Hundred House Coffee raises a cup to the extraordinary and bizarre
UK multi-award winning Shropshire-based roaster Hundred House Coffee has scoured the furthest reaches of the caffeinated universe for Freak & Unique, a new curated ‘curiosity collection’ of the most “off-the-wall” coffees it can find. The limited edition releases see each coffee paired with a specially created artwork, designed to reflect the character, eccentricity and abnormality of each release in the Freak & Unique collection.
Released as and when the Hundred House team discovers them, the roasters state that a Freak & Unique coffee might have zingy notes of bubblegum and the comforting warmth of buttered popcorn or the elegant aroma of strawberries and jasmine. Each coffee is a sensory journey to be savoured and remembered and, like all Hundred House’s coffees, the Freak & Unique series is fully traceable and ethically sourced, celebrating the farmers, their rigorous production techniques – and the extraordinary results that these can bring out in the cup.
The first series launches this month with a Geisha varietal (£28 for 150g) – combining notes of jasmine and cherry lollies with hints of raspberry leaf and raspberry syrup. This variety is grown in the Cauca department of Colombia by Diego Samuel, whose deep knowledge in the production of speciality high-end coffee results in distinctive and almost unparalleled taste and flavour profiles.
Each release of Freak & Unique coffee comes with a limited edition framed and numbered screen print, created for the first coffee by Liverpool-based illustration and design duo Toucan Tango. The pieces have been designed to ‘pair’ with the uniqueness of each coffee, with the intention of providing a lasting memory of the Freak & Unique. Dedicated connoisseurs will be able to collect the full set of artworks as each new series is released.
Hundred House Coffee co-founder Matthew Wade commented: “Being coffee obsessives, we’re fascinated by the unfamiliar and are constantly seeking out the most interesting tastes and flavours that we haven’t encountered before. And this new collection focuses on precisely that – we’re aiming to highlight the intriguingly abnormal and, by sourcing weird but wonderful coffees and pairing them with distinctive, unusual art works, we’re bringing two worlds together, as well as leaving people with something permanent with which to remember their experience.”
