Coffee

Check out the coffee category in the store if you want to shortcut the blurb.

Everyone loves a good cup of Joe... Whoever Joe is. Anyhow, recently I found myself not quite liking Costa any more so I started looking for various beans that didn't disagree with me as much. One day I accidentally ordered a bunch of green beans and had to work out how to roast them. Long story short, I progressed through a converted popcorn popper roaster to a small batch roaster, and have settled on a couple of beans I really enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I still love a good Nescafe Latte, but sometimes it's great to have a choice of flavours.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm a master of the arts, I probably can't produce 2 identical batches in a row, but I do produce consistently nice coffee. If you are the kind of person who can absolutely tell the difference between a coffee ground in a £25 spice blender and one ground in a $1,000 Commando hand grinder then I am probably not the person to be buying coffee from. If you want a different kind of coffee experience and enjoy a great cuppa, then read on.

When you buy beans at Tesco you believe that someone with great skill chose the bean, and roasted them to perfection for you, and that the beans are fresh and ready to go right. Well... The great thing about small batch roasting is that each batch can be customised, want a lightly roasted Kenyan? no problem. A dark roasted Brazilian, or a mixed blend of dark Ethiopian Zege Forest and medium Yirgacheffe, sure thing... After all, you're the boss.

After roasting, coffee isn't ready to drink for a few days. You have to let it rest a bit, it's just been heavily traumatised after all. Well, ok, it's to do with carbon dioxide. If you drink a freshly roasted bean you will have a very unpleasant cup of acidic bleugh. You need to let the carbon dioxide gas off for a few days (usually around 4-10 depending on the roast - the darker the roast, the shorter the time to rest). Then your coffee experience will peak from day 5 to 25, and then slowly degrade over the following month or so to something that is just kinda like all the other coffees out there. Don't panic, I'll cover keeping the beans fresh a bit later.

That's enough general blurb, what specifically are you getting into here. Well, 125 grams of green beans are loaded into the roaster (told you it's a small batch roaster), press a few buttons, wait 10-15 minutes, and between 100 and 110 grams pops out. This batch is then cooled quickly, and bagged either on it's own or with another batch of your choice.

At the moment we are only selling roasted whole beans. If you have a preferred method of drinking your coffee - Turkish, espresso, pour-over, aeropress, cafetière etc - then you have probably worked out the size of grind you need for that to work... If you buy pre-ground, then it may be worth investing in a grinder of some sort as you are probably not getting the best out of those beans since all of those mentioned (and others) need a different size grind to get the best out of. If all this is news to you, just let me know and we can give you some pointers.

Pricing and ordering

Below you will find a list of the beans we have in, and some simple characteristics about them. Send us an email with your preferences if you want to chat, or you can follow the links to the specific beans and checkout without talking to anyone.

A bag will hold a single or double batch. You can order 2 batches of the same thing per bag, or blend 2 different roast types or even different beans. As mentioned above, you will get about 100g of beans per batch, which will be about 4 to 6 cups of coffee depending on your dosing. That means that for the price of a single Belgian Chocolate Frostino with 2 spoons, you and a friend can try out a couple of cups of coffee you've never had before. Who knows, you might find a new love. (the coffee... or the friend, we don't judge).

Single Batch		Double Batch
£8.00		£15.00
(plus shipping)		(plus shipping)

Some questions answered

I'll attempt to answer some questions here, but if you want to know anything specific, please get in touch.

How long will it take to get my order?

Depending on how busy we are it can take a couple of days to get to roasting your order. Once roasted though, your order is usually dispatched the next day, and then your relying on the postal service you selected at the checkout.

How long will beans stay fresh?

Roasted beans need a few days of rest after a roasting. They are generally at their peak between 5 and 25 days after roasting and will last a couple of months in total before they loose all their fun values.

Can you freeze coffee beans?

Yes. Like human heads, the problem isn't so much the freezing process, but the defrost method. The problem (with beans) is that when you defrost them, condensation accumulates, and this can interfere with the taste and general stability of the beans. The solution is to use a vacuum sealed bag - like if you sous-vide food. Put a batch or 2 into a vacuum sealing bag and make it as flat as possible, suck out all the air, put the bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you want to use it, take the bag out of the freezer and let it come up to room temperature before opening and using.

Do you use your own product?

Absolutely. My personal preference is the Mexican Terruno Nayarita.

The beans

Listed below are all the beans we have seen, some are not currently in stock, check the specific links to see (they will open in a new tab). Check out the coffee category in the store.

Brazilian Peaberry

Preferred roast: Medium.

A medium, smooth bodied coffee with sugar coated nutty overtones and long aftertaste.

 

Colombia Supremo Noble

Preferred roast: Medium.

A medium smooth bodied coffee with caramel notes, balanced fruitiness and bittersweet cocoa finish.

 

Costa Rica Tarrazu

Preferred roast: Medium.

A sweet, light bodied coffee with citrus hints.

 

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe

Preferred roast: Medium.

A sweet, floral hinted coffee with a lighter body.

 

Ethiopian Zege Forest

Preferred roast: Medium.

A Soft fruity spicey coffee with a full body.

 

Honduran Liquidambar

Preferred roast: Medium.

Coffee with a fruity fragrance, lively acidity, velvety taste with hints of chocolate and brown sugar, soft body and smooth finish.

 

Kongo Papua New Guinea

Preferred roast: Medium.

A rich but smooth bodied coffee, with sweet floral red currants.

 

Mexican Terruno Nayarita

Preferred roast: Medium.

A smooth, medium bodied coffee with hints of bakers chocolate, candied sweetness, berries and orange.

 

Tanzanian Blue Mountain

Preferred roast: Medium.

A light bodied coffee with a smooth aftertaste, having hints of kiwi, chocolate and blackberry.