WOVEN X CAIRNGORM COFFEE
Bringing the worlds of whisky and coffee together for one night only.
Our pals at Cairngorm Coffee are the custodians of a lovely corner building that used to be a bank. This summer, instead of putting out their outside seating they were fighting to remind people they even existed. Edinburgh’s (very welcome) transition to sustainable transport meant that the road and pavement in front of the store were to be worked on for a couple of months, resulting in a pretty devastating change of fortunes for the business.
If you’ve been following our feed you’ll have noticed that this year we’ve been hosting a series of small gatherings in the studio. ‘Open Studios’ have become a monthly highlight for us, offering us the opportunity to show open the doors to our (embarrassingly small) studio and share a few drams with friends old and new. It is safe to say that we outgrew the space a few months ago and had been looking for a way to host more people.
So that’s how it started. We reached out to Cairngorm with an idea, and when we caught up to talk about it things got weird. We realised that beyond the event there were huge synergies in what our businesses stood for, how we looked at flavour and of course, the various startup struggles we all face. By way of introduction, we spent some time discussing our purpose and there were some exciting connection points about community, and how fun it could be to collaborate.
For the first time putting something like this together - it was a huge success.
For those that are interested - The drinks list was a few simple serves built around the occasion. A playlist from the night is available so you can get in the groove without the need to move. Thanks for coming!
La Colmenais a stunning coffee, an approachable Natural Gesha. The processing is super clean and allows you to really appreciate the delicate profile without being distracted by having any overly funky fermentation.
To prepare the blend Pete made some cold brew coffee using the Japanese Method. He separately blended a whisky to sit alongside the coffee’s profile - which had notes of Canned Peaches, Raspberry Jam and Chocolate Liqueur. The Whisky was a proprietary blend, comprised of 25 year old Invergordon Single Grain and a 5-year-old Campbeltown blended malt. The profile was long, luxurious and oily, and it blended beautifully with the fruity and delicate notes of the coffee.
The rest, as they say, is history! On Thursday 6th July Cairngorm Coffee on Melville Place in Edinburgh was transformed into a whisky bar for one night only. Featuring various whisky and coffee cocktails, as well as our entire range of blended whiskies, and a few other concoctions we created a space in which our community could gather and connect around both coffee and whisky.
Pete even created a blend of the two. Cairngorm were kind enough to release some insanely special beans from their Wonder Series. They were the beans used by their man Kyle as he competed in the UK barista championships and are called La Colmena.
Pete even created a blend of the two. Cairngorm were kind enough to release some insanely special beans from their Wonder Series. They were the beans used by their man Kyle as he competed in the UK barista championships and are called La Colmena.
For the first time putting something like this together - it was a huge success.
The coffee-whisky hybrid went down an absolute treat. As to whether we’ll make more of it any time soon who knows, but it was a lot of fun. The main highlight however, was the atmosphere. Maybe it was the coffee, maybe it was the whisky, or maybe it was both... but one thing is for sure people had a good time. The whole experience, and indeed the task of pulling the event together with just a couple of weeks notice was a great reminder of why we do what we do. Pete summed it up beautifully as he addressed the room; 'this isn't an event about coffee, or whisky. It's about what happens in both these worlds when people gather around and share whilst sipping from small cups.' he was absolutely right. Community is everything, and connection is king.
For those that are interested - The drinks list was a few simple serves built around the occasion. A playlist from the night is available so you can get in the groove without the need to move. Thanks for coming!
Click here to watch the video of the event