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Revolver World won the Great Taste Award for a fourth consecutive year

For immediate release
Revolver ® have for the fourth year been winners in The Great Taste Awards. Revolver ® Specialty Sumatra achieved 2*,  judges described it as “Excellent, smooth mouthfeel. Big flavour upfront. Some ash-y notes but takes sugar well and rounded off really well. Fine example of a big roast, has some balance and some good savoury notes. Good fruity acidity to balance the darker flavours.”

Judges also gave 2* to our Revolver World ® Fairtrade ® Rwanda Munganero single estate. They described it as “Interesting crema, almost orange in colour. First hint on the palate leads you to believe there is going to be too much acidity but it mellows into a very pleasing caramel creaminess.The long finish is very well balanced and reveals good depth – hints of buttery biscuit. For a single origin this took us on an interesting journey.”
The Great Taste Awards are created by the Guild of Fine Foods. Although many coffees are entered into the awards, there are comparatively few winner and only a small percentage are Fairtrade coffees. John Boyle (Chair) “it’s the people behind the scenes who make the magic happen, the credit goes to the farmers and their co-operatives who care-deeply about the product and our co-operative colleagues in stores, who make everything simple for shoppers“.
Paul Birch (CEO) said “This is the fourth year running we have won Great Taste Awards. These award winning products will be available very soon. It’s great to work with expert buyers and roasters who are able to get the best out of the product.”
Revolver ® were awarded the Fair Tax mark earlier in the year (the first Food / Beverage company working in commodities) and just the 20th firm in Britain to receive the award. In 2015 Revolver was awarded the Living Wage Foundation certification and was the 6th company in Birmingham to receive the cities Social Responsibility Charter (now over 300 firms hold the charter mark).
Revolver ® is organised as a multi-stakeholder co-operative, members include producers in the developing world. It ranks second for ethics as judged by Ethical Consumer magazine.

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Revolver World wins Great Taste Award 3rd consecutive year

The Great Taste Awards 2017
For immediate release
Revolver ® have for the third year been winners in The Great Taste Awards. Revolver ® Speciality Kenya Kapota Top Lot judges described it as “Bright fruity, citrusy espresso that has a long clean finish”. They also said that it was “boozy, ripe and delicious.”
Judges also gave 1* to our Revolver World ® Fairtrade ® Organic Papua New Guinea Elimbari. They described it as “having dark chocolate flavours in the middle and this is reasonably well balanced. Just enough acidity, great as an espresso or a filter coffee this would par well with the sweetness of milk and perhaps, sugar.”
The Great Taste Awards are created by the Guild of Fine Foods. Although many coffees are entered into the awards, there are comparatively few winner and only a small percentage are Fairtrade coffees. John Boyle Chair “it’s the people behind the scenes who make the magic happen, the credit goes to the farmers and their co-operatives who care-deeply about the product and our co-operative colleagues in stores, who make everything simple for shoppers“.
Paul Birch CEO said “This is the third year running we have won Great Taste Awards. Twice for our Fairtrade Ethiopia Yirgacheffe and once for Our Brazil Fairtrade Organic.. It’s great to work with expert buyers and roasters who are able to get the best out of the product.”
Revolver ® were awarded the Fair Tax mark earlier in the year (the first Food / Beverage company working in commodities) and just the 20th firm in Britain to receive the award. In 2015 Revolver was awarded the Living Wage Foundation certification and was the 6th company in Birmingham to receive the cities Social Responsibility Charter (now over 300 firms hold the charter mark).
Revolver ® is organised as a multi-stakeholder co-operative, members include producers in the developing world. It ranks second for ethics as judged by Ethical Consumer magazine.

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Sainsbury Drop Fairtrade Tea

Sainsbury’s are dropping own-label Fairtrade tea in favour of their own “fairly traded” tea. Sainsubury are the second major brand to follow Cadbury, who dropped Fairtrade cocoa Q4 2016.

Paul Birch director – Revolver Co-operative: “Both organisations quoted the desire to control the funds contributed to developing world farmers, but they are passing-off “Fairly traded” for Fairtrade; the two descriptions are asynchronous in my view as “Fairly traded” is not an externally audited approach to help developing world farming communities. It’s time for consumers to vote with their conscience and boycott corporations like Sainsbury and Cadbury who have abandoned ethics in pursuit of profit”.

Only FAIRTRADE certified commodities can be relied upon to ensure independently audited delivery of support to world farming communities.

Ethical Consumer magazine is concerned with guiding consumers on ethical issues, and their article is here; http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/latestnews/entryid/2162/sainsbury-s-drops-fairtrade-label-on-tea.aspx

Here is an extract from The Independent who discuss this in depth;

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sainsburys-fairly-traded-tea-own-brand-fairtrade-foundation-farmers-producers-a7753561.html

Sainsbury’s to launch ‘Fairly Traded’ tea sparking outrage from Fairtrade

The supermarket is due to start using the tea in an open-ended trial next month

sainsburys.jpg
The supermarket is due to start using in an open-ended trial next month, Getty

Sainsbury’s will start selling its own-brand tea under a new “Fairly Traded” label, sparking a fierce backlash from the Fairtrade Foundation, which currently has its brand on the tea.

The foundation said that it is concerned that the new “untested model”, which the supermarket is due to start using in an open-ended trial next month, will not help the most marginalised tea farmers and producers.

In Malawi, one of the countries to be enrolled in the new “Fairly Traded” pilot scheme, 75 per cent of the population already live below the international poverty line.

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Cadbury pulls out of Fairtrade chocolate – but it’s keeping the logo

Tea is the second largest export after tobacco for this landlocked nation, one of the poorest countries in Africa. Around 90 per cent of its tea is sold to Britain. Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second biggest supermarket and the world’s biggest Fairtrade retailer, is a major buyer.

Sainsbury’s say “Fairly Traded” will operate in a similar way to Fairtrade – by guaranteeing farmers a minimum price for their tea, and providing a premium per kilo on top of that for development projects, such as agricultural training and improving health and education facilities.

Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance certified farmers will automatically qualify for the scheme, and farmers will have the option of being certified “Fairly Traded”, too.

The key difference is how the premium is paid to producers.

Fairtrade’s premium fund is given directly to communities, and an association made up of farmers decides how the money is used.

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Revolver World Capsule Boxes are here

Revolver World Capsule Boxes are here

The Revolver team have been working hard to try and move their coffee forward to capture a different type of audience. We have been designing and developing our own different flavoured Nespresso Capsules. The origin capsules range from Cuba, Ethiopia, Honduras, Peru, and Decaffinated. There are 10 capsules per Nespresso box.

The new product is currently available on our website and in your local Co-Operative store.

The capsules are compatible with any Nespresso machine.