What Do You Buy The Coffee Lover in Your Life for Christmas

Well I can answer that question straight off; for the coffee lover in your life, you buy them a Nespresso coffee machine, and I think they will love you and Santa forever! I would!

This is us learning how to be a Barista, but a smaller Nespresso version can see you be a Barista without leaving the house. Perfect for those lazy Christmas PJ days!

I am fuelled by coffee. The machine that is Liska goes about her business purely on the strength of coffee (that's a lie, I consume a fair few cups, more like buckets, of tea too!). When the coffee / caffeine runs out, this brunette sleeps! Which thankfully I was even able to do last night despite spending the whole day drinking coffee yesterday.

On the long journey home in the car, my phone's charge ran out, so given that I don't drive (Daddy's job) and Aaron was behaving well, I was at a loose end and played with the settings on my camera. The above 3 pics of the cocktail maker (didn't catch his name) are 3 different effects: one, the original (far right), another a water colour (far left) and another an "illustration". Truth be told there isn't much difference in them, but he was great, and is the Manager of the Tea House (Waterloo Tea) we were in, and once did the cocktails for Lady Ga Ga's birthday in Oz. I know!!!! Luckily I saw the cameramen spend quite some time with him outside, so I think, if you watch this space, we will get to hear more about his skilllzzzz.

The place is full to the rafters of staff who know their stuff. We had to move from "station" to station to participate in all different "workshops" and the chap who taught us Latte Art did this:

Beautiful coffee swan #CoffeeWithCurrys Nespresso event with @joesbloggers

A photo posted by Liska (@newmumonline) on Nov 11, 2014 at 7:51am PST

So in addition to moving around the room in groups to attend these demonstrations we were also treated to a rather fabulous lunch (none of my photos do it justice). What I loved about the latte art (despite not getting remotely close to the swan OR heart Simon demonstrates above), was drinking a beautiful milky coffee. This was a very appreciated latte after the "cupping" session. Cupping was where they laid out lots of Nespresso blends (flavours) and we walked along like wine tasters with a soup spoon each and took a sample from each cup to swill over our whole palette. When the coffee hits the rear quarter of your tongue it tends to have a bitter taste. The only one that didn't have this was the Vanilla which soon became my favourite! So, after having done "Cupping" twice; once as part of a workshop and again, where it was a competition that I won :-) I was thrilled to be able to drink a Latte. My art was crap (as I wasn't watching during the lesson) but boy did the latte go down very well.

Nespresso do a machine that includes a vessel (carafe) for milk (the machine that I link to at the top of this post) so if you love your coffee milky like I do, then that's your ticket, OR if you have a machine, that just simply pressures the water through your coffee then there is an amazing add on you can buy. It's called an Aeroccino! I videoed the Nespresso chap who works specifically with Currys, (it's currently loading up to You Tube and ta da it's done - below!). By watching that, you will discover that their coffee is the best 2-3% in the industry AND the pressure that the water puts through, in their machines, is unbeaten by their competitors. So the two words I have underlined above, have nothing minuscule about them. Both the coffee and the pressure are at the top of their game. By owning a Nespresso machine, you can join their exclusive club which sounds amazing too!

There's currently a promotion where if you buy a bundle - A Nespresso machine and an Aeroccino together - you get 75 pounds off your coffee. Click on the red bold Aeroccino above to find out more.

I was too shy to do a selfie in the packed event, but as you can see above I did sneak one in on a trip to the Ladies :-) Looking a little slimmer thanks to all my #SchoolPedal school run cycles.

The event was marvellous. There were a handful of parent bloggers but the rest seemed to be food, lifestyle and beauty, which guaranteed you an interesting conversation with whomever you met. I guess it was just lots of fun to meet lots of new people. 

I made a list of the people I chatted to, so a special shout out to:
Levi Jade
Lovely Appetite
The Little Nomad
Cardiff In a TeaCup
Cookies and Cwtches
A South Wales Blog
A Fashion Oddity
Ginger Fee - can't find this one online
Ojos World
Munchies and Munchkins

I didn't write them in my notebook as I know them already, so I nearly failed to mention the wonderful Laura that is Side Street Style and the lovely Debbie that is Johnson Babies, both incredible bloggers.

If you are still undecided you can read "Why Nespresso?" here.

You can probably guess from the broad smiles on the ladies in my collage, that they have just won a Nespresso machine each - lucky ladies. I won a bottle of Prosecco so that is New Year's Eve sorted:

I won the cupping comp a bottle of Prosecco #CoffeeWithCurrys

A photo posted by Liska (@newmumonline) on Nov 11, 2014 at 8:43am PST

Oh and for anyone who reads my blog to see my lovely Aaron. He did come on the long journey to the event but spent the afternoon in the local area with Daddy. He was a very lucky boy and got a new toy. I was so thrilled with the photos I got of him when I met him after this event, that they have a post of their very own that I rushed off the blogging printing presses this morning: My Gorgeous Boy.

Looking incredibly serious I am trying to be a Barista. 

Disclosure: I was entertained all day, kept in coffee, cocktails and refreshed with a beautiful super foods lunch. In addition I received a "Currys" canvas shopper bag which contained a complimentary tube of espresso cups. I have not been told what to say, nor have I been pressured to blog at all; therefore all words above are my own.