March 2011

• This Week at the Roastery

  Sat 26 March, 2011

  It’s been one of the busiest weeks here in a long time, with so much going on from new faces and coffee arrivals, to packaging discussions and cupping sessions, to new ideas and visits from special guests. I even found time to head to Amsterdam with our designer, Giles from Industrial Action, which was a pretty faultless trip.

  Many thanks for the hospitality of Dario from Goglio, and in also for reminding us that you should never drink cappuccinos (too much milk) after morning and instead focus solely on espresso. I’d quite fancied a cappuccino after the meal, but changed my order just in time? The Italians did invent these drinks after all. We enjoyed an excellent meal overlooking the river at “de Hoop Op d’Swarte Walvis” restaurant in Zandaam and it felt like summer had arrived early.

  Earlier in the week we’d had a thoroughly enjoyable visit from Lynsey at United Coffee, with a cupping session and some espresso tasting. Both myself and Sam had a renewed sense of optimism over all things coffee after that afternoon and it’s always great to spend time with someone so enthusiastic about the art and craft.

  Friday saw a brief visit from Paul at Coffee Community for some beans for one of his training sessions, closely followed by a cupping session with a was a focus on new crop Brazil (see below) and lots of barista photography from Sam and Scott in the showroom. Still not sure about the shot with the...

• Grumpy Mule at Huddersfield Green Fest & Green Conference

  Fri 25 March, 2011
  Huddersfield Green Fest 2011

  The annual Huddersfield Green Fest takes place next week (29th to 31st March) and Grumpy Mule will be making an appearance at the Green Conference that’s being held, on Wednesday 30th March 2011, at the University of Huddersfield’s Business School. By making an appearance, that means serving some coffees for thirsty attendees and delegates so that should give you all plenty of excuse to pop along. I’ll be there to talk to too if you can pull me away from the coffee brewer.
  
  The aims of Huddersfield Green Fest 2011 are:

  -To increase the awareness of the importance of sustainability across the town
  -To demonstrate ways in which people can be greener in their everyday lives
  -To provide a platform for like-minded people to promote their green activities
  -To instigate more green thinking

  The conference itself will be addressing environmentally friendly and eco-issues with a range of talks throughout the day from Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate and local building company “The Green Building Store”. For more info about the Green Fest in general and a schedule of  events and talks, please visit
  
  Click here for the Huddersfield Green Fest 2011 website
  

• New Colombini Grinder for the Roastery!

  Fri 25 March, 2011

  For those more interested in the technical sides of coffee, we’ve just bought a new Colombini grinder for the Roastery. Whilst there’s a growing trend for folks to grind their own beans at home, we’re still happy to oblige in the grinding stakes and will always try to provide the very best pre-ground coffee in our Grumpy Mule soft packs, gift tins and mini tins.

  It’ll also be sitting nicely alongside our other new bit of kit that currently sunning itself somewhere in California. More about that very soon (and yes we’ve been telling everyone we’ve met in the past month about that little project, it’s just that we haven’t formally announced anything yet.) Happy days here right now.

• Colombian Cup of Excellence 2011

  Fri 25 March, 2011
  Colombia Cup of Excellence

  The final stage of the 2011 Colombian Cup of Excellence competition started earlier this week and today sees the most exicting stage of all - the cupping of the Top 10 coffees. During these five days, the 44 lots of Colombian coffee that made it through from the national competition are cupped, then cupped again, to discover those that are good enough to be announced as Cup of Excellence coffees. Finally, the top ten scoring coffees are cupped one more time to rank them with the announcement of the first placed winner of the overall competition. Always a happy time for some lucky producers.
  
  Hopefully we'll be hearing lots of fine tales of coffee and beyond from Stephen (himself on the international jury) and Andrea from Mercanta upon their return to the UK.

  The winning coffees will be auctioned online in May, and I'm sure we'll be having a good look as always. 
  
  To find out more about the Cup of Excellence program and competitions, click here to visit the website.

• Today’s Coffee Cupping: Colombia and Peru

  Mon 21 March, 2011
  

  We started this fine Monday morning with a brew of Rwanda Mizozi; a coffee from a Fairtrade-certified small-holder co-op. It was certainly interesting, and to be diplomatic it was just maybe a touch on the wild side and not to everyone’s taste. However, sometimes that’s just what you need to awaken up the taste buds at the start of the week!

  We’d also just received some green samples of Peruvian and Colombian coffees from Mercanta so it was a good opportunity to get the Team around the cupping table. With Rob, Louise, Vanessa and James joining me in the cupping, we did get some varying opinions on favourites but generally two of the coffees stood out. The organic Peru Café Verde “Quebrada” was nicely sweet and clean and the Colombia Viota from the Cundinamarca region also had a nice depth and balance to it. Next up: new crop Brazil coffees.