Drop 2
Dr. Sting, riling up the Italians and inspiring little words where you least expect them.
Hello lovely Drop members,
Right, so here are the 10 amazing products we have chosen for you this week… we have artisanal pasta, chunky chocolate, cold-pressed ginger beer and big fat Tanzanian cashews - keep reading to see the full list!
The password this week is: DROPSHOP - you can find the online shop here!
Yorkshire - the home of real pasta
I recently discovered a hidden gem, made in the heart of Yorkshire, that I think all you pasta-enthusiasts are going to love. (For any Italian members reading this that have thrown their hands up in mockery, hear me out…).
The Yorkshire Pasta Co. was founded 4 years ago by Kathryn - the daughter of a local farmer with a passion for pasta, which saw her live out everyone’s ultimate dream of travelling around Italy to learn how to make authentic pasta from local artisans.
Kathryn’s pasta is nothing like what we find on our supermarket shelves: it is made in small batches, mixing water with locally-milled flour from wheat grown just down the road from her, in Yorkshire’s fields of gold. She presses her dough through traditional bronze dies and dries each batch overnight, before packaging it up in 100% recyclable paper bags. The result? Beautiful, ridged pastas that are perfect for absorbing yummy sauces, making every bite a little taste of heaven.
They’re normally £4.25, but we have a few bags of their Tortiglioni (#1) and Conchiglie Rigate (#2) on the Drop shop for £2.90. If all of that isn’t enough to convince you, I will leave you with a review from the infamously picky celebrity chef, Marco Pierre White: “Great Pasta. Respect.”
Dr. Sting’s Hot Honey
Brooklyn, New York, 2015. That’s where MOB chef Ben Lippett first tasted chilli-infused hot honey, perfectly blended to create a sweet & spicy condiment that you can drizzle on literally anything, straight from the bottle: pepperoni pizza, grilled halloumi, fancy ice cream, spicy cocktails… you name it.
Its huge versatility is one of the reasons why hot honey has also found a cult following amongst foodies over in the UK, with Dr’ Sting’s first batch of 350 bottles selling out in less than 48 hours!!
Ben, who co-founded Dr. Stings’ with his mate Jamie, experimented for years to find the perfect mix of 100% blossom honey, organic chillies and quality apple cider vinegar (with no funny extras). Every bottle is still brewed, filtered, filled and sealed by hand in their little South East London warehouse, where I went to pick up a batch of Hot Honey (#3) to share with all of you. It’s on the Drop shop for the next 2 weeks at a whopping 45% off normal retail prices.
Cold-pressed ginger beer on wheels
During last week’s heatwave in London, poor Lucy was busy lugging heavy cans of ginger beer over to ‘The Drop HQ’. Her and co-founder Will do most of The Root Co’s deliveries by bike, which is just one of their many eco-credentials (their goal is to become the world’s most sustainable ginger beer brand!).
Lucy’s delivery arrived just at the right time, as there was nothing I wanted more than to enjoy a nice refreshing drink in the sun, so I cracked open a can and guzzled it down. All I can say is wow. I have never tasted ginger beer this fresh and gingery before!!
The Root Co describe their Ginger Beer (#4) as ‘halfway between a standard ginger beer and a ginger shot’, and that is exactly what it tastes like. The key to their amazing taste is that they use just 5 simple, quality ingredients: cold-pressed ginger (sourced direct from a small-holding in North-Eastern Tanzania), mint, lime, Canadian maple syrup and water. That’s it.
Out of curiosity, I looked up some popular ginger beer brands out there, to see what they were putting in their drinks - here is how their ingredients’ list reads: carbonated water, glucose syrup, pear juice concentrate, yeast, sugar, natural flavourings, cream of tartar, citric acid, sweetener… I guess that explains why it felt like I had never tasted real ginger beer before.
Enjoyed hot or cold, I have put up a few cans on our Drop shop for you to try, at 40% discount on normal retail prices.
Also in Drop #2:
The chunkiest chocolate bars I have ever seen - as requested by you guys on Insta, I went ahead and bought all 3 of FATSO’s indulgent chocolate flavours for you: we have ‘Mint, pistachio and cacao nibs’ (#5), ‘Peanut, toffee and digestive biscuit’ (#6) and ‘Salted pretzel, almonds, honeycomb’ (#7).
Fat cashews seasoned with chilli and lime zest (#8) by Cajuu, who take pride in the traceability of all their nuts - you can scan the QR code on their recyclable packages to meet the exact farmer that grew your cashews!
And last but not least, we have a couple of teas in from Dragonfly Tea, a family-run businesses advocating for the Chinese ‘slow tea’ philosophy. Founder Bruce and his team have written adorable little messages on each of their tea bags, which put a smile on my face every time I go to brew a cuppa. Organic Cape Rooibos & Honeybush Tea (#9) and Moroccan Mint Green Tea (#10) are the last couple of products that make up Drop #2.
The password this week is: DROPSHOP - you can find the online shop here!I hope you enjoy our 2nd Drop and can’t wait to hear what you think (leave us a comment if you want!).
I’ll be back on the 3rd of October with a new batch of products for Drop #3!
Been forwarded this e-mail and wondering what it's all about?
Welcome to The Drop - A community buying club for foodies!
Our goal is to make good food, made with love, a little bit more accessible. Here is how it works: every fortnight, we curate a list of 10 delicious foods made by small-batch, sustainable producers. We order these products in bulk, straight from the producer, unlocking a 30-70% discount on normal prices that we pass on to our members.
For 2 weeks, while a Drop is ‘live’, members can buy the 10 discounted products on our buying club shop. Anything left unsold at the end is moved to our Pantry, where you can still buy it at a lower discount of 10%. We share the link and latest password for the online shop in our fortnightly e-mail, so make sure you’re subscribed! xxKnow someone who might quite like this? Share it with them by clicking below!
The Drop is my dream concept, thank you Amy! It’s a perfect curation of brands that I love but don’t always spend on, or that I’ve never heard of and have loved discovering, and feels like such a treat and indulgence but without the high price tag. Have had such a great experience so far - timely deliveries and fab customer service. Will be ordering again!
I loved reading this :)