--------------------------------------------------------------- The Hill and Valley Gourmet Coffee Newsletter --------------------------------------------------------------- This month - :Welcome Coffee Lovers! :Hill & Valley Coffee News :New Beans :Factory Outlet :Coffee Machines :Tip of the month :Hill and Valley on the road :Espresso Street news --------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Coffee Lover, Welcome to the Hill & Valley Gourmet Coffee newsletter. It's our intention to send out this newsletter monthly at least and hopefully we can stimulate your interest in brewing and drinking the best coffee you can find. Best Regards Charles Massey Hill & Valley Coffee Ltd roaster@hillandvalleycoffee.co.uk Phone: +44 1296 482708 Fax : +44 1296 339425 Mobile: +44 468 028021 --------------------------------------------------------------- Hill & Valley Coffee News --------------------------------------------------------------- Credit Card Ordering On April 29th our on-line credit card ordering system went live and many thanks to those that ordered this way. Unfortunately it immediately went into 'intensive care' (over roasted?) and the system has temporarily gone down. Until it is 'live' again for credit cards please email us with your order and address details and we will prepare it for processing on May 23rd. Alternatively, you can always pay by cheque on receipt of an invoice from us. --------------------------------------------------------------- New Beans --------------------------------------------------------------- New Beans- Café Primeur We will be labelling all our newest arrivals from the coffee harvests of the world with the "Café Primeur" tag whilst they retain their new crop freshness. Our two new crop arrivals from Central America, Guatemala "Palencia's Peak" and Costa Rica "Riserva Presidente" are the first to feature this additional description and are now available. New Kalossi: Our latest arrival of Celebes Kalossi (Toraja) at: http://www.hillandvalleycoffee.co.uk/acatalog/Hill_and_Valley_Single_Origins_2.html is nothing short of sensational. Thanks to Stefen Sprengel and his colleagues for finding this suitably 'rested' coffee from amongst the lots available. Enjoy it in our darkest roast available as a single origin or featured in our Tongkonan dark-roast espresso. --------------------------------------------------------------- Factory Outlet --------------------------------------------------------------- Factory Outlet - Oxford For the last three weeks and the foreseeable future, we have run a 'Factory Outlet' stall at the Gloucester Green Market in Oxford on a Wednesday. All the coffee is roasted on the Monday or Tuesday before and is discounted by 10 percent from our usual prices. Additionally, we always have 3 or 4 ground coffees available on a "try before you buy" basis. Oxford has a large coffee enthusiast community and we welcome anyone who wishes to come along and talk great coffee over a (free) taste of our latest roasts. --------------------------------------------------------------- Coffee Machines --------------------------------------------------------------- Coffee Machines We have decided to offer a limited range of high quality coffee-making equipment through the site and at our 'factory outlet'. These will not be sold until we have bench-tested and fully got familiar with the machine's characteristics. We will initially offer two professional quality espresso machines, aimed for the home enthusiast market. These are the RANCILIO SYLVIA and the NUOVA SIMONELLI OSCAR. We will also be offering professional quality coffee grinders to accompany the machines. It is our intention to offer full support on the equipment and we expect prices to be competitive with those offered elsewhere in the UK. However, we will be using all the equipment ourselves with our own coffee, looking to get that perfect drink. We would envisage setting up e-mail user groups for all equipment that we offer so you can easily compare notes. Any enquiries for brochures are welcome. --------------------------------------------------------------- Tip of the Month --------------------------------------------------------------- Tip of the Month - Water! This is aimed particularly at coffee drinkers in the Thames Valley Area. At Hill and Valley we always use filtered or light spring water to brew our coffee - we had not realised how much difference water quality makes in our area until we advised a customer to try filtered water two weeks ago and the result "changed" her coffee-drinking life. We cannot stress enough how important it is to use well-oxygenated filtered water in brewing your coffee. Table-top water filter jugs cost less than £15.00 and represent a sound investment for the coffee enthusiast. --------------------------------------------------------------- Hill and Valley on the road --------------------------------------------------------------- Hill and Valley on the road! May 28th will see Hill and Valley at the Oxfordshire Young Farmers Country Fayre at Steeple Aston. We have a trade stand here and will have a plentiful supply of beans with us with a grinder to enable us to grind beans for all types of coffee makers. With a number of air pots full of our coffee, blends and single origins you will be able to come along and sample our coffee before buying. NB: We have just received confirmation of a place for Hill and Valley Coffee at The Bucks County Show on August 31st. --------------------------------------------------------------- Espresso Street news --------------------------------------------------------------- Espresso.street News April was, unfortunately for espresso street, a very wet month resulting in the cancellation of several Horse Shows due to the waterlogged ground conditions. However, at the beginning of the month, before the rain set in, Burnham Beeches Horse Trials was a resounding success and we received much acclaim for our cappuccinos, filtered coffee and hot chocolate (with lots of cream that day!). The Lambing Day at Hampden Hall on April 9th in Aylesbury was so successful that by the end of the day we had ran out of medium cups, lids, cakes and right at the very end water! An urgent telephone call for more milk (and a packed lunch for the staff!) to be bought after only three hours of opening confirms the pace at which we were serving the 6,000 plus people who came to the event. Where were the lambs though? Nowhere near us for sure. Good Friday saw espresso.street at Champion Jockey Pat Eddery's farm for the Winchenden Horse Show. This was organised by his charming wife Carolyn and only went ahead due to a very well drained ground. Much to Charlie's delight, we had the pleasure of serving Pat himself with not one but three espressos throughout the day and he narrowly missed out on what would have been the obvious highlight of his career so far, namely having his photo taken drinking at our counter! By the time we got the camera out and the queues had diminished he had beat a retreat back to the house. The sight of a huge farm tractor pulling both our car and trailer out of the muddy field at the end of the day will stay with us for a long time. Unfortunately, Kingston Blount Races, Oving Horse Trials and Withington Horse Trials were all cancelled. May will see espresso.street at the following events (weather permitting!):- May 21st Elizabeth Cullum Memorial Marathon, Princes Risborough May 29th Haddenham Fete N.B. May will see the launch of the definitive iced cappuccino drink - 'ICE CAP' (available as soon as the sun shines…) --------------------------------------------------------------- +++ Subscription information +++ --------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for reading the Hill and Valley Gourmet Coffee newsletter. You can receive this newsletter regularly by e-mail by subscribing at http://www.hillandvalleycoffee.co.uk/ Issue 2 May 2000. Copyright (c) 2000 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 3TF. Privacy: http://www.hillandvalleycoffee.co.uk/privacy.html