The Calypso Collection

We are delighted to announce the launch our very own Hospice collection - The Calypso Collection.

The Calypso Collection was born from a desire to combine our founder, Pam Macpherson’s passion for calypso music with a collection of gifts that would do our supporters proud;  a range of products that could be gifted with confidence knowing this would delight their recipients and do good in equal measure.

Pam Macpherson, our founder had a love of Calypso music.

Well, desires are all very well and good - but how to achieve this brief was a process that would take us the best part of a year.

Turning the question on its head was the answer, of course! What would delight us to receive and what would we be thrilled to gift? – these were the questions we needed to find answers to.

It soon became clear there were two areas that had particular appeal: one to stimulate our senses and the other to to tickle our palate.

If calypso rhythms are music to our ears, chocolate, coffee and honey surely are music to our palate!

After years of over-indulging on chocolate (we take our job seriously and have to taste the chocolate we stock in our shop, of course! 😂) and delighting in freshly roasted invigorating coffee, we knew exactly where to go for the best! So that was easy.

And then came the bees!

Four hives were positioned with much fanfare in the hospice gardens this spring and incredibly, despite the sun’s poor show this summer, our hard working bees have yielded top quality honey thanks to Alan, our local beekeeper, who tends to them with loving care.

We were determined all The Calypso Collection honey would be exclusively produced from our own garden bees, as it says so on the jar! So stock is limited!

Calypso Collection honey made from our own garden bees!

As for a collection that would delight our senses, we were thrilled to find a small UK- based company with a wonderful range of exquisite fragrances and the expertise to make lovely soy candles and diffusers.
However, too much choice equals ‘can’t make our minds up’, and it became clear we needed to enlist the help of our colleagues in a far from scientific poll to sniff their way through the choices. The 4 fragrances we picked were the clear winners.

Our expert sniffers!

Much laughter to be had, and some tears for those whose fragrance wasn’t picked! 😉 Next polling coming soon!

Confident in our choice of product, our collection was starting to take shape. Now we just needed a strong, bold visual link to bring it all together and embrace the exuberant sounds of the calypso rhythms so close to Pam’s heart.

We didn’t need to look far though, as Julia Rigby (photo) a then local artist (since moved slightly further afield) creates art that makes your heart sing!

Julia Rigby created a beautiful piece of art for our Calypso Collection which is featured on every product.

And so it is with a bit of bish bash bosh, our job was done. We really hope you love it as much as we do and keep gifting over and over again!

What comes next? Well, you’ll let us know!