There is nothing more quintessentially British than a good afternoon tea, coming together with delicious scones and baked cakes and muffins washed down with a hot tea. But what if you are not a tea drinker? Nearly all afternoon teas in the UK have options for coffee but you can’t get around the fact that it’s not in the name!
Luckily for coffee drinkers there is the concept of hosting a coffee morning where you can include all things coffee! The idea of coffee mornings has been widely promoted by charities such as Macmillan cancer support with the first of their events dating back to 1990. Now many charities and organisations hold coffee mornings to raise funds and awareness for their projects and do so very successfully.
So whether you want to hold a coffee morning for a cause or to hold one socially with friends and family below is a guide to everything you will need to make it a success!!
Firstly fix a date and as the name suggests hold it in the morning!!
Unusually whilst the term “Afternoon Tea” suggests this should be consumed in the afternoon, many people have it at all times of the day! Some people have it in the morning and some even in the early evening, so afternoon tea is not just for the afternoon! But could the same be true for a coffee morning??? It depends on how brave you feel holding a coffee morning after work at 6pm? There is a chance it may not make sense so we would suggest sticking to what the name implies and keeping it in the morning!
Choose a venue and a theme!
Depending on whether this is a personal or work related coffee morning, decide if you want to hold your coffee morning at home or at your workplace or even at a third party venue like a local community centre or local hall.
Next, think about what theme you might want. If you are holding the coffee morning to raise awareness or money for a particular cause then get some banners and leaflets made to show what your event is for. If it is a personal coffee morning you can still go with a theme to get your guests excited and also give your coffee morning an edge.
Here are some ideas for a personal coffee morning you could try:
Book Club - pick a book or a genre of books you like and have all your guests read the book or one from the genre and get together for your coffee morning to get chatting about it!
LA Style theme - add a hint of glamour and USA style to your coffee morning by accessorising with sunglasses or scarves or fashion bags for all your guests. Or if you want to go big, get everyone to dress up in full on Breakfast at Tiffany’s glamour for your coffee morning!
Gaming theme - You can take this to mean what you want! Either gaming in the modern day world where you can have your coffee morning virtually and all your guests get together at the same time on the same day to share a virtual coffee together and play an online game together! Or you can hold your event in person and get together with your guests to play some traditional games like board games or even those that don’t need a board like charades! What could be a more fun start to the day!
Coffee & Cake - Get all your guests baking and bring their best creations to your coffee morning. Not only will you get to eat gorgeous tasting home baked treats with your coffee but that’s most of your food taken care of! Cheeky, we know, but we believe we all have a budding baker inside of us we just want to show off!
The great outdoors - get your coffee morning alfresco (If the weather permits it!) Get your guests wrapped up in cozy blankets (if it's a colder day) and serve your hot coffee to warm everyone’s insides while you sit together taking in the fresh air. Or alternatively if it's a warm day, go with a cold iced coffee range and swap the blankets with sunhats!!
Celebrate a day - Is it your birthday or an anniversary? Or have you reached a milestone or an achievement or even want to celebrate a fresh new start? Everything can be celebrated with a coffee morning and you decide how long you want the celebrations to go on for. You could stick with just the morning and then have the rest of the day to yourself or carry on celebrating for the whole day!
These are just a few ideas for a coffee morning. We would love to hear from you if you have any others and if possible send us some pictures, we would love to see your coffee morning come alive!
Food and nibbles
Sometimes just a great cup of coffee is all you need but that probably won’t be enough for your official coffee morning. So what food should you put out with the coffee? You could try some of these ones below:
- Muffins, cookies or cake slices
- Croissants
- Bagels
- Crepes
- Donuts
- Chocolate and lots of it! All flavours and sizes!
- Pancakes
- Rice pudding
- Peanut butter bites
- French Toast
- Finger sandwiches
- Biscotti
- Pastry tarts
- Waffles
So now you have the date, the theme, the food, what else could you need? Don’t forget the Coffee!!!
RaRa Coffee