August 2022 - Why your choice of grinder matters. Decaf pricing. Secret Label fruit and chocolate sweetness.
Date Posted:3 August 2022
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion". Paulo Coelho
August 2022
Welcome to our subscriber newsletter.
Unfortunately, it was not long after Sendle's changes on 1 July to divert more of their parcels to partner Fastway/Aramex until we found ourselves in a real pickle.
Barely 4 days later and a pile of parcels sitting in our warehouse for many days waiting for Fastway to collect.
Of course, the local driver in our area knows we have parcels for collection every day, but it seems that Fastway are overloaded or perhaps there are other games being played at a more strategic level.
Whatever the reasons, lame as they may be, no merchant can run a business with parcels waiting days to be collected - seriously disappointing.
So folks, that's a sad and final farewell to Sendle and unlike John Farnham and Elton John, this time it really is THE END.
The good news is AusPost have continued to kick goals everywhere. Fast, efficient and more importantly incident free.
We have received plenty of great feedback from our customers on the performance of AusPost with many surprised at the improvements. It's a Cinderella story, all due to the new facility that we access directly, bypassing the seemingly always choked Melbourne Parcel Facility - shaving between 1 -2 days from average transit times.
Whilst we understand some of our customers enjoyed Sendle's competitive shipping rates, especially for long distances, unfortunately the reality for many of those long-haul deliveries carried by Sendle's partners involved suffering delays of almost twice or 3 times longer compared to AusPost - particularly WA, NT and Far North QLD.
Add into the mix a 900% higher risk of an incident occurring with Sendle and those stats make for uncomfortable reading and it's clear you can appreciate our decision to switch off Sendle.
Why your choice of grinder matters
This month we explain how the quality of ground coffee makes a big difference to the taste in your cup - but there's a catch, unfortunately we can't tell you which grinders are good and those that are not.
Grinders tend to suffer from the ugly duckling syndrome, banished into the background whilst shiny espresso machines are proudly shown, yet the humble grinder is where most of your flavor and enjoyment gains can be achieved (or lost), so for a surprisingly better bang for buck, consider upgrading your grinder before upgrading an espresso machine.
Decaf pain
There's been so much negativity published in the media over the last few months about rising inflation, cost of living, interest rates, etc. We hate to add to these bad stories and in the spirit of transparency it's important to provide our customers with advance notice of pending changes, this time with Decaf.
Decaf supply has been the most difficult we have seen ever................ and it's been going on since the beginning of the pandemic. The situation has not improved, only worsened. At times you think, surely it can't get any more difficult and then we hit another new low. Every time we go to market, there's none for sale or I should say, for delivery.
Decaf shortages have been extreme and chronic. Right now, there's barely a single bag of raw Decaf available for sale in Australia - same thing keeps happening every couple of months - stock runs out. Apparently, the 2 major chemical-free processing factories that service the entire globe, can't keep up.
Whilst a large ship is currently on the water sailing towards Australia with maybe 150+ tons of Decaf on board, it certainly does not help the current situation with everyone scratching for Decaf.
Just like every other coffee being traded, Decaf pricing has risen at even sharper rates due to the raw coffees destined for caffeine removal being shipped twice - once from origin to the Decaf processing plants (Canada or Mexico), then again from the Decaf processing plants to the importing country, e.g. Australia.
As the quality chemical-free (Swiss and Mountain Water) Decafs have risen in price we see that EA chemical versions, which still occupy around 50% of the Decaf market, have also risen in almost identical fashion - which has not much to do with shortages and more about the EA Decaf products taking advantage of a situation affecting the entire Decaf segment by exploiting the higher demand opportunity.
Decaf also involves a lot more labor on top of normal raw coffee processing, about 25% additional labor and it's being performed in countries that are currently experiencing labor shortages and rampant inflation.
Contract prices for new arrivals of Decaf are steep and that's going to play out in the market - already started. We are cheap by comparison !
Our new shipment that does not arrive for another 6 weeks has 2x delicious certified Organic Decaf's on board as we shift our entire Decaf offering to be fully Organic certified lots. Makes sense really, if you are drinking Decaf for health reasons, then do it properly with a certified Organic product.
Hopefully, we have enough raw Decaf to survive until the new stock arrives next month.
Although I hate to say it, please don't panic purchase or hoard.......the mere mention of that statement is likely to drive customers into stockpiling and we may need to impose limits.
The Stuff of Secrets
We sat down to design this month's Secret Label coffee with a clear set of goals but what resulted took us a bit by surprise and we mean that in a good way.
Chocolate complexity was not part of the brief but somehow it's there and my goodness it's lovely as we stretched the relationship between fruits and chocolate to find some interesting nuances.
Sweetness is a given. We are working with high grade, premium lots that burst with fruit flavors and intricate complexity.
A different coffee to what we have done before and that my dear folks is exactly what we want to achieve with each month's Secret Label - stepping onto new ground, tasting something new and interesting. Like anything else, coffee can get boring if it's always the same.
August 2022 Secret Label
We ended up with a different result for this month's Secret Label and it's probably a far better outcome.
The design was supposed to have dominant fruit-driven complexity and we ended up with plenty of that sweet fruit but also heaps of magic stuff, C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E.
August's Secret Label is so sweet I feel a need to the dentist might be in order - amazing.
We stretched the relationship between fruit and chocolate in ways we never thought possible.
As a black, savor it's fruity elements. In milk, the chocolate notes and a wonderful contrast to the sweet fruits.
Lovely nectarine, plum, tea rose, vanilla and plenty of milk and dark chocolate.
**** SOLD OUT ****
Why your choice of coffee grinder matters.
If you truly love coffee, of believe that good gear makes a noticeable difference, investing in a decent coffee grinder will be one of the best decisions you can ever make.
We have always encouraged our customers to purchase whole beans and then only grind moments before use - the only way to enjoy coffee in the best possible conditions.
Pre-ground coffee is an inferior experience and at the risk of upsetting some of our customers, pre-ground coffees can be a waste of $$, even when taking the freshest roasted coffee beans straight from the roaster, grinding and sealing the packs as fast as we possible can......pre-ground coffees stale at rate that is more than 500%+ faster than whole beans.
Ground coffee has less than 15 minutes of lifespan once ground (for espresso machine duty). When you open and shut the pack it's game over (some brew methods can tolerate ground coffee that has degraded, but espresso simply won't).
Pre-ground coffee is unfortunately a steep and slippery slope to mediocrity.
Coffee grinders are a reliable, cheap, efficient appliance and depending upon the quality of your grinder, it should be capable of producing great coffees over a long period, providing you with a sound return on investment.
Although as I was preparing this article, a friend for whom I purchased a Breville grinder as a gift during the lockdowns for use at home barely 14 months ago told me it's busted already, just out of warranty and with barely 4kg of coffee passing through it.
Whilst not intended to be a slur on Breville, we don't consider Breville or Sunbeam grinders as devices that are "built to last" or in some applications like espresso duty, they may not be entirely up to the task.
Most quality grinders should last over 10 years, so it's a cost equation of less than a buck or 2 every week if you purchased a better quality grinder.
You may have heard it before, a simple maxim when it comes to buying coffee equipment.
"Spend more on the grinder and less on the machine".
Or if you love coffee enough and don't have a limited budget buy both a quality grinder and quality espresso machine !
When you have a fixed or limited budget, don't fall into the easy trap of thinking the taste of coffee is determined solely by the shiny espresso machine as it's the boring and unattractive grinder that plays a more important and vital role in the flavor of your cup.
Cheap grinders don't cut it for espresso coffee - bad pun but true.
Don't think for a minute that a $100 grinder is going to produce uniform and consistent ground particle sizes, or for that matter some $300 grinders are also terrible at ground particle size consistency.
You see, it's the particle size (and shape) of the ground coffee that governs and influences flavors you taste in the cup.
It's not the marketing hype of "ceramic burrs" or other features like digital adjustment displays, it's all about the quality of the system and the ground coffee is produces - which by the way is rarely ever mentioned in product reviews.
In an ideal world, all coffee grinders would produce a particle size that is uniformly round and consistent across the sample. However, the reality is coffee grinders suffer from quite wide variations in particle size as they "hack" the bean like hitting it with an axe !.
Some are better than others and I'm not holding a secret from you as to which ones are good or bad.
The only proven way to produce optimal ground coffee is with 3-stage roller-grinders but they start at $350,000 for entry level system and the size of a motor vehicle.
All other grinders, including commercial models used in cafes, whether they have flat planar burrs or conical, they all "hack" the beans in an aggressive way.
So why does the consistency of particle size matter ?
Well, let's take a typical example from an average domestic grinder.
The particle size may vary by 40% - that is a mix of fine, coarse and the desired particle sizes all in the ground coffee. It's the distribution of that size in particles which influences the extraction efficiency.
When ground coffee is used for espresso extraction, it's critical that particle sizes are consistent as the water under pressure will flow faster through the larger particles offering lower resistance (channelling) leading to under-extraction and yet the flow will at the same time be slower through the finer particles and over-extract.
This produces a result of unstable or unbalanced coffee taste.
Under-extracted coffee is weak, watery, thin, lacking body, flavor, sweetness, etc.
Over-extracted coffee has a bland flavor, perhaps with some accompanying bitter taints from excessive contact time between the ground coffee and the hot water under pressure. There may also be muted sweetness, acidity and complexity in the cup when the particle size is variable.
It's not easy to measure the particle size distribution of ground coffees without the use of expensive laser diffraction and that's also not something you can pop around the corner to your local shops and submit your ground coffee sample for analysis. I wish it was that easy because the bad grinders would be named and shamed.
You also can't fix a grinder if the particle size distribution is broad - that's a fundamental design issue.
But you can take some active steps in trying to improve the ground coffee consistency by investing in a better quality coffee grinder. We don't sell grinders, nor do we recommend brands, but with enough research you should find the answer - there is certainly enough grinder-nerd-geeks out there on the internet only too happy to show off their kit.
Unfortunately, the better grinders are expensive - like most things in life it costs more to have the best.
A larger grinder does not always mean better quality grinds - it can just make the problem worse by hacking the beans faster. The other important point to remember is that with a larger grinder You will also have to contend with higher levels of retained grounds for larger grinders meaning the waste increases by needing to purge more coffee.
I would also caution that conical designs don't necessarily mean a better result in the cup compared to flat burr. This debate is normally taking place in a commercial cafe arena, but the upshot remains the same, burrs cause particle size variances.
So if drinking great coffee is you goal, then please consider spending upwards of $500+ on a grinder (or preferably $1k+) and if that means taking some $$ from your budget and the espresso machine spend to fit, then it will be money well spent.
You can always match a superior grinder with an average espresso machine and still produce great tasting coffees.
However, pairing an inferior grinder with an expensive machine will likely lead to producing poor results, or lower levels of consistency and inevitably it may get frustrating.
Don't be blinded by the salesperson's comments about how the bling espresso machine will deliver amazing coffees. Grinding is everything.
The other point worth mentioning is that "built-in" grinders on fully automatic machines and those like the Breville Oracle are typically lower in capacity and capability compared to standalone grinders as there are significant compromises machine builders must make to "fit" grinders into the small space of automatic systems.
We are not advocating the use of a separate grinder to feed ground coffee into an automatic machine, just simply highlighting that expensive automatic machines do not have decent grinders - it's a well known fact !.
As we don't sell equipment and we don't have any commercial or financial interests or affiliations with equipment suppliers, we can however speak from our extensive experience and suggest to our customers consider looking at Compak or Macap brand grinders as excellent examples of proven technology, reliability and performance.
Both Macap and Compak brands are imported by Australian family businesses that have been involved in the coffee equipment market for more than 25+ years so you can rely upon their experience and back up support. These are not grinders with plastic gears or drive mechanisms that fail after a few years.
At an industrial level, we spend significant capital to ensure the grind particle size of our coffees is extremely precise and consistent because we know how important that is to ultimate flavor. In fact, we continue to invest in grinding infrastructure to achieve the best possible grind consistency.