Thank you to the many of you who have responded to the obituary I wrote concerning Neil  Angear. We  miss him a great deal but of course it is his family who our thoughts are with and we hope to meet them this week at his funeral.

For the past couple of weeks, I have slipped into his role, up at 12.30am to work the night shift and I can confirm he worked very hard indeed.  8 hours of non-stop work with sourdoughs to bake first, made the previous day, then moving through the 10 doughs made with a pre-ferment from mixing, fermentation in bulk, dividing & shaping , to then scoring the dough, getting it into the oven which can be tricky on a long wooden peel, steaming the dough just the right amount to get a good burst where you’ve cut the dough, baking at the right temperature & getting the steam out at the right time so you the customer also have a nice crust and colour….

Even then it’s not finished as we make the sourdoughs for baking the next day, make the soakers we add to tomorrow’s dough & mix a big pot of pre-ferment ( we call a sponge) which goes in small bits into all of tomorrow’s doughs. It’s tricky even on a week day when we bake less.

Anyway, we have to move on reluctantly, but that doesn’t mean we forget or do not appreciate the part Neil played.

So what else can we share with you this week about developments at Rex Bakery?

How to drink well – both Hot & Cold

What could Rex Bakery possibly have to say about drinks?!  Well, as you would expect we have sourced some of the best produce we think you can find in Southern England for you, our dear Friends of Rex.

Many of you may be familiar with our Monmouth Coffee, but more about that later.  It’s ice-cold drinks we need in the summer:

We have a whole host of Belvoir lightly sparkling Presse drinks, local Lemonade from Penn based We Made Lemonade and now NEW our real fruit smoothies made with frozen fresh fruit , bio-yoghurt & apple juice.

We have gone for 4 flavours which are all delicious:

Strawberry & Banana
Mango, Pineapple & Peach
Pineapple Banana & Strawberry
Mango & Raspberry

Importantly,  the yoghurt & fruit are blended in front of you from frozen, so you know you are not buying a bucket of ice with artificial “flavoured” syrups here.  Just a cool delicious, flavoursome & fruit-packed healthy drink.  100g of fruit in each drink so that must be at least 1 ½ to 2 of your 5 a day!

And oh goodness! The feedback from early triallists has been AMAZING!

 

Our coffee –

Monmouth artisan Coffee from Monmouth Street , Covent Garden paired  with a  local farmers Guernsey milk.

We have selected Monmouth coffee, widely acclaimed as the best artisan coffee in London and from probably the oldest London artisan coffee house.  Why?

There’s thought to be 3 critical aspects to an amazing cup of artisan coffee:

1. Great beans roasted to unleash their potential

Monmouth specialises in the highest quality beans directly & personally sourced from single farms, estates & cooperatives around the coffee-growing world.  Monmouth sets itself daunting standards for quality & trading that just sit so well with Rex. Every week they provide us with their Espresso Blend which is their standard and we are very happy it’s ours too.

2. Freshly roasted, ground & made

1^st we grind the beans freshly when you order your drink, then within  a few seconds we are percolating the coffee so that it doesn’t burn dry waiting for the hot water to be forced through.  We look to achieve a vortex when heating the milk, so it stretches the proteins , sweetens the milk & gives a creamier mouth-feel plus a sensible amount of foam to sit on top. Watch how here

Guernsey cow milk is  richer than other British Cows milk because they produce less of it. It is no fattier – just richer. Plus our farmer, D J Lacey doesn’t homogenise the milk, which means sometimes the cream rise to the top a bit like we used 20 years ago – that’s a good thing! Our milk is totally  delicious, making us one of the very few coffee houses that care as much as about the milk as the coffee.  Makes sense surely….

3.  Barista who cares

Not everyone working in Rex Bakery is even allowed to make coffee!  Some of our staff were brought in as experts, some others have extra-training by Monmouth, some are learning under close-supervision.  What all do have in common is that they are aiming for coffee-gold & do really care about you.  We know you can stop many places for your coffee, so we want you to feel good enough about Rex to make the trip specially to us.  You choose – excellent coffee to go or take your time enjoying it – we do love to chat with you about the breads & samples, all that is Rex and most importantly YOU.

Teas of the world

Our Rex favourite is Twinings Assam but we offer many more including English Breakfast, mint, chai….  Best of all we serve our drink-in cup tea-leaves in a beautiful self-sealing teabag!

So – drinks really do matter in Rex Bakery.  Whether you’re thirsty or hungry – we welcome you to come & try our best artisan range 🙂

See you soon!