Ever wondered where the coffee beans and tea leaves that go into your GFaL (Great Food at Leeds) drink come from? Well, it’s closer than you think! Every cup of tea and coffee served in our cafes is either Fairtrade or ethically sourced using local suppliers from Yorkshire. We serve over 500 thousand cups of tea and coffee a year, so it’s important that we use the best quality ingredients and support local, sustainable suppliers.

Coffee

 

Darkwoods

Served: Affine, Loma, Loma Express, The Edit Room 
Roasted in: Marsdon, West Yorkshire
Darkwoods.co.uk

Nestled away in the West Yorkshire Penninesjust 25 miles away from campus is Darkwoods coffee merchants, who are one of the first coffee roasters in the UK to be BCorp certified.

Dark Woods use specialty grade coffees, which have cleaner more distinctive flavours and are traceable to skilled farmers and their farms across the world. 

Ian Agnew, Director of dark Woods, is also the director of the Lorna Young Foundation, a small charity that works with farmers in developing countries to help them get more value from what they grow. It was with this foundation that his involvement with coffee began when he helped to set up the Oromo Coffee Company, the world’s first refugee-owned social enterprise coffee company.

 


Bewleys: Coffee Eros

Served: Refectory, Hugo, Café 7, Café Maia, Baines Wing Café, Delivered catering
Roasted: Meltham, West Yorkshire
bewleys.co.uk

Bewleys

Established in 1840, Bewley’s source a large range of triple-certified, 100% Arabica, and Fairtrade coffees. Our cafes only use Bewley’s Fairtrade coffees which are sustainably sourced and roasted in nearby Meltham, West Yorkshire.

Bewley’s grower partner relationships go back years and they visit many of the growers they buy from regularly. As a business, Bewley’s are committed to reducing their environmental impact and actively work on the sustainability of coffee cups, alternative packaging and offsetting carbon emissions.

 

Tea


Canton Teas

Served: Affine, Loma, Loma Express, The Edit Room
cantontea.com/

Canton work hard to make the finest teas available at the fairest prices.  Most of their teas are beyond organic, some are biodynamic – and several are from abandoned tea farms where the plants now grow wild. Others are from ancient tea trees in the forests of Yunnan and Vietnam.


Bewleys: Eros Tea

Served: Refectory, Hugo, Café 7, Café Maia, Baines Wing, Delivered catering
bewleys.co.uk

Bewley’s carefully sources the finest teas based on leaf appearance and infusion qualities such as flavour, colour, strength and briskness. All Eros tea is Fairtrade and organic where possible.

 

 

Get involved!

Join the ‘Choose the World You Want’ online festival with your friends and family.

Follow Great food at Leeds on social media for all the latest posts around Fairtrade Fortnight

#Fairtradefortnight
#Choosetheworldyouwant​

Great Food at Leeds and Fairtrade

Since 2003 Great Food at Leeds (the University’s catering service), has been responsibly sourcing and selling ethical and Fairtrade products, to use in meals and sell in its cafes.

In 2005 the University of Leeds obtained Fairtrade status and our continued support has helped Yorkshire to be named the first Fairtrade region in the country.

We understand that choosing to back Fairtrade and ethically sourced products is one way we can stand with those vulnerable communities on the front line of the climate crisis.

As a consumer, YOU too have the power to help make a change socially and environmentally on the products you choose to buy.

At Great Food at Leeds, we understand that it is our responsibility to inform our customers about making these choices as well as making sure we provide a good variety of ethically traded products available across all of our cafes.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2021

For two weeks each year at the end of February and start of March, thousands of individuals, companies and groups across the UK come together to share the stories of the people who grow our food and drinks, mine our gold and who grow the cotton in our clothes. People who are often exploited and underpaid. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us more than ever how interconnected we are globally.

This Fairtrade Fortnight, Great Food at Leeds will be shining the spotlight on the ingredients and suppliers we use and sharing information on how we can all make informed choices when it comes to Fairtrade and ethically sourced products.

Fairtrade and Sustainability

So, how does Fairtrade fit in with sustainability? Ellie, a final year BSc Geography student and one of the Community Reps at LUU writes about this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight theme 2021, and the growing challenges that climate change brings to farmers and workers in the communities Fairtrade works with.

Read Ellie’s blog post here

Get involved!

Follow our social channels below to find out how you can get involved or join the ‘Choose the World You Want’ online festival on the Fairtrade website with your friends and family.

Follow Great food at Leeds on social media for all the latest posts around Fairtrade Fortnight.

#Fairtradefortnight
#Choosetheworldyouwant​

Watch as Ellen Wang from Leeds University Business School shows you how to make Chinese dumplings at home!

Prep: 40 mins Cook: 2 -10 minutes

Medium

Makes around 16 – 20 dumplings per 60g of flour

Meat and vegetarian

 

  • Meat
    Mince Beef 250g
    2 Large Carrots  (grated)
    Light Soy Sauce
    Dark Soy Sauce
    Oyster Sauce
    Chinese Five Spice
    Sesame Oil
    Ginger (chopped)
    Spring Onions (chopped)
    Garlic (chopped)
    Salt  – to taste
    Sichuan Peppercorn Warm Water (small cup)
  • Vegetarian 
    2 Courgettes  (grated)
    2 Large Carrots  (grated)
    3 or 4 cooked eggs omelette style (chopped)
    Light Soy Sauce
    Dark Soy Sauce
    Chinese Five Spice
    Sesame Oil
    Ginger  (chopped)
    Spring Onions  (chopped)
    Garlic (chopped)
    Salt – to taste
  • For the dough
    250g Plain flour
    200 mL Warm water

Equipment
Large bowl
Medium bowl
Cloth
Optional: Wooden spoon or chopstick
Large Pan
Large slotted spoon