roaster's blog
16 February 2010 | 4:46:52 PM
Bill
Hooray!!!! Our new roastery is nearly complete and the new afterburner and weigh/fill machine arrive early next week. A new dedicated space is going to make me a happy little roaster.
So what are we listening to in the new roastery... some huge Aussie guitar in the form of ‘Poindexter And The Genius Sex Act’ by Peter Northcote. Impossible licks amidst a quirky narrator. Loving it so far!
Some new season arrivals to tempt our taste buds in our latest delivery from our brokers:
Colombian Supremo is living up to its name. We witnessed some pretty ordinary offerings towards the end of 2009 but the latest contract we procured its lip smacking moments of espresso love. Huge cocoa front palette and thick bodied and oh so smooooooth – a big boost to our Sassafras blend.
Monsooned coffees are back in plentiful supply after a late monsoon season (blame global warming). Monsooned Coffee (Monsooned Malabar) is a typical dry-processed single-origin coffee from south India deliberately exposed to monsoon winds in open warehouses, with the aim of increasing body and reducing acidity.
Monsooned coffees are stored in special warehouses until the Monsoon season comes around. It was late in 2009, the sides of the structure are opened and moist monsoon winds circulate around the coffee making it swell in size and take on a mellowed but aggressive, musty flavour.
The ‘monsooning’ process is labour-intensive: coffee is spread on the floor of the special ‘monsooning warehouse’, raked and turned around by hand to enable the seeds to soak in moisture of the humid winds. The monsooning process takes around 12 to 16 weeks, during which the beans swell to twice their original size and turn into pale golden colour. Then there is additional hand sorting to remove any coffee that did not expand properly, and the coffee is prepared for export.
The new crop has a strong roasted nut smell (dry roasted peanut) with butterscotch and pipe tobacco. It forms part of out Sassafras Blend and Ducks Nuts Blend.
5 February 2010 | 2:05:11 PM
Bill
Can’t believe we are into February already! It’s been a whirlwind break over January with a coffee tour of Osaka Japan with Mike from WholeBean Coffee.
So many roasters, such little time – and changes are huge since our last trip. Imoda Coffee and Ogawa Coffee were our highlights as well as my usual hunt for the worlds best green tea and I reckon I came pretty close to Nirvana in Kobe with a beautiful lot of Gyokuru and Sencha purchased.
Many thanks to Mike for another amazing trip.
Okay... so welcome to the new website.
We hope to develop this site further throughout the following months featuring new coffees together with cupping notes and some YouTube stuff to enhance your coffee experience with us.
Blogs galore from what Matt, Ash & Steph love at the Espresso Bar end to Lisa letting you know what’s cooking in the espresso bar kitchen.
So stay tuned!
Many thanks to James Saunders to making this website possible and having the madness to engage himself with our highly ‘caffeinated’ team of scoundrels.
