November-December 2020 Newsletter
What a year it's been! Now that we are finally out of lockdown I suspect that we're all looking forward to a happier Yule season.
Australia Post seems to be operating with even longer delivery delays than a couple of months ago, which doesn't bode well for Christmas delivery times. The latest official word from them is that Standard Post should be in the mail by the 12th of December, and Express Post by the 21st of December, if you want it to arrive by the 24th. Based on the delays we are currently seeing I would add another 3 or 4 days in advance of that.
Our own last chance for shipping will be orders placed before 8.30 a.m. Monday 21st December. The usual stock rundown warning applies and we'll be filling the last minute orders with whatever coffees we have left. We'll reopen the order pages on Friday 8th January and begin shipping on Monday 11th January 2021.
One of the unforseen consequences of lockdown is that quite a few people stayed in and bought espresso machines. This in turn has led to me getting a heap of questions about why they weren't getting the results they expected.
Some of the questions were easy to answer, "Use more coffee, use the double basket, yes, you do need to tamp!" but by far the most common answer was "Buy a decent grinder." The hardest thing to answer was "What do you recommend?"
As it turns out, not a lot. Finding a decent espresso grinder which is in stock seems to be a bit of a chore. The basic Sunbeam, Baratza and Lelit grinders are all out of stock. The only grinder I could recommend for immediate purchase was the venerable Rancilio Rocky, not cheap or “cutting edge" but certainly reliable.
Of course, if you have a spare $2000 lying around there are a lot more choices, but for a much more reasonable $300 to $400 I'd buy a basic Lelit, Ascaso, Isomac or Iberital conical. They are all the same grinder under the skin, are incredibly noisy and last forever. If only they were in stock! A decent grinder cures a heap of espresso woes, including too bitter, too sour, not enough crema etc. by enabling easy adjustment of shot doses, times and volumes.
The compostable coffee bags met your approval by 50 to 1. We've received a couple of sample bags and currently have them in the compost bin to see what happens, just so that we can guarantee you're getting value for money if we go ahead with them.
Finally there's our Christmas special coffee:
$68 Per Kilogram
Strong
The full name of this coffee is Ethiopian Guji Uraga Grade 1 Yellow Honey. As such it's a rare example of a coffee which isn't either washed or dry processed, the traditional methods used in Ethiopia.
Honey ("Miel") processing was originally a Central American development, but modern information availability means that coffee farmers the world over are able to tap into interesting ways to improve their coffees. This is the first such coffee from Ethiopia that we've seen.
The result is a spectacular coffee with an intense jasmine and honey aroma, cleansing citric acidity on the front palate followed by a creamy mid-palate body and a milk chocolate aftertaste. I rate it a solid 90, the only one this year.
Have a safe and happy holiday season, we'll be back to you in January.
Alan
