffee when I was there. Although I don’t drink coffee on a regular basis, I do enjoy a cup now and again. I always have it with milk and normally I would have sweeteners in it but I thought I would try it without when Jo gave me a cup and what a great decision that was! It was not too overpowering and it wasn’t bitter at all – it was great! The problem, I have since realised, is that when I am at home I only ever drink instant coffee and that normally is quite bitter and I need the sweetener to mask the taste of what I am drinking – with ‘Give It Some Beans‘ the coffee taste didn’t need to be masked by artificial sweetener for me to find it palatable.

I had a wonderful chat with Jo when I went round and her passion for all things ‘coffee’ is so evident. I think it is wonderful her and her husband Sean have taken the leap and started their artisan fresh roasted coffee company ‘Give It Some Beans‘. She is an inspirational lady and I think it is fantastic that she has taken something she loves and turned it into a business. It was so nice to go round her house for a chat and to try a ‘cup of Joe‘ (or should that be ‘Cup of Jo! 🙂 ).

Jo told me that she loves motorsports and that is reflected in the name of many of their coffees – such as Cruiz’in, Unleaded Decaf, Supercharged, Full Fuel and GT. I LOVE that she has reflected her true personality and interests into her company branding. We are very similar in that aspect because I truly love red and white polka dots and I think you may have guessed that from my blog design and image borders etc. Seeing spots makes me happy and I would imagine for Jo that every time she gets to speak about her coffees and their respective ‘Motorsport names’ that she too is happy.

As an artisan producer I think it’s important that customers at markets/events get to see the authenticity of the people behind the ‘Give It Some Beans‘ brand and when you see Jo talking so passionately about her coffee it encourages you to want to support her in their coffee roasting venture. So, if you are reading this review and you live locally to Norfolk I would encourage you to head along to an upcoming event (All the dates are at the end of this post) and talk to Jo about the coffees they sell and if you don’t live locally then I would say you should most definitely send her a DM on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter because I know she will be happy to answer any questions you have and give you advice as to which coffee to go for. At the moment they sell 12 different coffees and they all vary in strength and taste so a bit of guidance from Jo might be all that stands between you and your perfect brew! It looks like mine is a Columbian as that is what Jo made for me and it was superb.

So lovely to meet you too.. glad you loved the coffee you had & no sugar too !! I must of chosen the best coffee for your taste buds ☕☕☕ #colombian Speak soon J x

— Give It Some Beans Coffee- Norfolk (@giveitsomebeanz) February 5, 2019

Jo gave me a sample pack of ‘Give It Some Beans‘ ‘Kickstarter’ and ‘Challenge-Or’ coffees. These retail at £3.15 for a 125g bag of Kickstarter and £3.25 for a 125g bag of ‘Challenge-Or’.

Kickstarter is a 3 bean dark blend coffee and they class it as level 4 out of 0 – 5 in colour.  It is a dark roasted blend of coffee from their Nicaraguan, Colombian and Ethiopian Arabica coffee beans and they say it is ‘Ideal for that morning wake up’.  Their tasting notes say  ‘A great tasting blend with no nasty undertones or harshness yet leaving a wonderful aftertaste’.

You can purchase Kickstarter coffee here >>> giveitsomebeans.co.uk/product-page/kickstart-250g-BlendCoffee.  It is available in Whole Bean, Fine Grind and Coarse Grind. Pack sizes are as follows :- 125g = £3.15 , 250g = £5.95, 500g = £11.30 and 1kg = £21.50 bags (Prices are correct at time of publishing)

Challenge-Or is a dark roasted coffee. It is roasted with their Ethiopian Djimma Arabica coffee bean. It is classed as level 4 out of 0 – 5 in colour.  They say they say it is ‘Enough to take on any encounter in the day’.  Their tasting notes say  ‘A dry processed with low acidity but brings a fruity, floral, fragrant-rich and full-bodied coffee.Wild chocolate notes, malty caramel sweetness and spicy/peppery aftertaste’.

You can purchase Challenge-Or coffee here >>> giveitsomebeans.co.uk/product-page/Challenge-or-250g-EthiopianDjimma.  It is available in Whole Bean, Fine Grind and Coarse Grind. Pack sizes are as follows :- 125g = £3.15 , 250g = £6.10, 500g = £11.60 and 1kg = £21.95 bags (Prices are correct at time of publishing)

Please note:- Brew strength of these coffees will be determined by your grind fineness, amount of coffee used per serving, brew method and so on.

‘Give It Some Beans‘ say that with their coffee they do not promote specific strong hints or “flavours”, but their individual tasting notes describe the beans typical acidity origin levels as a guidance.

So to the review, I took the sample packs of coffee over to my brothers house that night so he could try them out. First off, he loved the packaging and was very impressed with the coffee aroma from the packet. I too absolutely loved the coffee smell from these pouches! I had only left the two pouches in my car for a few hours but the coffee aroma that filled my car was wonderful. Nothing quite beats the smell of coffee to enliven your senses!

We brewed the Kickstarter coffee in a cafetiere and I had mine with milk and he had his without. He even frothed up the milk for my coffee by hand – bless him, looking after his big sister! (Not that you’d know I’m the big sibling – he towers over me in height!) After my brief dalliance of having coffee without sweetener at Jo’s house I chose to not have any in the cup he made me either…and it was a good decision as the coffee really doesn’t need it.

I just enjoyed the coffee for what it was – a good cup of coffee…. but my brother knows a bit more about the subtle differences between different coffee roasts and blends and he told me it really was ‘excellent’ quality coffee.

I decided to take some biscuits over to my brothers house to have with our coffee and I’d bought ‘Borders’ Lemon Drizzle Melts. They were so amazing dunked in the milky coffee! All the icing on the top warmed up and the biscuit absorbed the coffee and melted in your mouth. Yum!

It was a fantastic evening – lots of catching up with my family, cups of coffee, biscuits and laughter. What a nice way to spend a Tuesday evening.

My brother has subsequently tried the Challenge-Or single origin coffee and he has told me that he was equally impressed with that one too.

I always love it when I get to receive review products that I can give to family and friends and it is lovely to be able to introduce them to new products and brands that they may not be aware of yet. In the case of this coffee, my brother had not heard of ‘Give It Some Beans‘ before but now that he does he will tell other people, as will I, and thus hopefully word of mouth will help with the marketing of their local Norfolk business.

It can be difficult for small businesses to thrive in the current times but if you would like to play a small part in helping to support this one then please pop over to www.giveitsomebeans.co.uk.