We just received our first Liberica shipment for 2012. The season for the new crop in the Philippines usually begins around the first week of February, but continuous torrential rains have really delayed the crop and the drying of the beans this year. We have found also that if we are going to have enough supply of Liberica through the year, we need to reserve over a ton of green beans from the start. This is a lot of coffee... when you consider that we only purchased about 100 kilos our first year!
The new crop is fabulous. They've done a great job on the green beans... we also can't wait until we can get our new crop of Excelsa green beans so we can add the Liberica Blend back to the lineup. Liberica is a very unusual coffee, and while we have hundreds of people who as addicted to it as we are, many enjoy the blend with Excelsa as a well-rounded cup with the great tones of each.
The Liberica can be found here:
Liberica coffee from the Philippines
Excelsa: For years we have believed the coffee advisers who have told us that Excelsa is such a sharp and aggressive-tasting coffee that it does not play well as a single-source coffee. But when we tested the Excelsa green beans supplied to us from Vietnam by our friends at Indochine Estates, we fell in love with it as is. It looks like one more coffee myth will fall - that Excelsa is a mixing coffee only. As we have been testing it on focus groups everybody is saying "It's different and unusual, but this is really good!" They all said they would have considered it a great discover if it had popped up at their favorite coffee shop. So we will be offering Excelsa not only in blends this year but as a single-source coffee with two origins - Dalat (Vietnam) and the Philippines.
Shade-grown organic Robusta from the Philippines: We have been eagerly awaiting the new crop for three months! We have been told that a courier package with 25 kilos of green beans is on the way to us. We're hoping it will arrive this week (last week of March) and that we will have it back up on the site as roasted coffee by the end of the month.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Monsanto wants to own our future food supply
Here is a disturbing story about how Monsanto is trying to intimidate family farmers and organic farmers in the USA which involves, oddly enough, the company suing these farmers if and when seed that blows from Monsanto-seeded farms contaminates the organic farmer's planting beds and these plants grow up and are harvested.
One of the biggest problems we face in our challenge to help preserve the heirloom coffee genome around the world is agribusiness pushing GMO and hybrid coffees onto farmers, while buyers essentially blackmail farmers that they will not buy if the farmers don't convert to higher-yield but poorer-tasting coffees.
http://www.nationofchange.org/300000-organic-farmers-sue-monsanto-federal-court-decision-march-31st-go-trial-1329059467
It does not help the cause of organic and heritage farming when the current government administrations signs agreements allowing the free spread of GMO seed stock. It does always amaze us here at Heirloom Coffee when a supposed Democratic administration sides with big business over small farmers and the safety of the food supply...
Like invasive fish species in our rivers and boa constrictors invading the Everglades, new species of plants can overtake the old ones unintentionally and cause contamination in the continuous passing-down of critical food genes, effectively removing them from our future food supply forever. In a recession as bad as the current one, we need to look at anything that might create jobs and increase yields of exports, etc., but not at the risk of creating a monolithic gene structure of our food supply that could be at risk for very specific parasites or diseases down the line, wherein we could see something like the great coffee blight of 1870, which wiped out 90% of the world supply of coffee.
Losing 90% of the world supply of coffee to a new blight could ruin a lot of people's whole day!
One of the biggest problems we face in our challenge to help preserve the heirloom coffee genome around the world is agribusiness pushing GMO and hybrid coffees onto farmers, while buyers essentially blackmail farmers that they will not buy if the farmers don't convert to higher-yield but poorer-tasting coffees.
http://www.nationofchange.org/300000-organic-farmers-sue-monsanto-federal-court-decision-march-31st-go-trial-1329059467
It does not help the cause of organic and heritage farming when the current government administrations signs agreements allowing the free spread of GMO seed stock. It does always amaze us here at Heirloom Coffee when a supposed Democratic administration sides with big business over small farmers and the safety of the food supply...
Like invasive fish species in our rivers and boa constrictors invading the Everglades, new species of plants can overtake the old ones unintentionally and cause contamination in the continuous passing-down of critical food genes, effectively removing them from our future food supply forever. In a recession as bad as the current one, we need to look at anything that might create jobs and increase yields of exports, etc., but not at the risk of creating a monolithic gene structure of our food supply that could be at risk for very specific parasites or diseases down the line, wherein we could see something like the great coffee blight of 1870, which wiped out 90% of the world supply of coffee.
Losing 90% of the world supply of coffee to a new blight could ruin a lot of people's whole day!
Friday, December 30, 2011
It's been a busy Fall
Things are finally settling down after the holidays... we hope all our customers had a great holiday season!
Here is an update on new coffees and specials:
In 2012 we will be launching our new Home Roaster page... we will have fabulous green, unroasted beans from some of our best sources in Sumatra, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Watch for Kopi Luwak specials this week to celebrate the New Year.
We are working to bring in some new brands from Vietnam, new coffees and brands that are making waves.
We will be expanding our selection of Philippine coffees and blends. We continue to be impressed with the quality of our Philippine coffees and have asked our suppliers to bring us more. We will have a new Excelsa that we will be blending, and some other high-altitude coffees to share with you during the next three months. The harvest for the 2012 crop happens in January, so by February we hope to have some exciting new coffees.
Happy New Year!
Here is an update on new coffees and specials:
In 2012 we will be launching our new Home Roaster page... we will have fabulous green, unroasted beans from some of our best sources in Sumatra, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Watch for Kopi Luwak specials this week to celebrate the New Year.
We are working to bring in some new brands from Vietnam, new coffees and brands that are making waves.
We will be expanding our selection of Philippine coffees and blends. We continue to be impressed with the quality of our Philippine coffees and have asked our suppliers to bring us more. We will have a new Excelsa that we will be blending, and some other high-altitude coffees to share with you during the next three months. The harvest for the 2012 crop happens in January, so by February we hope to have some exciting new coffees.
Happy New Year!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Update October 2011
We are settled in to our new digs at 9 Jerome Street and have resumed our Brewology Seminar events.Our seminars are being successfully promoted on Groupon, Google, and other coupon companies!
The Sumatra Lintong and our own blend of Philippine Liberica and Lintong (Lenberica- ouch!) have exceeded expectations on how quickly people have been adopting these coffees. The Lintong has an amazing aroma that brings exclamations of "I want you to bottle that aroma!" We don't know if the Lintong itself is totally responsible or the really fine roasting job Mystic Coffee Roaster is doing for us on this coffee. We are running down on our initial supply of this coffee but we have reserved 10 60-kilo sacks of green from the new harvest that should be arriving in November.
Lately you may have noticed we have been out of many coffees. During the move we did not make any large orders, and we assumed that the usual summer slowdown would kick in. Instead, August and September kicked up gangbusters and orders were running 200% of the same time last year, quickly depleting our supplies of some coffees. Some people, when they see these shortages, make large orders to avoid the expected next shortage, but we want to advise everybody that we do have a lot of these coffees on order, and we also expect that in December there will be some price reductions on favorite items due to much lower shipping costs. Apparently there is a dearth of international shipping right now and rates are at almost a record low, so since high shipping costs have been driving our recent price increases, we will see improvements. So don't feel the need to stock up, the trends are improving.
We are excited to be receiving new week our first shipment of Indochine Estates prized Dalat Bourbon Arabica in green unroasted beans. We will be experimenting with special fresh roasts using these high-body, low-acid, rich-tasting Bourbon Arabica beans, so watch for some new blends and announcements.
The Sumatra Lintong and our own blend of Philippine Liberica and Lintong (Lenberica- ouch!) have exceeded expectations on how quickly people have been adopting these coffees. The Lintong has an amazing aroma that brings exclamations of "I want you to bottle that aroma!" We don't know if the Lintong itself is totally responsible or the really fine roasting job Mystic Coffee Roaster is doing for us on this coffee. We are running down on our initial supply of this coffee but we have reserved 10 60-kilo sacks of green from the new harvest that should be arriving in November.
Lately you may have noticed we have been out of many coffees. During the move we did not make any large orders, and we assumed that the usual summer slowdown would kick in. Instead, August and September kicked up gangbusters and orders were running 200% of the same time last year, quickly depleting our supplies of some coffees. Some people, when they see these shortages, make large orders to avoid the expected next shortage, but we want to advise everybody that we do have a lot of these coffees on order, and we also expect that in December there will be some price reductions on favorite items due to much lower shipping costs. Apparently there is a dearth of international shipping right now and rates are at almost a record low, so since high shipping costs have been driving our recent price increases, we will see improvements. So don't feel the need to stock up, the trends are improving.
We are excited to be receiving new week our first shipment of Indochine Estates prized Dalat Bourbon Arabica in green unroasted beans. We will be experimenting with special fresh roasts using these high-body, low-acid, rich-tasting Bourbon Arabica beans, so watch for some new blends and announcements.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
We are moving!
Our mixed-use office building at 200 Boston Ave in Medford, MA has never been ideally suited for what our company needs, so we are proud to announce that we are moving to a free-standing building about a half-mile away at 9 Jerome Street in Medford as of July 30, 2011. Other than a street address change, all contact information will remain the same.
The new building will allow us to have more control over our own space, so we can customize our seminar room and create workspaces that meet our needs better.
We hope our customers and friends local to our MA home office will come by to visit us after the move and try something special, brewed just for them. In the meantime, the disruption from the move might result in some later deliveries, and we will be allowing our stock on some coffees to drop off because we have limited our incoming stock. We hope that everybody will be patient with the changes during this time. Thank you!
The new building will allow us to have more control over our own space, so we can customize our seminar room and create workspaces that meet our needs better.
We hope our customers and friends local to our MA home office will come by to visit us after the move and try something special, brewed just for them. In the meantime, the disruption from the move might result in some later deliveries, and we will be allowing our stock on some coffees to drop off because we have limited our incoming stock. We hope that everybody will be patient with the changes during this time. Thank you!
Sumatra Lintong is in!
We have just received three 60-kilo bags of Sumatra Lintong from the same supplier as our Sumatra Kopi Luwak. This is an incredible coffee, with all the characteristics we search for and love: Heirloom stock, long history, unique regional practices, and rich, full-bodied taste. We have been disappointed by some Sumatra coffees we have sampled over the years, but we fell in love with the Lintong immediately. We put it on the July email circular and had to roast it three times to meet the orders! We hope everybody loves it as much as we do.
We will have it up on the main site soon, after the initial rush is over.
We will have it up on the main site soon, after the initial rush is over.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Product and Pricing Update
We have some great new products. Some are on the site now, others will be posted shortly.
Highlands Traditional Blend - This is one of Highlands 5 blends, and the only one we did not buy from the start of our distributorship. Highlands has 4 espressos and 5 ground coffees, and we thought that was too may options to spring on people in a new product line. However, when we sampled the Traditional Blend recently at our open houses, everybody was very enthusiastic, so we have just gotten in a new shipment that includes the Traditional Blend. This is a Robusta-based blend that is roasted in the style of small cafés and roasters as you might find in the countryside in Vietnam, a product tradition extending back almost 100 years. Very nice!
G7 Passiona Instant - Yes, it's true, Trung Nguyen has finally created a sugarfree and lower caffeine instant coffee with the same fabulous taste as traditional G7. They envisioned this coffee as the perfect "alternative" coffee with a health-promoting twist. The ingredients are famous G7-dry-process naturally low caffeine coffee, non-dairy creamer (vegetarian), "dietary sugar" (sugar alcohol, most likely Erythritol or Xylitol - we are waiting for the exact translation), and a small percentage of artichoke and chrysanthemum, included for their mild health benefits and relaxing properties. Why drink this coffee? The taste is simply amazing. Dark and deep, yet substantially guilt-free (if sugar or caffeine makes you feel at all guilty!), it's a fabulous taste experience you can get from just an instant packet that you can take anywhere and enjoy with just hot water and a cup. We will be including a free sachet in our G7 sampler pack, but really, spring for the cost of buying a box if you have any interest at all in this type of product. You will NOT be disappointed. And if you ARE trying to cut your caffeine or sugar, so much the better.
G7 newest shipment - we are buying G7 "domestically" from our agent in Vietnam because we can place smaller orders more frequently, and get some variations of the product that we can't get through the export channel. One example is the new 24-sachet bag of G7 3-in-1. The bag is the favorite package among our customers, for reasons we don't quite understand... probably a slight preference for sachets over café sticks, and the flexibility of the packet for carrying in purses or storing at work. But in 2008 Trung Nguyen dropped the 24 sachets to 22 sachets in the bag. Now, we are able to get the original 24 sachets again on the domestic market. People who love the bag will rejoice! Watch for the return of the 24-sachet bag.
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Prices! Everybody expects coffee prices to skyrocket. We heard reports of local diners here paying 50% increases for their coffee service. Well, they should be buying from us, or other contract grower representatives, because this is case when contract growing can actually save the consumer money. We buy 90% from companies using contract growing agreements with their producers, and we never use middlemen or commodity brokers, so in fact, the recent increases in coffee prices have not affected us. Our producers pay their growers the price they ask for, and the coffee is not placed on the open commodities market, so it is not subject to speculation due to shortages in countries that are not relevant.
We do not expect increases in our ground coffees for several months. We have had to pay increases in whole bean Trung Nguyen coffees because we buy those on the domestic market, and transportation (yes, the price of oil) has caused a 15% increase. Also, the devaluation of the dollar versus the dong has caused another 12% increase. So, you will see whole bean prices going up, but less than what is being experienced on the average international level.
Note that many branded retailers will simply buy lesser grades of coffee and pass them off as their usual blends, which results in poorer taste and quality. This is the standard response to sudden spikes. We do not do this. Because we do not buy coffees traded on the commodities markets, we are fairly immune from speculators and artificial pricing hikes. So, aside from an increase in whole bean due to transportation cost increases and the dollar situation, we will be holding the line for the immediate future.
Highlands Traditional Blend - This is one of Highlands 5 blends, and the only one we did not buy from the start of our distributorship. Highlands has 4 espressos and 5 ground coffees, and we thought that was too may options to spring on people in a new product line. However, when we sampled the Traditional Blend recently at our open houses, everybody was very enthusiastic, so we have just gotten in a new shipment that includes the Traditional Blend. This is a Robusta-based blend that is roasted in the style of small cafés and roasters as you might find in the countryside in Vietnam, a product tradition extending back almost 100 years. Very nice!
G7 Passiona Instant - Yes, it's true, Trung Nguyen has finally created a sugarfree and lower caffeine instant coffee with the same fabulous taste as traditional G7. They envisioned this coffee as the perfect "alternative" coffee with a health-promoting twist. The ingredients are famous G7-dry-process naturally low caffeine coffee, non-dairy creamer (vegetarian), "dietary sugar" (sugar alcohol, most likely Erythritol or Xylitol - we are waiting for the exact translation), and a small percentage of artichoke and chrysanthemum, included for their mild health benefits and relaxing properties. Why drink this coffee? The taste is simply amazing. Dark and deep, yet substantially guilt-free (if sugar or caffeine makes you feel at all guilty!), it's a fabulous taste experience you can get from just an instant packet that you can take anywhere and enjoy with just hot water and a cup. We will be including a free sachet in our G7 sampler pack, but really, spring for the cost of buying a box if you have any interest at all in this type of product. You will NOT be disappointed. And if you ARE trying to cut your caffeine or sugar, so much the better.
G7 newest shipment - we are buying G7 "domestically" from our agent in Vietnam because we can place smaller orders more frequently, and get some variations of the product that we can't get through the export channel. One example is the new 24-sachet bag of G7 3-in-1. The bag is the favorite package among our customers, for reasons we don't quite understand... probably a slight preference for sachets over café sticks, and the flexibility of the packet for carrying in purses or storing at work. But in 2008 Trung Nguyen dropped the 24 sachets to 22 sachets in the bag. Now, we are able to get the original 24 sachets again on the domestic market. People who love the bag will rejoice! Watch for the return of the 24-sachet bag.
-------
Prices! Everybody expects coffee prices to skyrocket. We heard reports of local diners here paying 50% increases for their coffee service. Well, they should be buying from us, or other contract grower representatives, because this is case when contract growing can actually save the consumer money. We buy 90% from companies using contract growing agreements with their producers, and we never use middlemen or commodity brokers, so in fact, the recent increases in coffee prices have not affected us. Our producers pay their growers the price they ask for, and the coffee is not placed on the open commodities market, so it is not subject to speculation due to shortages in countries that are not relevant.
We do not expect increases in our ground coffees for several months. We have had to pay increases in whole bean Trung Nguyen coffees because we buy those on the domestic market, and transportation (yes, the price of oil) has caused a 15% increase. Also, the devaluation of the dollar versus the dong has caused another 12% increase. So, you will see whole bean prices going up, but less than what is being experienced on the average international level.
Note that many branded retailers will simply buy lesser grades of coffee and pass them off as their usual blends, which results in poorer taste and quality. This is the standard response to sudden spikes. We do not do this. Because we do not buy coffees traded on the commodities markets, we are fairly immune from speculators and artificial pricing hikes. So, aside from an increase in whole bean due to transportation cost increases and the dollar situation, we will be holding the line for the immediate future.
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