Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Roger Federer are all vying for our attention when it comes to making coffee. Clooney is of course the Nespresso ambassador par excellence, Roger Federer loves his Jura coffee machine while Brad Pitt features in “Something Perfetto” a recent campaign which shows him arriving home on a motorcycle and making a fresh ground cappuccino using his De’Longhi bean to cup Dinamica Plus machine. Clearly Pitt has ignored the (Italian) rule of no milky coffees after 11am. I’ll give him a pass though as he’s looking so fine; do check out the commercial on YouTube during a coffee break today.

At THE GLOSS HQ a collective Insomnia habit is an essential start to any day – flat whites are a favourite order – but we regularly share notes on cafes or roasteries we’ve discovered, including …

Old Barracks Roastery, Birdhill, Co Tipperary. The Roastery creates its aromatic, roasted beans for the coffee curious along with selling artisanal foods, coffee equipment and gluten-free sweet treats. It’s sometimes called the “Ballymaloe of Coffee” and was founded by Alan Andrews of Coffee Culture. A state-of-the-art artisan coffee roastery, café and barista training facility are all housed under one roof. The building itself is as interesting as the coffees served (made from beans sourced from the best farms in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi). Formerly meant as a retirement home for nurses, the Old Barracks has also been a Garda station, grocery shop and crystal outlet; www.theoldbarracks.ie.

Bear Market Coffee’s new outlet in Dublin’s Stillorgan, located in a former church is roastery, barista training facility and retail outlet for their single origin coffee beans. CEO, Stephen Deasy, who founded the firm with wife Ruth in 2013, have invested in state-of-the-art Loring low-emission roasting equipment from the US. To ensure freshness and consistent bean moisture, the company has also installed a climate-controlled green bean store room for its single-origin beans, which are sourced in Africa and Central and South America. The roaster employs the latest eco intelligence and bespoke engineering to produce consistently great tasting and environmentally-friendly coffee. And while it takes months for beans roasted by competitors in Europe to make their way into coffee cups here, Bear has the freshest, weekly-roasted, single foreign origin bean coffee. Those booking the roastery experience will be guided through the roasting process, cupping and tasting by master roasters and baristas; www.bearmarket.ie.

Éan, an innovative bakery, restaurant and wine bar on Druid Lane in Galway, is owned by Enda McEvoy and Sinead Meacle, the husband and wife team behind Galway’s sustainable Michelin-starred restaurant, Loam. Their coffee is made using seasonally sourced beans from Barna-based roasters, Calendar Coffee. This aligns with the rest of their beverage menu featuring homemade kombuchas, fresh fruit and vegetable juices and a wine list made up of organic, biodynamic and natural varieties sourced from small winemakers which has been carefully curated by Loam’s passionate Sommelier, Niall Flynn; www.eangalway.com.

Coffeewerk & Press: An invaluable guide to Galway is The Galway Food Tours Guide Book which brings together over 40 restaurant, delis and cafes such as Tartare, Kai and Ard Bia restaurants. A standout coffee stop is Coffeewerk + Press, 4 Quay Street, Galway. This is an interesting concept store too with a small selection of design gifts including a collaboration with sustainable Coffee Roasters Copenhagen and Irish artist Enda Burke. The café also uses beans from The Barn in Berlin which are available to buy by the bag; www.coffeewerkandpress.com.

Shells Café in Strandhill, Sligo: was founded by Jane and Myles Lambert and has become the epicentre of Strandhill – normally bustling with surfers or residents walking the seafront. It is the perfect beach cafe, bright and airy with wooden floors serving organic, fairtrade coffee roasted by McCabe’s in Wicklow, especially for Shells. McCabe’s is Ireland’s first carbon negative coffee roaster. If you visit Shells, pick up a coffee and one of its new cosy sweatshirts, €42; www.shellscafe.com.

Nespresso’s Pumpkin Spice Cake seasonal coffee is now back in stock at boutiques and online. Part of Nespresso’s Barista Creations range for Nespresso Vertuo coffee machines, Pumpkin Spice Cake is a smooth coffee, with notes of cloves, cinnamon and cardamom mingling with the flavour of sweet pumpkin. It is a blend of caffeinated and decaffeinated roast and ground coffee, an Arabica blend from Ethiopia and Latin America. A sleeve of ten capsules is €7.20 and can be used with Nespresso Vertuo machines; www.nespresso.com.

And?

Christmas is coming up (fast!) – so look out for some interesting Christmas hampers. One of my favourites from last year was the Cliff Christmas Morning Gift Box which included a special Cloud Picker Aimsir Blend Coffee – a great way to start festivities. CLIFFHome.ie is the retail website for CLIFF, where their Christmas gifts will soon be displayed.