Summer of 2014 Update

It is hard to believe it, but it has been almost a year since our last post.

Well, we will not be announcing any Great Tastes awards this year as we have managed to miss this year's application deadline back in spring.  It is a bit of a nuisance, as  we were very keen to get our lovely organics tried out by the Great Taste judges, but, we (and actually it was just me alone at the time) were in the middle of upgrading our roasting capacity and at the same time scrambling to keep up with the ever increasing order volume on our old tiny 2.5 kg roaster.  However sad it is to be left out of competition, it is great to feel that as the very least, having doubled out roaster count and increased our capacity five-fold, we are now a lot more efficient and flexible and we can now service our wonderful customers much better and faster.

Our summer offering is now in its full swing with the coffee portfolio being dominated by some of our old (and new) favourites from Central America and East Africa.  Central American coffees are currently represented by Honduras Iris Esperanza, a tiny microlot of 10 bags grown by Iris Esperanza Lopez on her tiny Finca El Hichozal in Las Capucas area in Honduras and Guatemala Finca San Antonio, grown by our friend Tono Pullin, that we originally introduced to our portfolio in the summer of 2012.  East Africans are currently represented by Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from Negele Gurbitu cooperative and our special reserve Amaro Gayo (natural process) from Anakesh Thomas's Amaro Gayo mill.

Having been Sumatra centric since Christmas, Javascript, our seasonal espresso blend, has finally seen lovely Gegarang Village phased out of the blend to give room to a very much in season combination of Iris Esperanza and Finca San Antonio that bring their gentle yet chocolatey presence to the blend, combined with the body and floral notes of Kaffa Forest Estate and Amaro Gayo, both from Ethiopia, further complemented with sweet nuttiness of Brazil Nossa Senhora de Fatima.

In the true spirit of summer, our customers' old favourite, 8AM Blues, is back. This season, we sought to combine body and high notes of Ethiopian Limu from Kaffa Forest Estate with chocolatey and stone fruit flavours of Iris Esperanza's micro-lot from Finca El Hichozal in Las Capucas area of Honduras.  Crafted for filter brewing and roasted medium-dark, this blend has bright yet solid presence.  Originally conceived as a punchy morning cup, it is mannered well enough to be enjoyed thoroughly after dinner.. or pretty much any time throughout the day.