5 reasons why Los Churros Amigos are perfect for your party or wedding

29th April 2021

1. Always fresh

If you’re getting a dessert, you want a fresh dessert. Our churros are made from scratch every time, hand mixed, fired out of a churrera, and then deep fried to order.

The same goes for our Belgian chocolate dip, be it the milk or vegan option, it is melted down and served warm.

Don’t worry though, we’ve got the whole process honed to perfection and can maintain a quick serving rate.

2. We cater to a range of dietary requirements

Our churros are completely vegan. We also use organic flour and have a dairy free chocolate if needed. Our only allergens are soya (in both chocolate options) and gluten in our flour.

Unfortunately we can’t do gluten free churros. The gluten is actually integral to our recipe, and is the reason our churros are so delicate and fluffy.

If you do require gluten free options make sure to ask. Over the years we’ve worked alongside some amazing GF cooks and bakers who we can recommend, or even call upon to put together a treat box for us.

3. Flexibility

Apart from our hamstrings, we couldn’t be more flexible. We pride ourselves on making our clients lives as easy as possible. And no challenge is too big – we once served at a wedding in India only using equipment that fit in our hand luggage.

We have a number of different stall options, including various sized gazebos, with our signature rustic wooden stall frontages, as well as two majestic food trucks.

We can operate in pretty much any space, indoor or out, and are happy to serve well into the night. Power wise we can use gas, electric, a mixture of both, or be completely self sufficient with our own batteries or generators.

4. Full health and safety compliance

This is the boring bit but it’s very much worth mentioning. Especially as it helps reduce the stress levels for our clients when they’re already swamped planning their party or wedding.

We’ve always held a 5 star food hygiene rating, we’re fully compliant with all the necessary insurance, and our risk assessments are tailored to the COVID safe world we now live in.

All of our staff have a minimum Level 2 food hygiene qualification.

5. The best customer service

Our staff don’t just know the correct contact time for anti bac spray, they’re also a pleasure to spend an evening with. Most have been with us since we started up way back in 2012.

Like true social chameleons they are just as comfortable in a formal corporate environment, as they are at children’s birthday party, or our bread and butter – dutty festivals. Always willing to go the extra mile, and armed with extensive churros knowledge, they are without doubt our biggest asset.

If you would like Los Churros Amigos at your party or wedding contact us here.

Where we’ve been: Pop-up at The Wave

26th February 2021

The Wave, Bristol

The Wave, on the outskirts of Bristol, is the country’s first-ever inland surfing lake. Powered by epic ‘Wavegarden‘ technology there is uninterrupted surf for all skill levels. Waves can reach over 6 feet in height, and are pumped out at almost 1000wph (waves per hour).

On a summers day, it’s hard to say we’ve ever served churros in a more serene setting. You are completely surrounded by farmland, and the crashing of waves provides a unique soundtrack that is only broken by the screams of the odd learner going for an absolute Burton.

Our path to The Wave came thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. With our usual events season in tatters, we were approached by head honcho Tina Wallis to help ease the load on the Wave’s cafe, as they reopened to the public on August 1st.

Our trusty wooden shack that served us so well at Westgate and Secret Cinema was brought out of storage.  Miraculously every single piece still fitting together perfectly.

 

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How it went

We’ll call the first couple of weeks an ‘adjustment period’. Both ourselves and the public had to get used to the new Covid-safe way of life, whilst melting in a record-breaking heatwave. Things were soon looking up though. The Eat Out to Help Out scheme meant surfers could get their hands on 36 churros for just ten quid. Single handedly kicking the economy back into gear.

Unfortunately the return of rising cases in Bristol meant we only lasted until November. But we built up a loyal customer base, including most of the surf instructors who somehow kept their washboard stomachs despite daily churros.

Founders Nick Hounsfield and Craig Stoddart really have created something incredible. One of their main goals was to provide a space to help improve people’s mental well-being. This has definitely been achieved in the minds of Los Churros Amigos and we hope to return at some point in the future.

All photos courtesy of Image Cabin.

Killa Vanilla

19th March 2019

Becoming ethical

We’ve been saying it for a while now: we need to become as ethical as possible. Sure, our organic flour is good. But what about that milk in our chocolate? And where does our salt come from?

Now, becoming ethical is an ambiguous goal: ‘ethical’ doesn’t start or finish somewhere. There’s no clear point you can tick and be awarded ethical status. For us, it means to consider our actions and critically assess them. Therefore, we have to try to understand an area, form an idea of the best thing we can do in that situation, and then balance that, realistically, with the goals of a small business.

Supply chain

So, the first step is assessing the supply chain.

Churros are in essence, very simple, with few ingredients. Today, we’re going to be tackling the most expensive ingredient in churros: vanilla.

Now, a little background. Spanish churros don’t traditionally contain vanilla, or even any sugar. The sugar is usually dusted on at the end. If you order churros in Spain, you have to ask for the sugar on top, con azucar, por favor.  

We, knowing the UK palette, think a bit of extra sugar in the churros, and some vanilla, goes a long way. And this way, you don’t have to cover the churros in so much sugar on the outside that the crunch of caster sugar detracts from the crunch of dough. Just our opinion.

Anyway – our churros contain vanilla.

The Vanilla Trade

But the vanilla world is in a bit of a pickle. The pod itself is tricky to grow. So tricky in fact, that there’s only two countries that manage to export it in any large quantities. These are Mexico, and Madagascar, with the latter exporting 80% of the world’s supply.

One reason Madagascar has become so synonymous with vanilla is because it is one of the only countries poor enough to commit to the laborious process of hand pollination.

Madagascar is a country with a per capita income of US $500. Compare the UK, for example, with US $42,000 per capita income. Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world – but they happen to harvest and export the second most expensive spice in the world (after saffron).

You can imagine what happens. EVERYONE wants to grow vanilla. Forget rice, cassava or sweet potatoes. Those geezers next door just made 10 bags off vanilla? I know what I’m sowing next.

So all of a sudden, there’s an influx of vanilla farmers. And people are making serious money from it. There’s even vanilla ‘barons’ seducing girls with the cold touch of new money.

But it isn’t all El Chapo up in here – there’s far more benevolent farmers making a quick buck. Unfortunately, when people make money, especially in a climate like Madagascar’s, there’s someone there to bite it.

**

Ninot Oclin grabbed his bolt action rifle and cocked it. He motioned over the shrubs and pointed to the clearing between two banana trees, where he had fashioned a taut twine from trunk to trunk.

The moonlight reflected through the eerie stillness of the trees and onto a machete in the hand of a man, stood on Ninot’s left. He is part of the local militia. The Independent reporter stared down at the blade and covered his eyes as the light reflected into them.

“This is the way the thieves come,” explained the farmer to the reporter, who could feel his mouth drying as he sucked saliva past the lump in his throat.

**

When farms are raided, the people, with little faith in a corrupt police system, band together. In late 2018, the price of vanilla surpassed silver, selling at $600 USD per kilo. Vanilla is an asset worth protecting – and the backbone to livelihoods.

Importantly, it hasn’t always been this way. In 2012, vanilla was trading at just $50 USD per kilo. So what happened?

Four bad harvests in a row, prior to 2014, catapulted the first spike in prices. The limited amount of buyers, and the now limited supply, meant extortionate prices, and in 2014, vanilla rose to $300 USD per kilo. This boom catalysed crime, which split the market in half: now black market vanilla was trading for cheaper, and official prices of vanilla, on the commodity market, continued to inflate.

Soon, the market was flooded with low quality and under-ripe vanilla because vanilla thieves tend to steal whatever they can – irrespective of quality. Therefore, ironically, the sky high price of vanilla now corresponds to the lowest quality of vanilla in recent times.

What happens next?

Or importantly, what can we do about it?

Well, a full assessment of the Madagascan vanilla trade is perhaps beyond this blog. But as buyers of vanilla, we are inclined to speculate.

In fact, it seems we are part of the problem. Because real vanilla is so expensive, almost every time you buy vanilla essence or extract, you’re buying a chemical compound that has been isolated from the vanilla pod and diluted. This product is called vanillin. Importantly, real vanilla’s flavour isn’t just from vanillin – there’s numerous other alkaloids which contribute, meaning vanillin has a vastly reduced depth of flavour. The prevalence of this product has meant that very few buyers were ever buying actual vanilla, which constricted the demand and contributed to the price hikes.

But, with the cost of real vanilla so high, what is a small business to do? For now, we can’t afford real vanilla, and we’ll continue to buy the best quality vanilla extract we can.

The point of this blog is to bring the reality of supply chains face-to-face with consumers, and hopefully, we can all think and act as ethically as possible. Churros may be simple, but the decisions we make and who we buy from never is.

A week in the life of Los Churros Amigos

28th September 2017

Street Food

It’s easier than a week in the life of the average Joe, but there is more to street food than just converting Citroen H Vans and naming pizzas after wrestlers.

The late nights, the endless driving, the hours of prep, and working every single weekend. However good your idea/recipe is, without getting stuck in and doing those hard yards, you’re going to fail. And even if you do put all your effort in, you could still fail. Wait why do we do this?!

Sunday – Day of rest

Mow the lawn, Netflix and chill, get down to Hampton Court Palace and pack up a stall. A rare quiet Sunday. Somehow we’re also two staff down. One ill, one AWOL.
3pm – Set off to Hampton Court. Event finishes at 6. I’m well ahead of the game.
5.30pm – Still sat in the van. M25 has had me right off.
6.30pm – Arrive at Hampton Court.
“Where’s your wristband mate?”
“Haven’t got one… only here to pack down, event’s finished hasn’t it?”
“Still can’t get in without a wristband.”
*Starts raining*

Monday – The world is my office

Everyone has safely returned from weekend’s events – AWOL staff member included. The manic summer months are a distant memory. Mountains of admin to get through at home. Mostly health and safety questionnaires and risk assessments. Edge of your seat stuff. Get it all done, despite new puppy humping the squeak out of his stuffed rabbit all day. Quite distracting.

Tuesday – Living the dream

One of the vans is knackered. Well technically they’re all knackered, but one is in urgent need of help. Drop that off at mechanics. Gonna cost over a grand. Nice one. Head straight to the farm (our HQ and scene of many an epic darts match). The end of summer clean starts today with the fryers, all 12 of them.

Wednesday – Still living the dream…

Go back to the farm. Clean some more.

Thursday – Need a different dream?

Farm. Clean. Was hoping to finish everything by last night. Was always a bit of a pipe dream, especially considering the amount of darts played. Finally fryers are clean, boilers are clean, and two vans are packed. All set for the weekend.

Friday – Actual day of rest

Day off. Don’t know what to do with self, still trying to phase back into civilian life after the summer. Should try and teach the puppy that humping ain’t sound.

Saturday – Working late

8am – Arrive at Wembley to set up for following day’s NFL game between Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens. Need to leave by 11 to get to another event in Brighton for 1.
1.30pm – Arrive in Brighton. M25 has done us, again. Rapid set up required. Smash it. Event is a beauty.
Whilst in Brighton, get a phone call. Turns out we need a gas cage at Wembley tomorrow.
11.30pm – Make it home via an Oxfordshire scrap yard and 24-hour Tesco. Missed Match of the Day, but we’ve got a gas cage (kind of), and the puppy has got some food.

Sunday – Up and at ’em

6am – On the road to Wembley with a military grade flask of coffee and some very tired Amigos.
6.15am – No coffee left. Long day ahead.
4pm – Everything went well, except the till broke, oh, and we didn’t actually make any money due to heightened security checks grinding our usual footfall to a halt. Ah well, there’s always next week.

Check out our next blog post Killa Vanilla.