--------------------------------------------------------------- The Hill and Valley Gourmet Coffee Newsletter --------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 2 Issue 2, March 2001 This month -:The Coffee Tree :New Coffees In - Old Coffees Out :East African Drama :Coffee Packaging Mystery :Plugging the Good Guys --------------------------------------------------------------- Well sorry folks, but this one took a bit longer to get out than usual. Planting a "Coffee Tree" and bringing it to crop takes a little time.... --------------------------------------------------------------- The Coffee Tree --------------------------------------------------------------- Hill & Valley's first shop opens on March 31st in Aylesbury and we're having so much fun getting it all ready while trying to keep all the other balls in the air at the same time. It didn't happen at the end of Feb as we had to make more modifications to the site that yours truly hadn't bargained for, but the new opening date is now a definite. Nothing has changed in the original concept, but we do have to wait for a secondary planning process before we can move the roasting operation in. The address is 11 George St, Aylesbury and we will have the doors open to our "friends" from March 30th. 'Web Pilgrims' (copyright methornton 2001) are most welcome to come and worship at the UK's leading shrine to the bean, and subscribers get at least a free cup of coffee, coffee mug, yummy cake, tour of the facilities and a stamp in their passport. Come along and give us one of those great moments - "I'm xyz from Timbuktu and I've read all your newsletters" - "That's funny you look nothing like your e-mail address georgeousandsophisticated@literateandworldly.com" - What is perplexing us slightly is that one of the newer Capachains "Good Bean" is opening 3 days after us in a much better position, town centre, market square in Aylesbury to wage war with our local Costa Coffee. They have a team of shop-fitters in working round the clock, while we are, ahem, giving our friends a chance to express themselves in our decor and keeping our neighbours in work on our plumbing and electrics. They are also dragging people off the streets and offering to make them "barristers" for £4.20 an hour (shouldn't that be 420 guineas for half an hour?). I've heard a rumour that Good Bean's "secret gourmet blend", "dolphin friendly tuna" and "low threat environment" are the cornerstones of their soon to be global success and the joint MD's weren't born when this oldie first dared to step onto the coffee futures market. Scary stuff indeed. Maybe Starbucks is right now (from Portakabin office space in Seattle) planning a pincer assault on our town with a bar in the library, on the stairs in the council offices and under the dais of John Hampden's statue - by the way we definitely did not torch your building to try to stop you. Will Coffee Republic open up in the bus station or in the raised flower beds in front of Costa Coffee? And what about the push button espresso kings at Aroma and Pret a Big Mac - where will they go? In the schoolyards? At the mother and toddler groups? And why does the Household Waste Site not yet have a yellow planning notice up for someone? I do hope they all won't mind us selling the REAL thing on THEIR doorstep in OUR town and making nasty smells of coffee in the street for their customers to escape from. If we give coffee away occasionally to help the street orphans will we be sued for breaking ranks? I wonder if we are allowed to charge less than 1.50 for a cappa? A further report from the frontline of Aylesbury's Cappuccino Wars next time. --------------------------------------------------------------- New Coffees In - Old Coffees Out --------------------------------------------------------------- We try to keep our stock as fresh as possible and this occasionally means coffees go out of stock surprisingly and we allow "interruptions of supply". Sorry if this brings a high confusion factor to the online store on occasions, but we believe fresh means fresh. Going out or gone recently are the following : Java Pancur - getting tired and we needed something fresher (see below) Costa Rica Riserva Presidente - we are re-ordering new crop 2001, only available late April. Sumatra Lintong - replaced with something else - similar but a little different. Costa Rica Tres Nubes - gone forever and eclipsed by the luscious Riserva Presidente Mexico Organic 2nd wonder - we've got something bolder, bigger, brasher from south of the border for a few months. (I refuse to have more than one Mexican in the range - too many memories of trading Primo Lavado cannon fodder at 9 under! - whatever that means). India Robusta Cherry AB - regrets I have a few, but then again too few to mention.... PNG Peas - won't replace as it's old now - hunting some more peas right now --------------------------------------------------------------- We will be adding next week: Guatemala Antigua Capetillo - I got the message - you really like it. Java Estate Blawan - literally in today and I'm smiling already. Colombian Sparkling Water Decaf - sorry to use the D word but it has its proper place as Channel Four always say. Mexico Liquidambar Alturas Marago - that's huge freaky bean to the rest of us. Ethiopia Washed Sidamo 2 - ran out, got some more, still lovely. Sumatra Mandheling Grade 1 - got all the features you crave. --------------------------------------------------------------- By Late spring: New espresso blend to play with featuring ridiculously expensive coffees in a "secret" combination (until you ask me what's in it that is). New Crop Costa Rica Riserva, Guatemala Palencia's Peak and Tanzania AA. Something Organic, Something Peasy. --------------------------------------------------------------- East African Drama --------------------------------------------------------------- The persistent low market prices and the climactic problem have made it virtually impossible to source really good Kenyas in a reasonable way so far this year. Stefan told me that his cupping spoon has practically melted from tasting Kenyas trying to measure up their high standards at 3 times the price of Brazilian coffees. Until that elusive great lot of AA is located we will continue to eke out stocks of last year's main crop and you will not be given a "best of available" Kenya from us - do not fear. If we actually run out we may go for an extra PNG coffee to at least try something new that allows you to at least dream of Kenya. --------------------------------------------------------------- Coffee Packaging Mystery --------------------------------------------------------------- We are confused and overworked but may also be a little innocent and wet behind the ears. Those of you who have bought from us over the web have almost universally praised our little gold valved bags with the cutesy clips. Well we go all the way to Washington State, USA to buy those beauties for you and they are not at all cheap. The valve also really works - we are yet to observe a single "blown" bag from our supplies - and that means CO2 goes out. And you only have to smell when opening to know that no oxygen has gone in meantime. Trying to save some cash for our wholesale business, we decided to use a UK supplier for the 500 gram and 1 kilo bags and they were sourced from a market leading Swiss firm, valves and all. The main price difference stemmed from a lower thickness polymer foil - we assumed the valves would work identically (well). They are Swiss after all. Now as you all know by now here at HV we try to pack immediately the coffee is cool enough after roasting so that degassing assists in maintaining the coffee's freshness by evacuating oxygen from around the beans. That is the whole point of the valve bag, isn't it? Well shock, horror, either all our coffee has a high degree of flatulence, or the valves don't function correctly unless you wait several days after roasting before packing. Not an acceptable practise in our book so we've switched back to Pacific Bag and to hell with the cost. But it got us thinking... I know not good....how can a major respected firm sell valves that don't do the job and why are the same bags used all over the UK in the so-called premium sector? Why are other roasters' bags not blown on the shelves of my local premium supermarket or coffee shop? Ah, that'll be because they wait a few days with the coffee open to the air before packing, stupid, and then once very little gas is coming off the bean as its partially oxidised the bags work fine. Well that's all right then. --------------------------------------------------------------- Plugging the Good Guys --------------------------------------------------------------- Best of Luck to Ian and Elaine at the Mecca Coffee House in Aberystwyth. If you are ever anywhere near there (and yes I found out that it is a long way from...well, anywhere) look them up in Chalybeate Street - Coffee and Tea Merchants Rive Gauche, Coffee House Rive Droite. They're doing it well and doing it right by the coffee too. Stafford, Staffordshire - surrounded by floods most of this winter, but thanks to the hard graft of Steve and Sarah Leighton, it now has a proper coffee bar. Sarah is even now proving what is possible with a Nuova Simonelli Oscar and e.caffe. Find the Colonnade shopping alley off Eastgate and look for the HASBEAN sign. Munsons in St. Mary's Road Ealing continues to deliver the best coffee, with best attitude, in an area surrounded by the chains. Coming soon - an organic semi-fermented lemonade hand made by Mr Pan himself. God shots from triple baskets showing daily. Congrats to Louise at e@t in Buckingham as well - mastered that Rancilio in hours and now providing a nice juxtaposition to Stowe landscape gardens and Budgens. Call in on any of them and if you have to pay for your e.caffe when you mention our name - remember that one day Starbucks may open next door...and they need to make hay. --------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 2 Issue 2 March 2001. Copyright (c) 2001 Hill and Valley Coffee Ltd. Information freely distributable, but must include this copyright messages. Formatted and delivered by m.e.thornton internet "Let us show you how your business can succeed on-line" http://www.methornton.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------- T h e G o u r m e t C o f f e e N e w s l e t t e r From Hill and Valley Coffee Ltd. --------------------------------------------------------------- Web: http://www.hillandvalley.co.uk E-mail: roaster@hillandvalleycoffee.co.uk Fax: +44 1296 339425 Tel: +44 1296 482708 Mobile: +44 468 028021 Address: Hill and Valley Coffee Limited 7 Bessemer Crescent, Rabans Lane Industrial Area, Aylesbury, Bucks. HP19 8TF. Privacy: http://www.hillandvalleycoffee.co.uk/privacy.html