Wake up and smell the fireworks!

There is only one smell that matches the delicious whiff of freshly fired gunpowder and that’s the whiff of freshly ground coffee! As the leading UK fireworks company here at Fantastic Fireworks we draw our inspiration from daily coffee meetings. Our new cart is kitted out with the latest Krupps bean-to-cup machine delivering max strength taste.

Whenever the Fantastic Fireworks team go abroad they are instructed to come back with a packet of beans. Recent returns have included Costa Rica (the high grounds variety delivers a beautifully rich, intense, aromatic flavour) and Vietnam (the world’s second biggest coffee producer after Brazil is known for its slightly chocolatey flavour).

One of our firm favourites is Old Government Java – a coffee that inadvertently emerged from the hulls of Indonesian trading ships in the 18th century. The beans had been exposed to damp, monsoon conditions but came out all the better for it.

Today the ‘monsooning’ of the Old Government coffee beans may continue for as long as three years and results in a strengthening of the coffee’s taste, a weakening of its acidity as well as a distinct colour change from the original green tint of the coffee beans to a light brown.

The most unusual and rarefied coffee we have experienced is the one known in Vietnam as ca phe chon, or civet cat coffee. Over here it’s better known as weasel coffee, illustrated by said animal defecating the beans it ate the day before! In reality it’s not a weasel at all but the similar looking civet cat. As it happens, civet cats are coffee connoisseurs (The Economist). With their long noses, they sniff out and eat the best and fleshiest beans. Their digestive enzymes ferment the beans and break down the proteins. These beans, harvested from the faeces, then create a shit-hot coffee. Just like our fireworks!