December 2020 - Secret Label is a rich sticky date pudding delight. Xmas trading hours

Date Posted:7 December 2020 

 

“It's not what's under the Christmas tree that matters, it's who is around it.”  — unknown.

 

December 2020

It's nearing the end of a crazy year when each week presented us with unpredictable surprises.

In every regard, 2020 produced our finest ever performances despite extreme conditions - the sheer capacity and speed we executed during the incredible surges in orders, at times spiking over 300% during lockdowns was tempered with many painful wounds from intolerable transit delays caused by persistent heavy congestion in Australia's parcel networks.

From running out of coffees, packaging, cartons, labels, a bad injury, commissioning new packaging equipment, upgrading our power and operating in restrictive COVID-safe mode, our amazing team continued to work non-stop every day, weekend and public holiday since February to keep up and more importantly stay ahead of the surging demand for quality coffee in the home.

To proudly maintaining our 99.8% same-day dispatch performance record, even throughout the strict Stage 4 Melbourne lockdown restrictions and those moments earlier in the year when it seemed like coffee was being hoarded like toilet paper, masks and sanitizer.

Despite everything being thrown at us, we did it, we never let a customer down.

Decaf
We sell a lot of Decaf, on a pure ratio basis (Non-Decaf to Decaf) we are probably roasting more Decaf than just about any other coffee company in Australia.

So it may have come as a shock to some of our regular Decaf lovers to discover we have run out of our special and exclusive Colombian Decaf lot.

It's only temporary and we expect the new lot to arrive in a week or so as it was delayed almost 2 months due to the pandemic causing issues at origin and sea freight being heavily disrupted.

But please don't worry, we have a stunning Mountain Water decaf that is also certified Organic to satisfy your un-caffeinated cravings.

So impressed are we with this new Mountain Water Organic decaf we intend to retain the Mountain Water Organic as a "keeper", so it will remain a permanent offering in our store when the new lot of special Colombian Decaf arrives, providing our loyal Decaf customers with a choice of 2 exceptional lots.

Secret Label
December's Secret Label is a rich, sticky-date pudding lot with syrupy notes of caramel, almond and nougat, a hint of stewed fruit and that trademark mycuppa sweet candy long chocolate finish.

The decision to blend these coffees was a no-brainer – some of our fave's and we loved how the coffees worked together in a classic symphony of sweetness.

Xmas parcel arrival guidelines
AusPost has been on the front foot early this year in helping merchants and their customers understand the anticipated cut-off dates for orders to arrive in time for Xmas.

December 12th keeps popping up as an important date - so please take the advice and get your orders in on time or risk disappointment with parcels not arriving before Xmas.

So now is the key week folks, especially if you are interstate or in remote areas, please get your orders in soon.

There continues to be way too much freight moving in parcel networks - it's not like any previous years, it's more than double and delays are unfortunately inevitable, especially since the late November spikes from Black Friday and Cyber Monday are still clogging the networks.

Xmas & New Year Trading Hours
Our mycuppa store will remain open for accepting orders 24/7 between Xmas and New Year.

It's our plan to run operations most days between Xmas an New Year, but we will reduce our workforce as the team are utterly exhausted from working non-stop all year.

There are a few important points with shipping services around Xmas and New Year, so we kindly ask our customers to keep these in mind.

• We can only dispatch parcels on days that freight providers physically collect from us. At this time, we do not have any committed schedules from our providers so we are assuming each working day – as a minimum AusPost will run the full schedule.
• Freight collections around the holiday periods may occur at odd times - they might randomly turn up quite early in the day without warning, especially on Xmas and New Year’s Eve, so please be aware this is outside of our control and if you order comes in after the collection, it will certainly go in the next run.
• In the past, some of Sendle's partners have been unreliable in collections around the Xmas and New Year period, so we may choose to temporarily switch off Sendle if we detect difficulties with collections – this is about protecting against the risk of parcels being stranded. We will actively work with Sendle to ensure this is managed professionally and keep a close monitor on their collections performance.
• During Xmas and New Year, particularly into the first 2 weeks in January you can expect slower freight transit times. We will get your parcel on the road quickly, however there are going to be reduced resource levels working in the freight companies as many freight delivery staff take leave.

And finally, a special mention to our lovely customers who sent through inspiring messages of support during the year in those dark and difficult moments when we faced almost insurmountable challenges – your faith and good wishes genuinely made a difference and helped enormously – thank you.

 

December 2020 Secret Label

December's Secret Label is a delicious blend of our favourite lots over the last few months.

Combining these coffees was a simple and easy decision - fitting like a well made tailored suit.

There's a deep richness in this coffee that is evident from the first sip.

It's alluring, inviting, welcoming with soft notes of dried fruits upfront,  salted caramel mid palate then moving to a sticky date pudding and onto a sweet chocolate finish.

We love the classy complexity and understated elegance of this sophisticated blend.

Equally at ease for a black or in milk, we think this coffee just nails the brief for a refined blend.

Never sharp, nor blunt, this coffee achieves results by surprising stealth.

Since we ran the "cherry cola" a couple of months ago, so many of our customers have been begging for more. Well, we have sprinkled a bit of this magic fairy dust into the blend to give you a treat in time for Xmas.

We are often asked for advice on what coffee to pick for an application where the there are both black and milk espresso drinkers in the house.

Developing a coffee that works well as a black or in milk is never easy.

Acids can be your friend or enemy and picking the right acids to match is the trick to pulling off this difficult feat.

Selecting the coffees is only just one part of the solution, in fact it's the smallest part. Roasting the coffees in a profile that suits both applications is far more challenging.

Darker roasted coffees have the acids "roasted" out of them, leaving the roasted bean highly soluble and softer for pure espresso extraction, e.g. black.

Yet, roasting dark comes with a loss of fruits, sweetness, acids and complexity so that when alkaline of milk is added, the coffee loses it's "cut through" or "stand up".

Getting that fine balance right is what it's all about.

We are pleased with this result - refined sweet acids with softer edges that generate a tasty brew.

AROMA - Almond, cocoa

FLAVOUR - Nougat, sweet chocolate, almond, caramel and toffee.

ACIDITY - Citrus, balanced.

BODY - Rich, full, syrupy with a rounded mouthfeel.

BALANCE - Excellent.

AFTERTASTE - Sticky date pudding, chocolate, toffee and caramel.

OVERALL - Deceptively rich, rounded and sweet with a long toffee finish.

For a limited time only - ending when the allotment has run out which may occur before the end of the month.

Sorry, no 500g packs available.

Grab it here - Sold Out Sorry. but we have lots of other coffee beans for sale.

Thanks for your ongoing support and loyalty.

Merry Xmas and all the best for the new year.
mycuppa.com.au team