Blog

Cupsmith really is a family business and everyone gets involved. As our business grows people increasingly ask us 'how do you do it?', 'how do you manage with children?'. The honest answer is 'probably rather badly most of the time'. But somehow we muddle through and we sigh at our missed deadlines, forgotten football kits, lack of play date organisation, and wonder if we'll be able to retire before we're 90! But we do it all because we genuinely love what we're doing and we want to share it with others. 

Yes, the children can often be heard complaining 'Oh please stop talking about Cupsmith!' but then they're the first to help us with deliveries, testing new products and playing with other people's children when they visit the roastery on one of our open mornings. And they still jump up and down and say 'Mummy, look, there's our tea!' when we go into a shop and see Cupsmith products on the shelves. 

Running our own business means most days we all have breakfast together and we're able to be there for sports days, school plays and grazed-knee days. The children are seeing a business grow alongside them, and they're seeing us working hard and having fun too. We hope this will show them how important it is to do something you really love, and we'll always encourage them to follow their talents and dreams. It's a lesson we learned only two years ago when we set up Cupsmith, so now we're making the most of every minute of the adventure. So for anyone else thinking about setting up on their own, our advice would always be to do it, because as long as it's something you love you'll never regret doing it. 

Oh and as for work life balance? Well we definitely haven't found the perfect answer. Sometimes there's too much work, other days there's too much life. On the other hand maybe that IS the perfect work life balance after all? 

George and Emma

x

Hot summer days are here and it's the perfect time to do a little less, sit down and enjoy a glorious iced coffee.

There's a lot of hype around making iced coffee in the speciality coffee world, but the Cupsmith way is always to make things simple - so simple you can make it at home, every day. And we DEFINITELY think you should dollop a large scoop of ice cream on top, like we've done here!

RECIPE

We suggest making a batch of this coffee and storing it in a Kilner bottle in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, though ours tends to be drunk in one go.

So, here’s what to do based on using an 8 person cafetiere as this is what most of our customers have (if you don’t, ping us an email to whatho@cupsmith.com and we’ll help you work out the best way using whatever you already have at home):

You’ll need your coffee to be more coarsely ground than usual, so when you order your Cupsmith coffee use the pull down menu and choose ‘ground for iced coffee’. All our coffees make delicious iced coffee, and our decaff is really good for it, perfect for afternoon drinking when you don’t always want the caffeine

Drink your iced coffee, sitting down, looking up at the magic of sunlight in the trees. And breathe. 

Join us as we all seek more peace and calm on these warm, summer days.

Cupsmith.

x

It seems that more now than ever we all need to find our havens of peace and calm, whether these are physical spaces or mental ones.

My little corner of peace has recently been a silversmithing course I've been doing. Each Wednesday evening I sit in a lovely old studio with views across the Surrey hills, tapping away with bits of silver, setting tiny gemstones and learning to patiently polish the pieces until they gleam. This connection with creativity brings a great sense of personal peace and calm as I step away from our too-busy world and spend two hours doing something I love (even if I'm not very good at it as you'll see from my first results below!).

It was about 6 months ago that we created and launched our Calm Days tea, a delicious blend of soothing camomile, lemon balm and just a touch of lavender. I wanted to create a tea that reflected my belief that we should all find those little moments of calm in the day that mean we rush less, meander more. 

Whether it's taking time out to read book quietly, drawing, painting, cooking for pleasure, meditating or just sitting quietly with a cup of tea, if we can all bring a little more peace and calm into our lives, who knows the health benefits we'll reap and the impact it will have on those around us and the wider world?

How or where do you find your moments of calm? And can we help you find another one each day by giving you a FREE bag of our Calm Days tea worth £4.25? If you place an order for over £25 before July 2nd, we'll pop in a full size bag of our Calm Days finest leaf tea pyramids when we send your order to you. Click here to fill your basket...

Here's to a few more moments of calm each day.

Cupsmith

x

Celebrating our love of getting outside and into the countryside, we loved seeing all your #cupsmithwalks photos last week. Thankyou for all your gorgeous landscapes and beautiful nature images. The winner this week was Niki whose instagram feed is a real treat, full of gorgeous pictures of Suffolk, nature, home life and her travels. Do sit down and get lost for a few moments in her wonderful images here!  We've sent Niki her box of Cupsmith goodies.

This week we're giving away another box of Cupsmith loveliness: a copy of Robert Macfarlane's walking book 'The Old Ways', a gorgeous Cornishware mug and some of our soothing Calm Days tea.

If it's too chilly to be outside as much we we'd like, then cosy up by the fire with a cup of Cupsmith tea and a copy of Macfarlane's book 'The Old Ways'. Following the tracks, drove-roads and sea paths that form part of a vast ancient network of routes criss-crossing the British Isles, the author takes us across a landscape of the feet and mind. One critic writes 'Macfarlane's writing soars. Read this and it will be impossible to take an unremarkable walk again'.

To be in with a chance of winning our boxful of goodies, all you need to do is take a photo on a walk and tag it #cupsmithwalks. Perhaps a favourite spot, landmark or just something lovely you see along the way? It could even be a walk you did a while ago. We'll then pick our favourite shot and announce the winner in a week's time. You can enter either via our instagram page, or upload your photo to our Facebook page. We'll look at photographs on both Facebook and Instagram to pick our favourite. Good luck and we can't wait to see your lovely photos! Entries in by Sunday 18th February, and we'll announce the winner on Monday 19th. Good luck! 

Here's a photo we took earlier this week on a walk across the fields. Where has the sunshine gone now?! 

 Cupsmith x

#cupsmithwalks

Ts & Cs

The competition closes Sunday 19th February. The winner will be notified Monday February 20th.

The prize can only be sent to a UK address. So whilst the competition is open to anyone in any country, in the eventuality that someone not living in the UK wins the prize, they must be able to provide a UK address for the prize to be sent to (therefore allowing them to award their prize to a friend or relative living in the UK).

The prize will be sent out within 5 days of the competition closing, and once the winner has provided their UK postal address.

The judges decision is final.

We're delighted to let you know that our Truly Magnificent Hot Chocolate is now back in stock. Every time we make a new batch of our favourite drinking chocolate we sell out almost immediately. You might ask why we don't make more of it, and it's a good question. Well we don't like making in large batches. We like things to be made carefully, slowly and in small batches. That way we can guarantee we're bringing you the very best chocolate for drinking at home every day.

Our Truly Magnificent Hot Chocolate is made with finest Belgian chocolate and with a lovely high cocoa content, means it's so much less sugary than commercial chocolates. Just add two generous spoonfuls of chocolate flakes to a pan of milk, warm slowly and then pour into your favourite mug, or we're rather partial to a cup and saucer for ours. Drink sitting down in your comfiest chair, preferably with a really good book.

A bag of Truly Magnificent Hot Chocolate makes a lovely, unusual present and we're always happy to send a gift box directly to someone for you. 

Pop some hot chocolate in your basket here.

Cupsmith x

Celebrating our love of getting outside and into the countryside, we loved seeing all your #cupsmithwalks photos last week. Thankyou for all your gorgeous landscapes, beautiful nature images, and lots of stunning, frosty photos. The winner was Alys and we'll be sending her a box of Cupsmith goodies shortly.

This week we're giving away another box of Cupsmith loveliness. With Spring not too far away, we're looking forward to the sound of birdsong and so this week we're giving away a copy of Matt Sewell's charming book 'Our Garden Birds'. Described as the Banksy of the bird world, it won't just be his paintings you'll love, we think you'll enjoy his words too. What better description of a house sparrow than 'As British as chip butties and bramble picking, looking like an old RAF Squadron Leader in a flat cap and tweed'?

Or a Redwing '...like a thrush that mistook a can of red spray-paint for his deodrant and headed out for the day.'

And for when you're back from your walk and ready to put the kettle on, we'll pop in a gorgeous striped Cornishware mug, a bag of our freshly roasted Breakfast Coffee and a bag of our finest leaf Breakfast Tea pyramids. We hope our box of Cupsmith goodies will make your walk even better and the return home wonderful!

To be in with a chance of winning our boxful of goodies, all you need to do is take a photo on a walk and tag it #cupsmithwalks. Perhaps a favourite spot, landmark or just something lovely you see along the way? It could even be a walk you did a while ago. We'll then pick our favourite shot and announce the winner in a week's time. You can enter either via our instagram page, or upload your photo to our Facebook page. We'll look at photographs on both Facebook and Instagram to pick our favourite. Good luck and we can't wait to see your lovely photos! Entries in by Sunday 29th January, and we'll announce the winner on Monday 30th. Good luck! 

Here's a photo we took this weekend on a walk across the fields at Cupsmith HQ. 

 Cupsmith x

#cupsmithwalks

Ts & Cs

The competition closes Sunday 22nd January. The winner will be notified Monday January 23rd.

The prize can only be sent to a UK address. So whilst the competition is open to anyone in any country, in the eventuality that someone not living in the UK wins the prize, they must be able to provide a UK address for the prize to be sent to (therefore allowing them to award their prize to a friend or relative living in the UK).

The prize will be sent out within 5 days of the competition closing, and once the winner has provided their UK postal address.

The judges decision is final.