No news is not necessarily always good news. The first newsletter for 2016 has taken few weeks to finalise. The year has had a few time challenges so consolidating the news has been hard.
We are now offering the news in shorter bursts with links to further details.
Vineyard
Break out the champagne, the ship has launched. The new addition to the Quaffee family the Roastery at the Vineyard has opened. A limited number of coffees are roasted on site, and is available for purchase there.
At the Roastery, you can get some unique coffees including the blend we have produced for the Vineyard Hotel. You can taste the blend at their new Long Café and you can also buy the blend there. You can find it on Google Maps too, click here…
Things of interest
There is a lot of very useful information on the Internet, but finding the wood in the trees can be a challenge. So we thought we would occasionally share what we find:
Barista Hustle
There are two posts by the Barista Hustle we found very interesting, that may help you brew better coffee.
- The brewing coffee compass, read more here and
- The espresso brew coffee compass, read more here.
These compasses assist you in getting the most out of your coffee. By changing your grind, timing and brew you can use the compass to obtain the brew most suited to your liking. Take a read.
Update to tasting wheel
Probably one of the most tweeted posts was the release of the new SCAA flavour wheel and its less tweeted about companion the World Coffee Research Organization’s lexicon matching these tastes to the actual product (although they are American products they are a guide). Click each link to review.
New coffees released this month
Two new coffees have been released this month:
- The Rwanda Cup Of Excellence (CoE): A complex coffee with tart berry, we have only 50kgs left.
- A Maragogype from the same farm as one of our previous CoEs, Las Cascada. This coffee has a medium body with dominant stone fruit.
New Pricing and categorization
As a coffee lover in South Africa, one is subjected to two primary market forces. The first is the international coffee commodity futures exchange. The second is the rand, which is only slightly less volatile.
With this in mind, we thought we would explain how we categorise our coffees, which may help explain our price increase this year. Most of our coffees will increase at about 15% this year. We have, however, retained a small budget-friendly selection.
Read more about the categorization here…
To see what prices will increase to in March, read this summary.
As long as both markets trade in a range of roughly 10%, we hope to retain these prices for another 12 months, as we mostly managed previously.
Outstanding coffee without a civet insight. In the world of coffee, there are few green bean merchants more respected than ninety plus. We are excited to announce we are the first-ever South African Roaster to offer these coffees, although in small quantities.
Once we are happy with the profiles for these coffees, we will announce them using our limited edition emailer. To subscribe to the newsletter or update your profile here…
A sample of their entry-level coffees will be offered in accessible 200g packs. These coffees will only be roasted once we have minimum order quantities, which we anticipate will take 10 days to accrue per roast cycle.
Expanded Gear Offering
Can a bad coffee brewer blame his tools? We only offer products that we would use. Over the last few months, we have extended our equipment selection to include Bialetti moka pots, Chemex and Hario v60 drippers, and a few Brewista brewing trinkets.
We still carry the Jura range (at least those we’d recommend), the Aeropress, Rancilio and various barista tools.
All equipment has increased in price. Do check online (links to be found on each product) to see the prices.
Thanks
A big thanks to everyone who has read this far. Everyone who helps spread the word about great coffee, all those moved enough to support us and the people who place quality in the cup above everything else. Our next event will be later in year, and there will be one at both the Vineyard and at Buitenverwachting.
If you want to make sure a friend gets these invites and newsletters, then forward this newsletter to a friend.
