Welcome to the first of our  blogs which in the coming weeks  will bring you little amazing facts from around the membership, and around the world! It’s amazing what we can dig up when we put our minds to it! You just can’t wait, can you?

 To start us off,  and tying nicely with our blog on coffee,  which you may or may not have read,  if not why not?! –  we look at the ways people drink coffee around the world.

The Coffee Addicts Guide to the World begins with Morocco. Here they like to spice it up a bit with sesame seeds, black pepper and nutmeg. In Spain, they  add sweetned condensed milk to espresso, for a rich sweet flavour. This is called Cafe Bombon. Half and half milk and condensed milk constitues a Leche de Leche. Now you know! Wade through this interesting infographic we found on the magical interweb, and see what  other things folk do to their coffee on this unsual planet we call home! Let the rest of the world do as they wish – we’re quite happy to sip a straight cuppa from the  Ponaire coffee range of , hand roasted and blended coffees, made in small batches, by Tommy Ryan in Limerick. 

As August has passed and the promise of an Indian Summer lurks for September, you might still be in the mood for ice cream. This ice cream infographic, which we also found whilst trawling the net in the name of research,  states that 98% of people keep ice cream at home. It takes approximately 50 licks to finish a single scoop ice cream cone (what sort of  people know these things…). And the strangest ice cream flavours include avocado, bacon, Stilton cheese and garlic (that’s pobably those chefs playing with molecular cooking and gastrophysics again…). Read the beautifully put together chart here for more interesting ice cream facts. And don’t forget to check out our own ice cream makers like Glastry Farmhouse , Linalla,  Rossmore Farmhouse and Valentia Island Ice Cream, all made in small amounts by hand. 

And lastly, but not leastly, we want to tell you an amazing fact about our dear friends at Cuinneog Farmhouse Butter in Co. Mayo. This butter was first made at home in the kitchen in Mayo 25 years ago, by Tom and Sheila Butler. Second generation butter maker Breda Butler, now in charge at Cuinneog, remembers when the creamers were set on the family range so the cream could ferment, and herself and her sister were given the job of turning them to make sure the heat was distributed evenly. From here, the cream was hand churned in a traditional wooden butter churn, before being shaped by hand using old wooden butter pats, and wrapped in linen. Those were the days! Cuinneog is still going strong, winning numerous awards and now in the World’s Top 50 foods, as voted by judges at this year’s Great Taste Awards. The old creamers and wooden churn may be gone, but the old fashioned methods of making in small batches still remain.

See you next time for more brain fodder from the world of food!