Change Is On The Way

Good news for all those people who've been wondering where their next (coffee) fix is coming from. While I will still be retiring as of 30th June, Coffee for Connoisseurs will continue on for the foreseeable future, under new ownership. There will be more about this in the next newsletter, by which time we hope to have all the annoying accountant and lawyer details settled.

There will of course be changes to follow, among them a site redesign and a reworking of the order pages to bring them up to date for both security and functionality. One change which is already in effect is an alteration to our postage rates, and (for Melbourne customers) the removal of the local courier option.

These changes are not caused by the new ownership, but by external forces. Our local courier company has been taken over by a worldwide firm, and the prepaid satchel service we've used for the last 20 years has been discontinued.

On the upside, Australia Post has changed the weight limits on their parcel post and express post satchels to 5kg, regardless of the satchel size. Our limits are set by how much coffee we can actually fit inside a satchel. For the "small" satchels, this is 1000g. The larger satchels can fit 2500g. The appropriate changes have been made to the order pages, and those customers who regularly order in 500g or 1kg amounts will see their postage costs reduced. For customers used to the courier service, we'll be using up our stock of prepaid satchels but they'll probably be gone by the end of the week.

Another forced change is our Certified Organic bean offering. Organic coffees are as ephemeral as some of our microlot special coffees. As growing conditions, weather, pest and disease problems vary from year to year, so do the available organic beans. Coffee farming is such a chancy endeavour that most farmers will choose having a harvestable crop over maintaining organic certification, so an organic coffee available this year may very well be gone next year.

The special for this month replaces the Organic Honduras Recinos, and is:

Organic Ethiopian Sidamo
$55.00/kg

Soft peach and apple acidity in the front palate with an intense pure coffee taste throughout and a bittersweet finish.

Finally, there's been a fair bit of publicity about a group of Australian scientists and baristas who claim to have worked out the recipe for the "perfect" espresso. And, at the same time, the lowest cost (for the brewer) espresso, in terms of time and raw materials. Having read the study I have some serious doubts about its applicability to real life, but that's probably just me.

I am always wary of any claims of perfection when they relate to the way things taste, because I'm well aware of the way people's tastes differ. I've cupped thousands of coffees over the last 30-plus years and found probably 15 or so that rated a "Wow! Perfect!" and every single one of them tasted different.

At the same time at least one of my fellow cuppers completely disagreed with my assessment at the time, which just goes to show that taste is a very individual thing. I'll be discussing a lot more about the espresso study, the parameters involved and the history of espresso in the April/May newsletter.

Until next time
Alan