Gifts for a police officer, and what the rules actually say

Am I allowed to give a police officer a gift?

Check that force's published policy first. UK forces set their own rules on gifts, gratuities and hospitality, and those policies, alongside the standards of professional behaviour officers work to, decide what can be accepted and what has to be recorded. The detail is not the same everywhere. Ask the officer or the station. If you cannot, the force publishes its policy, and that is the document that settles it.

We are not going to put a value threshold on this page. You will find sites that tell you a gift under a certain amount is always fine. That figure is not ours to give, it is not the same in every force, and if it is wrong it is the officer who carries it, not the website that told you.

There is an honest way round the whole problem and it is not a trick. Send it to the station rather than to the person. Coffee that lands in a mess room goes in the cupboard next to the kettle and gets drunk by whoever is on. Nobody has been handed a personal present, because nobody has been handed anything.

If the station still needs it recorded, it can be. Every parcel we send to a station will carry a delivery note with the value of the goods on it, and nothing is asked in return — no photograph, no post, no review.

Saying thank you after an incident

Do the free thing first. Check the force's website for its compliments route — it is often on the same page as the complaints form. A few lines logged there can reach a supervisor and go on the record. Nothing you post in a box does that.

If you want to send something as well, send it to the shift and not to the officer. You will rarely know which of them was there, when they are next on, or whether they are allowed to take it. A mess room has none of those problems. Put the station in the delivery address, mark it for the mess room, and let them share it out.

One 250g bag in a station kitchen is a gesture and it is gone by Tuesday. Two makes it to the weekend.

Leaving dos, retirements and the whip-round

A collection that goes round a whole relief adds up faster than any one person expects. Decide what it is buying before the envelope moves, not after. That is the difference between a present and a card with sixty quid in it.

Coffee Club is the one we would point a whip-round at. £140 for ten 250g bags, which is £14 a bag, and an eleventh is credited to a station mess room you name. So the leaving present also leaves something behind in the station they are leaving. It is a one-off run and not a rolling subscription — nobody gets signed up to a payment they have to remember to cancel.

Below that, a flask at £28 and a beanie at £18 covers the usual card-and-a-present budget. Above it, put the extra towards something we do not sell — the meal, the tickets, the thing with thirty years and their name engraved on it — and let the coffee be the bit that turns up in the post the week after, when the leaving do is over and the house is quiet.

Gift ideas by budget, including the ones we don't sell

Prices are what they cost, in order. Two of these we do not sell and one of them is free, and they are on the list because they are the right answer at that budget.

Every bag on this site is 250g, whole bean or any grind at the same price. Grinding is included in the price and it stays that way.

Free UK delivery on every order while we launch. UK addresses only for now.

• A compliment logged with the forceFree

  Logged with the force, it can reach a supervisor and go on the record. Nothing you post in a box does that.

• Stickers and patch£6

  The cheapest thing here that gets looked at every day, on a locker door or the side of a flask.

• Mug£12

  Station mugs walk. One that is obviously somebody's stands a better chance of coming back.

• Blue Light Blend, 250g£16.50

  The medium-dark house blend, and one of the two in the first roast. Being built towards dark chocolate, toasted hazelnut and cedar.

• Graveyard Blend, 250g£16.50

  The darker of the two in the first roast. Being built towards bittersweet chocolate, black treacle and pipe tobacco.

• Beanie£18

  For the walk in from the car park in February, which is most of what a beanie is for.

• Insulated flask£28

  Ours has our logo on it. If the logo is not the point, buy a well-reviewed one from anywhere and put the difference towards the coffee.

• Hoodie£42

  For rest days. Nobody wants a fourth thing to wear to work.

• A photo from the leaving do, printed and framed

  We do not sell it, it costs less than a bag, and it will outlast everything else on this list.

• Coffee Club£140

  Ten 250g bags at £14 each, one of them credited to a mess room you name. The whip-round pick.

• A whip-round for something we don't sell

  Past £150 the better present is the meal, the ticket or the tool. Coffee is a good £20 gift and a poor £200 one.

Buying for someone in the job, when you're not in it

Ask one question before you buy anyone coffee: what do they make it in? A cafetière, a filter machine, a moka pot and an espresso machine are four different grinds, and the wrong grind wastes good coffee faster than a cheap bag ever will. We grind to whatever they use, at the same price as whole bean.

Do not buy whole bean as a surprise unless you have seen a grinder in their kitchen.

Do not buy decaf as a surprise either. Off Duty is a decaf we intend to make, with the caffeine taken out using water rather than solvents, and it is not in the first roast. If decaf is what they drink, this is not the present yet.

250g packs are sized for a letterbox and go on a tracked 48-hour service, so nobody has to be in. Free UK delivery on every order while we launch, UK addresses only for now.

The roast date is printed on the front of every bag with a 12-month best-before, both labelled. You can read what you bought without emailing us to ask.

What you're buying, and when it turns up

Nothing has been roasted yet. Every coffee order here is a pre-order: you pay when checkout opens, we buy the green, and we roast it in the UK in small batches. Cancel any time before it ships and you get all of it back, no reason needed.

Two blends are in the first roast. Blue Light Blend, medium-dark, £16.50 for 250g. Graveyard Blend, a dark roast, £16.50. Handover at £15.50, First Call at £16.50 and Off Duty at £18.50 follow. Kit is made to order and goes out within 10 working days.

So: if the leaving do is next month, buy kit. If it is after October, buy coffee. If it falls near the line, buy both — hand over the flask on the night and let the bags arrive later.

We have never been to a farm. The green is bought through a UK importer, no lot is bought yet, and that is why you will not find a farm, a grade or a cupping score anywhere on this site. Exact origins, regions and percentages get published here and printed on the pack once the lot is bought, and not before.

Every tenth bag goes to a mess room

Every ten 250g bags sold send 250g to a UK emergency services mess room. Forty bags send a full kilo. We expect to send around 100kg to stations in our first year. That figure is a projection, not a cap — sell past the plan and the tenth bag keeps going, still one in ten.

Credits will build up per station and ship in consolidated runs once a station's share reaches 4kg, addressed to the mess room. Stations self-certify: someone at the station confirms they work there. Handover Blend is the blend meant for mess rooms, and it is not in the first roast — until it exists, what goes to a station is what we have roasted.

The counter is at zero. It stays at zero until the first bag ships. We will publish bags earned and bags delivered with an "as at" date, the two numbers will not always match, and when they do not we say why.