“The ethic of the journalist is to recognize one's prejudices, biases and avoid getting them into print.” — Walter Cronkite

mycuppa May 2020 Newsletter

If you don't plan on reading the rest of our Newsletter, please take note of this advice - all freight is heavily congested, so don't leave your ordering to the last moment - whether it's us or anyone else, the parcel networks are the same.

Delays are going to be with us for at least another month.

Allow an extra week during these lockdown restrictions for parcels to arrive - order early as many stores remain closed and all retailers heavily promote their online offers - pushing extreme volumes into the parcel networks, resulting in congestion and delays.

Buying local is not going to help - distance is not the problem as line haul is working exceptionally well - it's the parcel hubs where all the delays are occurring, and this happens in all freight networks, even local metro parcels - nothing ever travels point to point, it's always a "spoke and hub" topology via a depot where the packages sit waiting to be processed.

Shipping delays became a lightning rod of frustration for consumers all around Australia and some large brands - Kmart, David Jones, and Myer. They copped hiding on social media with their lack of service and slow dispatch times for online orders - further aggravating customers.

Freight companies implemented safety measures in their depots, using less staff for handling parcels, and with the dreaded delays that Easter always brings each year, on top of higher volumes, all these factors combined to create the perfect storm of an average 11-day parcel transit across the networks.

We cannot see transit performance as freight companies refuse to publish these metrics to their customers. Still, we know from the massive spike in customers asking for help.

Our entire family has been buying almost everything we need online for many years, so we also experienced these dreadful delays - waiting close to 3 weeks for parcels to travel from the next suburb.

At its peak, we received around 40+ messages each day for a few weeks from frustrated customers asking us to fix the delays - which, as we all know, is impossible from our end.

The best we could do was continue to ship parcels fast, working all through Easter and weekends so that orders got on the road quickly and the time from order to send was a mere hours, not days.

AusPost was the principal offender - ruled by bean counters more concerned about their target cost-cutting bonuses than making an effort to fix problems.

Whilst we appreciate the need for safety, the tightwads in control at AusPost allegedly placed an overtime ban at the start of April. If true, it shows the dumb decision-making when record parcel volumes are causing chaos.

AusPost management, paralyzed and unable to think outside the square, was hiding behind weak excuses instead of putting in place some actions to improve their performance or efficiency.

We can respect the safety measures but not play games with cost control when the country needs services.

Claiming there were not enough vans to collect the higher volume of parcels was comical when hire companies had most of their van fleet sitting idle. Of course, AusPost acts differently than an organization capable of adapting to pressure.

Instead, they plod along like nothing has changed and make everyone suffer.

Slow transit times will continue for a while, as it's becoming evident that some retail brands have "seen the light" online, and many are planning to reduce or close their bricks and mortar stores, pushing even more freight into the crippled parcel networks.

Congestion remains high in all depots, and if something manages to sneak through within a standard time frame, it's more a case of random good luck than any sign of improved shipping conditions.

Parcel network capacity could not cope with sales events, Xmas, and Mother's Day. Before coronavirus, so it's not going to manage now.

AusPost Express is no longer the next business day, but it's still faster than usual.
Sendle parcels are arriving faster than AusPost during April, but we understand some customers may have had a less-than-ideal experience with Sendle previously.

This month's Secret Label is a journey deep inside the joys of dark chocolate in coffee. It's a risky place to play, but the rewards are worth it.

Some coffees have disappeared from our extensive range, likely forever. We have run out of some exotic lots faster due to higher volumes over the last couple of months, and some rationalisation is needed to prune our broad portfolio.

May 2020 - a dark secret

There are only so many directions you can shift into with coffee before you end up standing in the corner alone.

Light or dark roast, fruit or chocolate, floral or traditional, the truth is we are driven mainly by a desire to create something that's going to be broadly appealing instead of playing a one-trick pony that risks alienating masses of loyal devotees.

Secret Label is an expression of what fits the brief of a nicely balanced coffee with some elements of distinction that keep you interested and, more importantly, wanting more.

At times, we may push towards an edge as it presents an opportunity for reward when taking that risk, and we have stepped from the middle this month, amping up the bass note to a thumping beat.

Of course, it would be much easier to source coffees from the high temple of specialty and play the pretentious prat, but then many of the flavours and descriptors will not match the purpose of your daily cuppa.

After all, we must always remember that we are in the business of matching, not inventing new taste sensations.

The far edges of specialty are where grape acidity, cranberry, lime, jasmine, papaya, honeydew, bergamot and pear sound exciting and deserving of merit.

But those delicate attributes are better suited for the advanced enthusiast niche segment craving fruity espresso extractions or alternative brewing experiments and disturbingly out of place in the milk-based espresso genre where Secret Label battles are either won or lost.

The juxtaposition of delicate fruit elements is dark chocolate - a risky tightrope. When it works, the effects can be amazingly addictive and enjoyable.

However, when it doesn't, or the brewing/extraction is not executed correctly by the end user, it can have a profound and often disastrous result, with drinkers accusing it of being "bitter" - a term surprisingly more often incorrectly identified when encountering dark chocolate in a coffee.

But that's the alluring muse of a dark chocolate beauty - is it bitter, or can you taste the extraordinary complexity?

Did you try it by experimenting to find its absolute sweet spot?

Milk chocolate is a safe play but can be dull or uncomfortable - it's the lazy man's default in coffees.

Dark chocolate, on the other hand, is the unpredictable wild child that might float your coffee boat.

This month's Secret Label celebrates dark chocolate nuances but with some balancing elements to buffer the intensity and ensure we stay within that fine line of being misunderstood as bitterness. It's close and careful at the same time.

Secret Label is a coffee with punchy, chewy textures with plenty of grunt in the trunk. We love the rich spectrum of flavours like figs, toffee, nuts, caramel and a deceptively complex dark chocolate.

Buy as much as you want - we will roast it daily until the lot runs out.

Our Secret Label offers to sell out within three(3) weeks, so there is no guarantee the offer will remain open for the entire month - it's not a calendar offer; it's a total quantity, and when sold, it's gone.

Why some coffees are gone - perhaps forever

Eagle eyes will have noticed a few coffees recently disappearing from our extensive range, and there are a few reasons why we are rationalizing our lineup.

For more than a decade, we have been selling so many coffees that it's beyond challenging to keep up the daily rituals of sourcing, evaluating, storage, roasting, quality control, packing, selling, labelling and shipping - all within what seems like a few short hours every day. We have also been through a period of significant volume that has drained some of our holdings as we await new season arrivals.

Read more here - why coffees disappear from the store.