#pairing subscription

[ripvanwafels]

Rip van Wafels loves Good Coffee & Tea: May

Our second subscription pairing box went out this week. For those of you who haven't signed up yet - this month we paired up with Runa & Nossa Familia. 

Nossa Familia 

We've been chatting to Nossa Familia for a while now - we did a pairing with their delicious coffee at SCAA & we hope to collaborate with them at cycling events in Portland. 

The coffee beans are still grown on the farm in Brazil (which hasn't changed much since the great, great grandparents started it) then shipped and roasted in Portland. 

Nossa Familia stresses the importance of community - and gives a lot back to their 'extended family" of farmworkers in Brazil who receive free housing & health care on the 'agro-village' they've created. 

After their coffee/wafel cupping, they decided the Full Cycle Roast paired best with our Traditional wafel;"the traditional wafel tinges the citrus notes found in Full Cycle roast with flavors of cinnamon & gives it extra sweetness"

Runa

Runa produces guayusa - a plant native to the Amazon jungle, and similar to yerba mate (perhaps better known in these parts). So no, not strictly tea. 

We love Runa for the natural energy you get from drinking it - without the negative side-effects that many caffeine-sensitive people get. Also, it tastes great. 

Tyler & Dan - the founders of Runa started the company after working & living in the Amazon. They were affected by the prevalence of illegal logging & wanted to see the communities funded by alternative sources of revenue. When they first tried guayusa they started building on an idea to bring its sweet flavor and natural energy to America.

Runa have 4 flavors of boxed guayusa and 6 flavors of loose leaves.  

After tasting the various guayusa varietals with both the traditional & cocoa wafels, the Runa team decided to stick with traditional flavors of both brands - Traditional Wafel & Traditional Guayusa. 

What we really loved about May's box is both companies' passion & commitment to the communities they support by bringing great beverages to America. 

[ripvanwafels]

Beautiful pics of our subscription pairing box from sunshinephotography.com. 

[ripvanwafels]

Rip van Wafels loves Good Coffee & Tea: April

This April we launched our new subscription pairing service - a carefully chosen combination of either tea or coffee with our traditional or cocoa wafels, delivered every month.  

One of the things we love about the Rip van Wafel Ritual is experiencing the unique flavor combinations of the drink and wafel together. Every pairing is different. We work with some of the best specialty coffee roasters and tea brands to pick the most complementary flavor pairings - introducing you to awesome new brands every month.

Numi tea

Numi is an organic and quadruple bottom line tea company based in Oakland, not too far from our office. They have a beautiful tea garden that we've been quite excited to visit for a while now. The two founders - Ahmed & Reem - are siblings who decided to create something special together bringing both skill-sets under a shared love of art and tea. They named their company after a dried lime teasan from their native country, Iraq, which they drank as children. And so Numi was born.

Numi has over 35 different types of teas, so Joe McKinnon, Numi's National Tea Trainer, picked Breakfast Blend, Aged Earl Grey, Rooibos, Moroccan Mint, Chocolate Earl Grey (a new blend, just released) & Golden Chai as teas with spice & body that he knew would go well with the sweetness of the wafels for the tasting. 

Although Moroccan Mint & Cocoa came in a close second, the winner combination was Breakfast Blend & the Traditional wafel.

Joe’s comments: ‘Numi’s Breakfast Blend is a full-bodied black tea that blends layers of briskness with a touch of sweet malt for a complex brew; a perfect pairing with the delicate sweetness and notes of spice in the wafel.”

Chromatic Coffee

The founders of Chromatic have been in the coffee industry for many years either working in cafe’s, roasteries or on the equipment side of things - but grew increasingly frustrated with the way the industry focused on the ‘faster’ and ‘cheaper’ way of doing things. So two years ago they decided to start their own company focusing on delivering a truly artisanal product. They do everything themselves - from visiting the farms & choosing the beans & roasting in-house, to designing the packaging.

Their small roastery is in San Jose & we were lucky to have the whole team there to do a coffee & wafel tasting with all their coffees. We’re not going to lie here, they all actually tasted fantastic together. But the cocoa wafel completely transformed into a gooey, brownie-like crunch of heaven with a steam infusion of vanilla fudge from their Keynote coffee. Hiver’s description was so enthusiastically lavished with praise that we had to chop out half his words because it was just too long :)

The edited version: “Bringing back memories of freshly baked chocolate cake & rocky road ice-cream, these two flavors blend into each other harmoniously with notes of brown sugar, toasted walnuts, marshmallows & chocolate”

So! If you too would like to discover some epic new flavor combinations - and great new coffee & tea brands available in the United States, sign up for our subscription box on our site.

[ripvanwafels]

Rip van Wafels loves Good Coffee & Tea.

A rather integral part of the Rip van Wafels Ritual is an excellent cup of coffee or tea upon which to rest your delicious wafel. As the hot steam heats the wafel, certain flavor components from said beverage infuse themselves in the wafel - creating a new flavor combination. Which is pretty epic, right?

So we thought ourselves rather clever when we decided to launch a pairing subscription service; every month, a new combination of either tea or coffee to go with your wafels - delivered right to your door. If you like surprises, and you love great coffee or tea, we think this will be your new favorite thing.

This is how it works - you pick either “tea” or “coffee” on the subscription page on our website. We choose a different local tea and coffee brand every month. We visit the tea house and roastery and do a tasting with both of them. Their tea maker/barista picks the best flavor combination of both a particular tea/coffee with either our “traditional” or “cocoa” wafel. We package the two items in a beautiful box that will be sent to you the first week of every month. You receive your delicious wafels and are introduced to a new coffee or tea brand every month.

For the cherry on top, we are offering all our friends, fans & families 50% off the first month’s box. Use the code ‘wafelfriends’ to redeem from our site - and enjoy your mindful break!