Blend 65 – Our partnership with Wogan Coffee

We've teamed up with the wonderful people at Wogan Coffee to make our own delicious blend of speciality coffee. We sent Specialist Paramedic in Critical Care Jack Kilminster over to Wogan's Training Campus to create a coffee blend to help keep us flying. 

The plan was to make a coffee not just good enough to fire up our crew for the toughest job, but also one that could be sold to raise vital funds for your local air ambulance charity. 

The Blending process

Jack was welcomed by third generation coffee maestro James Wogan. James had set up a tasting station with a selection of single origin coffees that matched the flavour profile that Jack was given by the rest of the Critical Care Team. The request was for something smooth with caramel and chocolate notes. James identified that South American coffees would best suit our requirements and set out a selection of beans for blind testing. 

After a rigorous process of smelling and tasting the coffees two favourites were chosen - a Finca Le Laguna from Colombia and a Costa Rican Tarrazu El Canet. James mixed the two beans to create a blend for a further round of testing. The resulting coffee was a smooth and sophisticated blend that immediately hit the right notes with Jack. James went on to ask if there was any room for improvement. The only thing missing for Jack was the caffeine kick so he asked if the blend could be stronger. 

GWAAC's brew - Blend 65

James brought a small amount of punchy Colombian Continental to the mix. The new addition complimented the Laguna and El Canet beans, but also elevated them to a coffee that could motivate on the coldest wettest morning.

The final coffee is just the right balance of flavour and punch. It has cherry notes, dark chocolate and praline flavours. The sort of coffee you can drink at any time of day, equally suiting a French Press or espresso machine. 

The coffee will be sold on the Wogan Coffee website. 250g, 500g and one kilo bags will be available and 10% from every kilo sold will go towards funding the work done by Great Western Air Ambulance Charity. To save on each bag and to make sure you never run out, why not sign up for the subscribe and save option?

Wogan Coffee

We chose Wogan Coffee as a coffee producer that has the same dedication and professionalism as our crew. Importing only sustainably farmed traceable beans, they are a third generation independently run family business that hand roast every bean they sell. The training campus is based in the same building James' grandfather started out in back in 1972.  

Feedback from Jack

"We get through a lot of (tea and) coffee on the airbase as you can imagine. Coffee is kind of the staple fluid for us and we’ve always got a pot on the go. Whether we’re back from a tough incident or we’re just doing general admin, we’ve always got coffee on. I swear the majority of us run on coffee.

Wogan is a charismatic friendly environment, it’s an amazing place to be. The staff here are unique, friendly, very inviting, and warm, much like their coffee! 

We’ve learnt a lot about how coffee is created and the history of coffee. Going back to the beans and the farmers (and what they get up to), right up to where it gets sold and people drinking it at home. It has been a fantastic learning experience and the coffee tastes amazing!"