June 2023 - A new king of coffees. Grumpy old men being pranksters.

Date Posted:7 June 2023 

 

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow you need to put up with the rain." Dolly Parton

June 2023

Welcome to June and the start of another winter season.

For the coffee industry, winter marks a period when many new crop arrivals begin landing on our shores after weeks or months afloat, particularly Central America and some of the African origins.

At least one third of our Single Origin lots will change over the coming months and that means plenty of new and exciting flavors.

What goes up, seemingly stays up.

A recent and unexpected price surge in robusta coffee may not seem to make sense for how it influences our predominantly arabica focus here in Australia, but there are many ways this robusta rally has kept pressure under all coffee pricing. Sadly, no relief is in sight yet.

A new king.

Eagle eyed customers will have spotted a stealthy addition to our portfolio recently.

Read about our new Kenyan Special Reserve below.

Grumpy old men behaving badly

After 14 years of trying to get a die-hard coffee hater to drink coffee we finally managed a win.

Take a walk on the dark side.

No, we haven't traveled back to 1990 in a time when coffee was roasted so dark it almost caught on fire and every cup required sugar added.

This month's Secret Label is indeed a sweet and mysterious dark fruit and chocolate delight, but don't worry it's not dark roasted but just the same delicious medium level like all our previous Secret Label offerings.
 

 

 

Secret Label.

Who doesn't love a brooding cup of maple syrup, dark fruits, sweet delicate juicy acids dancing across the palate with a rich, silky body an our trademark long dark chocolate finish ?

Perfect on a winter's day.

An exquisite cup of classy proportions with a delicious balance of sweetness and flavor.

Grab it here - mycuppa Secret Label

 

 

A new King of Coffees

A few customers were initially confused by the new addition of another Kenyan Single Origin coffee in our store.

Well, we were also surprised as it was certainly not on our shopping list. However, after tasting this superb coffee there was no way we were going to let it slip away.

With a powerful intensity and delicious flavor profile, this new Kenya Special Reserve takes the crown as our most expensive and flavorsome jewel, usurping our highly regarded, multi award-winning Kenyan.

Kenya has a tightly controlled trading system that uses an auction process for coffee farmers to sell their lots to buyers/bidders. Anywhere from 600 to 1,000 lots can be offered each season (twice a year, although it's more like a larger and small harvest).

So just like real estate sellers, if a coffee farmer does not obtain the price they want (or need), the farmer simply withdraws their coffee immediately from auction.

Farmers will then return at a following auction week. You guessed it folks, it's purely a sellers market.

We move a lot of fine quality Kenyan coffee, perhaps one of the biggest retail sellers of premium Kenyans in Australia - but who really knows and that's not intended as any sort of bragging rights.

That means it is critical for us to actively monitor the Kenyan market for the best available coffees, else we miss out. We compete globally for the best lots, so there are buyers from other countries trying to score the best value and best tasting lots.

Yes, this new lot is expensive. Obviously, the seller knew they had something special and hence it was sold at a solid price premium as expected from any auction system.

What attracted us to this Special Reserve Kenyan micro lot was the sheer "classic" Kenyan coffee cup profile that we have found missing over the last few years.

All too often there are weird and wacky flavor notes in many high-end coffee, not just Kenyans. Think tangerine, tamarind, raspberry, lime, jasmine, etc. Whilst that might be nice to "try" it quickly becomes boring or "too much" and inevitably our coffee palates crave a simpler or more traditional flavor experience.

Nothing weird in this puppy. A Kenyan Special Reserve with bold, intense and powerful black currant and irresistible dark chocolate representing everything we love about how Kenya is one of the most famous and respected leaders in world of coffee.

We purchased the entire lot and for a moment there thoughts of my poor darling Dianne almost having to hock her beloved handbags. Now that we have it, let my cup runneth over as we share the love and joy.

Grab it here - Kenya Special Reserve

 

 

Can grumpy old men still be pranksters ?

A dear friend who hates coffee (is he really my friend you ask ?) dropped in recently during our testing of this Kenya Special Reserve coffee.

We go back a long time with all sorts of pranks and sledging between us that continues today - just a couple of grumpy old men always trying to upstage each other. Sure are plenty of films made on this exact premise.

So I offer to make him a hot chocolate.

This is a man who possesses a sweet tooth and also raids our biscuit jar like a dog who hasn't been fed for days every time he visits.

Whilst he is talking to someone outside of our testing room, instead of making a hot chocolate, I prepare a cup of new Kenya Special Reserve as a flat white in a clear glass as I simply can't resist the opportunity for another shot at trying to get him to drink coffee. Thinking this is the best chance of pranking him.

So far it has been like 20 nil in his favor.

The beverage certainly looked the part, resplendent in colors of rich, deep, dark brown just like a professionally made hot chocolate.

He takes a sip, I'm expecting him to gag and spit as he had done in all previous times when attempting this prank, albeit it has been a few years since I last tried to fool him. Truth is I'd honestly given up trying - he picks it instantly.

But this time, he doesn't.

Now that is rather interesting and straight away I feel a rush of blood - is he distracted, yet to realize or maybe he is setting me up for something. As a non-smoker, I can't blame it on any sort of shot taste buds. Maybe COVID changed his palate!

After a couple of minutes in a break of conversation he quips "This one is a bit different, what type of chocolate do you call this ?" he says with an air of genuine curiosity.

But I still can't work out if he is onto me yet.

"Do you like it ?" I ask inquisitively.

He takes another sip. "yeah, not bad, pretty good actually, haven't tasted one like this before, quite strong taste to it, maybe I should get some to take home".

"It is a special rare ingredient from Africa" I offer as explanation, truthful to a point.

He nods his head in approval whilst taking more sips to finish the cup, surprised he hasn't burnt his tongue as he eagerly woofs it down in record time.

By now I'm wondering if he is going to reverse the prank on me, so I change the subject and we talk about how inflation is ruining everything as we try to upstage each other with claims of how much something has increased in price over 12 months - always a popular conversation topic amongst business owners these days.

After about 15 minutes pass, we are walking out of the warehouse and I confess to him it was actually coffee he drank before and then said sorry I just couldn't resist trying to fool him.

Straight away he glares at me, nostrils flaring and then shoots me that famous stink-eye, shakes his head and mumbles "bastard".

Got him !

The first time I've managed to trap him into drinking a cup of coffee after 14+ years of trying and proved to a coffee hater that it can taste nice.

If only we had it on film.