--------------------------------------------------------------- The Hill and Valley Gourmet Coffee Newsletter --------------------------------------------------------------- This month -:Hill & Valley Coffee News :Hill and Valley on the road :Tip of the month :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/World Pay All our teething problems are now sorted out and our credit card ordering system is fully running. Despite the UK 1st Class postage going up we have kept our postage rates the same for the time being. --------------------------------------------------------------- hill and valley 'on the road' --------------------------------------------------------------- On May 28th Hill & Valley had a stand in the Food Marquee at the Oxfordshire Young Farmers Fayre. We took along our new Nuova Simonelli espresso machine and Rancilio grinder to put them through their paces and giving us the chance to grind the beans according to the customers needs. Neatly placed between Kirens World Cakes and The Real Olive Company we settled in for a wonderful day of smells and tastes. Frequent customer sampling from our airpots of coffee prompted many people to offer money for a cup of coffee. They were quite overwhelmed to be told that we were not in fact selling it by the cup but that they could have a sample. The feedback and responses were tremendous and we had sold out of our entire stock by 4.30pm, helped of course by the intermittent downpours which ensured regular swarms of people came in to take shelter. We have since received several re-orders from customers at the Fayre who declare they have never tasted coffee so good. The week-end of 13th & 14th May saw the beginning of our Corporate side of the company with the Real Coffee Bar sitting in a BMW showroom for the launch of one of their new ranges. Serving espressos, cappuccinos and Ice Caps to discerning buyers as they pondered their decision on buying the sports version with the metallic paint finish or not was another new experience for us and worked very well. We were totally self-sufficient with our espresso machine, grinder, fridge and mineral water and quietly impressed the sales team as well I think, who were not adverse to the odd Mocha or three. Our regular factory outlet at Gloucester Green Market in Oxford on a Wednesday is now into it's sixth week and the Java Junkies are beginning to find us. A few anecdotes for you: - Tribute to Steve "marmalade", who likes his genuine Kalossi slightly under-roasted to get more caffeine out of it! - Respect to the gentleman who buys his coffee from me, but buys his teas only by single estate, personally imported. Oolongs arrived this week apparently. - Roots Coffee. I hope the Eritrean family enjoy their 1 kg of Green Yirgacheffe. Their local coffee roasting ritual has been prevented by the trade embargo from their warring neighbours - glad we could help out. - Couple from Hawaii, who just holidayed in Jamaica. Sorry I don't have enough cash to help you imitate coffee from home or holiday, but we're working on it. Maybe a Kona / Blue Mountain blend, with a roasting oven thrown in to round up the numbers? - Personal tribute to all my senior citizen buyers ("grinding coffee is my daily exercise"). You don't have to be under 30 to get fun out of great coffee. - I now know that one of those "plungy things" is a cafetiere and the "squirts up the inside" is a stovetop moka pot. - Last of all, old West Indian geezer who munches my bean displays, you should get medication for bowel regularity! Come and see me one day, at least you'll get a good coffee and some cheap socks from Mark next door. --------------------------------------------------------------- Tip of the month - keep it clean --------------------------------------------------------------- Keep it clean. This may sound obvious, but clean machinery makes a huge difference to coffee flavour. Take the espresso machine - we clean our espresso machines as we work, continually "pulsing" clear water out of the group heads to eject spent grounds. We use the stiff "elbow" brushes and green pan scourers to remove deposits and oils inside the portafilters (under the baskets). On a daily basis Steve and I practically perform colonic irrigation on the machine at the end of trading with blind filter basket and backflush. We wipe the portafilter basket clean of all visible deposits before "throwing" a single gram of coffee in for each shot. We have yet to find a coffee house in London that does this and in a Starbucks in London W1 we watched as espresso grind was dosed into a basket almost a quarter full of old coffee. Is that in their training manual?? If you see this happen complain - send it back - that was the previous guy's coffee and you don't want to drink it as well. Remember you just paid £1.10 for 8 grams of coffee - it should be perfect and NEVER bitter. Brewed coffee machinery should be treated with the same care, especially airpots. A delicate new crop Costa Rica won't taste quite the same if it comes out of a pot still reeking of Old Brown Java, and beware the old invisibly dirty black plastic filter paper holder. Get your nose in it - uuggh - not good! Give your filter machine or Moka Pot a holiday from time to time - brew some clear water and see how clear it comes through. Unscrew your cafetiere mesh screen and check and slush out the old grounds trapped under the "spokes". Think coffee brewer - think E.R. (scrub) not toilet seat(wipe). --------------------------------------------------------------- espresso street news --------------------------------------------------------------- The month of May saw the launch of our new cold cappuccino drink - Ice Cap - at the Ponies UK Horse Show at Newbury showground. Charlie has developed a killer roast for the Ice Cap and a combination of our special ingredient (!) and crushed ice whizzed up in the blender was ideal for such a hot day. Word quickly got about so that we had queues forming to try it. Almost exactly like a hot cappuccino down to the chocolate sprinkles on top and a little foam left at the bottom of the cup we are very proud of our new offering. Murseley mid-week horse show was a late invitation which we gladly accepted and Steve and Debbie spent much of the day acknowledging customers who told us that they were not used to having such great tasting coffee at their little local event. We received much the same acclaim at Adderbury & District Horse Show where, as luck would have it, we were cited next to a wonderful local butcher who was selling hog roast. By the end of the day it was agreed by all parties that our two roasting businesses complimented each other and after much exchanging of pork, crackling, hot chocolate and Ice Cap drinks we intend to keep in touch with a view for future events. The Elizabeth Cullum Memorial Marathon at Princes Risborough had us running to the local shop for more milk as despite it being a fairly low key event we managed to get through over 44 pints of milk. Charlie actually ran in the 10 mile event in the morning and was seen to be serving at 4.30pm still in running clothes….. Runners do it on large latte's. Bank Holiday Monday saw us at our most local event of the year at Haddenham Fete. The weather held for the pageant and all the festivities and we were able to give our friends and fellow villagers an insight as to what we have been up for the past six months or so! For several customers it was a chance to 'meet the roaster', having already bought the beans from the local delicatessen shop and we received many compliments. June will see espresso.street at the following events June 10th & 11th Mark Yate Horse Trials in Herts June 17th Hockey Gala at Woughton on the Green, Milton Keynes June 18th South Oxfordshire Hunt Central Open Show at Milton Common, Oxon June 21st & 22nd Purston Manor Horse Trials, Brackley June 24th & 25th Home and Outdoor Living Show, Herts County Showground --------------------------------------------------------------- +++ 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 3 June 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