When a package with EPO written across it arrives in the office, you can’t help but raise an eyebrow. This isn’t what you think it is though, it is in fact a new coffee that is is the result of a collaboration between cycling brand Paniagua and Bristol-based Extract Coffee Roasters. We’re going to charge the coffee machine and set about testing over the weekend, but we’d thought we’d have a little look at it before we do that.
Everyone loves coffee right, especially us cyclists. It’s an essential pre-ride ritual around these parts. Paniagua founder Jamie Gallagher says that the name, which actually stands for Extract x Paniagua x Original, is a tongue in cheek reference to the favoured doping of racing cyclists for the past couple of decades.
“Paniagua was a word used by the peloton to refer to riders who rode ‘clean’; so, EPO coffee is our tongue in cheek nod to our nemesis, if you like,” says Jamie.
Paniagua are a group of cycling mad designers who launched Paniagua in 2011, and currently offer a range of cycling themed products, from t-shirts to prints and this coffee. “Paniagua thrives on collaboration,” says the company, so they partnered with Extract Coffee to make the EPO coffee.
Eagle-eyed readers might know that the EPO coffee actually went on sale at the beginning of 2013, but we’ll admit it passed by us unnoticed. Bad us. We’re making up for it now though. What is EPO coffee then? It’s a single origin washed Guatemalan from a farm called El Hato, which has been growing coffee since 1938. They still employ the traditional processes, and Extract use a 1955 cast iron Probat roaster.
A 250g bag costs £7.50, certainly more than a bag of regular coffee from your local supermarket, but for the passionate cyclist who just can’t get enough cycling culture in their life, this could be for you. They also do a nice shot glass and you can buy a bundle with the glass and coffee for £12.50.
What does it taste like? Well Paniagua describe it as “sweeter than a solo breakaway on the Ventoux,” which sounds good enough to us.
The EPO coffee is available from http://paniagua.myshopify.com. Right now we're off to give it a whirl, we'll let you now how we get on soon.
23 thoughts on “Just in: EPO… coffee from Panigua”
I defend cycle sports a
I defend cycle sports a cleaning up it image to sceptics, L-A is seen as the anti-Christ and I tell my kids drugs are bad….. Hey why don’t be bring out tea bags called cocaine or a fruit drink called ecstasy?
Beefy wrote:I defend cycle
Next they’ll be naming caffeine-and-sugar-filled soft drinks after cocaine!
FluffyKittenofTindalos
Yeah… Coke really better get a rebrand sharpish, before I get all offended up in their grills! You won’t like me when I’m offended.
Quince
Yeah… Coke really better get a rebrand sharpish, before I get all offended up in their grills! You won’t like me when I’m offended.— Beefy
Don’t forget that Coke is called Coke because it had cocaine in it until 1903! Approximately nine milligrams per glass! An amount not to be sniffed at 8} It was suggested that it would help with Morphine addiction 🙂
Beefy wrote:I defend cycle
It sounds like YOU’RE on drugs.
It could be worse, I could be
It could be worse, I could be a wa**ker, not that I’m saying YOU ARE! That would be very silly because I don’t know YOU at all dapper
Pathetic.
Pathetic.
I am shocked and dismayed.
I am shocked and dismayed. Hanging is too good for these people. With their coffee. And their acronyms. And their ‘humour’. I blame the parents. Send them all back where they came from. Or hang them. Or something. Spongers.
*so unspeakable offended I
*so unspeakable offended I posted twice*
And packaged in OPQS team
And packaged in OPQS team colours too. Not Sky. That blue is too light. 😕
But how much faster will I
But how much faster will I ride?
Personally, I’m a tea
Personally, I’m a tea drinker. If they can come up with a dodgy name for Darjeeling first flush, I’ll be all over it like a rash. 😐
Pint of heroin for me.
Pint of heroin for me.
Paniagua yes (for those who
Paniagua yes (for those who find it funny), EPO no (attempt to decriminalise the substance and what it stands for).
noether wrote:Paniagua yes
What’s wrong with evening primrose oil??????
noether wrote:Paniagua yes
Why should EPO be criminalised? It’s an incredibly useful treatment.
Great name – love it. Would
Great name – love it. Would be lost on my wife though. For those that are interested, its a single origin Abrabica bean. Tad expensive – I get mine from http://www.coffee-select.co.uk
Well I was very tempted &
Well I was very tempted & went as far as the delivery costs which were £21!!! =)) :H
This is a quality exercise in
This is a quality exercise in brain conditioning. The truth has got very little to do with the fact. Whether EPO is good or bad will not matter one iota because the media, and the institution, will build up a consensus reality that will twist, bend and generally throw all fact to the wall. Your perceptions are never set in stone; they can be changed through conditioning.
Ripper wrote:This is a
Have you been reading Karl Marx again Ripper?
Our special formula tea from
Our special formula tea from india will be arriving soon.
The new tea that all cyclists must drink before a ride will hit these shores soon. TEA-TOSTERONE is a full bodied cup of tea guaranteed to make you go faster.
=)) (|: 8| ~X( 😀
Rupert wrote:Our special
Sounds like it would put hairs on my chest.
Boom boom.
What about an ‘Armstrong’
What about an ‘Armstrong’ Americano? Guaranteed to put a few more red blood cells in your pencil 😉