Drop 3
Sending noods, olive clichés and the Culinary Alchemy of Cradoc's Crackers.
Hey everyone and welcome to Drop 3!
We have quite a few new members that have joined in the past couple of weeks - hello to you all, and welcome to the buying club! 👋
I’m glad that last week’s Drop went down so well, with some products selling out in just a few days (though if you’re quick, we still have a handful of Hot Honeys and chunky FATSO chocolates left!).
So, what’s in Drop 3? By popular demand, I’ve brought back Rolla Granola from our first Drop, but this time with two new flavours: Awesome Almond and Pecan Maple Twist. There’s also homemade spicy noodles, those Perelló Gordal olives with a cult following in East London, and one of my mum’s secret ingredients…
Read on to see the full list of products in Drop 3 and let me know what you think in the comments! 😊
Amy xx
The password this week is: NEWFACES - you can find the online shop hereP.S. I have received quite a few questions about how the buying club works and how we manage to get such big discounts, so I wrote up some FAQs for those of you still wondering!
Yang’s been sending noods
Vicky Yang grew up between Thailand and Taiwan, before moving to London a few years ago to work as a Digital Art Director. “One of the first things I realised when I got to London is that it’s impossible to find good dumpling wrappers here - everything they sell in the shops is so bad!”, she tells me.
As luck would have it, Vicky was gifted a pasta-making machine soon after, and immediately got to work making some of her own. With the leftover dough she had from her dumplings, Vicky turned her hand to noodles and started playing with different spice combinations with each new batch - from garlic and fennel, to spicy coriander, and even fiery scotch-bonnet noods! Fuelled by the rave reviews she got from friends and family, Vicky eventually decided it was time to share the love - and so, her nood-sending side-hustle was born.
Vicky gets up at 6am most days, to start making her noodles from scratch - she hand-pulls and carefully air-dries them in her kitchen, before heading out to her 9-5. Once the noodles are ready, they’re packaged up in brown paper bags that Vicky hand-stamps using a linocut print that she made herself, inspired by her grandparents’ house in Da Jia, Taiwan (pictured below). Each noodle is unique, each stamp ‘perfectly imperfect’ in its own way.
A true work of craft, these homemade aromatic noodles are ready in under 5 minutes and make the most wonderful, easy dinner after a long day at work. Head over to Vicky’s insta to get her recipe for a tofu and chilli noodle salad, or these incredible warm kimchi vegan noodles.
£5 for a bag of Vicky’s artisan noodles (RRP £7.50, 33% discount)
The Culinary Alchemy of Cradoc’s Crackers
I love pretty much everything about Cradoc’s crackers - an all-female bakery in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons run by Allie Thomas and her daughter Ella.
Allie has been channelling her creativity into Cradoc’s for over 15 years, making colourful creations that are a far cry from the cardboard-like crackers we tend to find on our supermarket shelves. She uses real, fresh vegetables in her recipes and sources all of her ingredients from local Welsh businesses, giving her finished bakes the most incredible flavour. “There is singing and dancing, laughter and love baked into every snap”, Allie tells me. Somehow, you can taste that too… No wonder Harvey Nichols and Fortnum’s are some of Cradoc’s biggest fans!
In this week’s Drop you will find Allie’s pretty, pink ‘Beetroot & Garlic’ crackers, along with the more traditional combo of ‘Cheddar and Onion Chutney’. Either would go perfectly with a large pot of hummus or a big slab of cheese, preferably served with a glass of red and a catch-up with a friend. (And if, like me, that’s not something you often do, well now we have a good excuse).
Cradoc’s Beetroot & Garlic and Cheddar & Onion chutney crackers - £1.85 (RRP £2.99, 38% discount)
My mum’s Top Secret ingredient
My mum is a brilliant cook. Growing up in Barcelona, my brother and I were spoilt rotten with incredible food: fragrant saffron rice dishes, laden with seafood; rich tomato sauces that had been bubbling away on the stove for hours; and generous cuts of meat served with smokey, roasted vegetables, covered in a light gravy that we would soak up with big chunks of Spanish bread, fighting tooth-and-nail for every last drop.
Now that we’re both a bit older, whenever we’re home we make it our mission to learn all of mum’s kitchen secrets. “How do you make it so moreish? So juicy? So deep in flavour?!” we’ll ask. “Oh it’s nothing, really”, she’ll say. “Just bung it all in the oven, season well, and add a big dollop of love!”. We roll our eyes at her, feeling none the wiser…
“Oh! And a big teaspoon of La Chinata smoked paprika, that always helps!”
Ever since she let that slip, I’ve always kept a little tin of La Chinata sweet and smoky pimentón in my kitchen cupboard. While I can’t promise it will lead to mum-level cooking, she’s right - it really does help. This sweet, smoked paprika is made with red peppers grown in the Extremadura region south-west of Madrid, within one of the 52 villages that have earned themselves PDO status (Protected Designation of Origin - the same thing that means champagne can only be grown in the Champagne region of France). I like to add a little teaspoon to all of my tomato sauces, and sprinkle it over roast veggies for a lovely, smoky flavour.
La Chinata Smokey Sweet Paprika - £1.90 (RRP £2.30, 17% discount)
Also in Drop 3:
A brand new flavour from jam-guru and pastry chef extraordinaire Lillie, at the London Borough of Jam: Fig and Earl Grey jam. It goes perfectly with goat’s cheese and rocket, or lathered on a buttery piece of toast. £4.35 (RRP £6.50, 33% discount)
Single origin coffee sourced from Tamil Nadu and roasted in small batches in Millbank, within the historic grounds of the Tate Britain gallery! We have 2 stunning flavours from the team at London Grade Coffee, coarsely ground to work perfectly with a cafetière: the Albion has notes of cardamom and almond, while the slightly darker Tokenhouse delivers a stronger taste of shot dark chocolate and roasted hazelnut. £4.50 (RRP £9, 50% discount)
More granola by RollaGranola. Their nutty granola proved a huge hit with those of you that bought it last month, so I have added the Awesome Almond and Pecan & Maple flavours to the shop this week - there are only 6 boxes of each flavour available though, so act fast if you want to nab one before stocks run out!
£2.00 (RRP £5.30, 66% discount)And last but not least, the Perelló Gordal Picante olives that have become the ultimate cliché of the East London foodie (including me - I think they’re delicious). We got them for half the normal retail price, so share this with any Perelló-obsessed foodies you know and have them join the club! £2 (RRP £4, 50% discount)
The password this week is: NEWFACES - you can find the online shop hereI hope you enjoy our 3rd Drop - I will be back on the 17th of October with a new batch of products for Drop 4! Comment below if you have any firm favourites you would like us to add to a future drop.
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 members (our subscribers).
For 2 weeks, while a Drop is ‘live’, members can buy the 10 chosen 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 higher price. We share the link and latest password for the online shop in our fortnightly e-mail, so make sure you’re subscribed!
Ooooh I'm excited for these🤩