We have exciting news! In just a few days Mark will be flying off across the world on a business trip to meet some of the growers who supply us with coffee and find out more about what they do.

From November 4 to 11, Mark will be joining our friends from Omwani, who help facilitate bringing over some of our African coffees, and a handful of their other customers on a visit to the Mount Sunzu Coffee farm in Zambia.

There are a few reasons for the trip. One is to give Mark a much needed change of scenery after a very busy summer. Another is to strengthen our links with the growers at this farm, which is very different to most we buy from.

While most of the farmers whose supply us are single-estate farms, homesteads, small farms or co-operatives of multiple small-scale growers, Mount Sunzu Coffee farm is a huge operation, employing 155 full-time staff year round and producing up to 400 tonnes of exportable coffee in a year.

Mark will be flying from Heathrow to Lusaka, Zambia's capital, on November 4, staying overnight in a hotel then taking a domestic flight the rest of the way to Kasama in northern Zambia the following day.

Once at Mount Sunzu Coffee farm, he will have the opportunity to explore all aspects of its work, from growing and processing, as well as taste some of the coffees.

It's not all work, work, work though, with a walk up Mount Sunzu and some cultural exploration also on the agenda, which Mark is particularly looking forward to.

Mark says: "A few weeks ago I hit a wall and every problem - and you tend to have a lot when you run a small business - every problem was adding on to more problems and more complications and I wasn't dealing with them very well. I knew it was time to get away and have a bit of a change of scenery because we'd had a really long summer and I needed a bit of a break."

Chatting to someone else in the coffee industry, Mark found out about this trip and signed up.

Mark says: "We're looking to connect with the guys at Mount Sunzu. We've got one of their coffees in our Christmas Foundry blend but we're already looking at coffees for next year and we want to find out more about what they're doing in their local area."

Getting time away from the day-to-day is also a good opportunity to get some thinking space, and being around others in the coffee industry can provide a great sounding board.

Mark explains: "It's quite isolating running the business. One of the really cool things when I went to Rwanda a few years ago was I was able to meet up with other people in the industry and chat about what's going well and come up with different ideas and talk them through. That's where we came up with the Expedition, Voyager and Rambler subscriptions and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens this time." 

We can't wait to see what new ideas Mark comes back with. For now, he'll be busy roasting before he goes so we've got plenty of stock to keep everyone going. November's subscriptions will go out before the trip and Jean will be holding the fort while Mark's away. It's always easier to get orders out with a full team though (tiny as the team is!) so if you can, please get your orders in as soon as possible so they can be dispatched before the trip. Jean will be extra grateful as she juggles the business with solo parenting for just over a week.

And if you'd like to get a taste of Mount Sunzu Coffee farm's beans, you can find them in our Christmas Foundry blend, which will be available soon, This blend features in our Limited-edition 1kg Christmas Box, ALL NEW Festive Blends Box and Stocking Fillers, all available to pre-order now with 20% off until the end of October.