As a roaster, I spend many an hour thinking about fantastic, exciting coffees to source. Coffee that challenges perception of what coffee can taste like. Coffee that challenges my experience as a roaster and cupper. Coffee that I feel proud to showcase to my peer group. However, experience has taught me that this can sometimes […]
April – Seasonal Coffee This time of year as a coffee roaster can be tough – waiting for the seasonal coffee arrival of Central American coffee. We’ve had some pre shipment samples sent over by one of our importers, Falcon Speciality, and have chosen at least two Guatemalan lots and a brace of coffees from El […]
New Coffee Coffee is seasonal, and we generally see new coffee arrivals every month in the roastery. This month has been a good month for coffee in Hull. Today we’ve released our first box of Kenyan coffee – Karimikui AB and it’s tasting stunning. Next week we’ll see a return of a coffee that impressed […]
Back in January 2015, and after a long six year wait, I finally got around to putting together a coffee subscription package. Initially this was a three and six month subscription, which has proved to be a success (thanks to all our current subscribers!) I’ve spent a bit of time over the weekend in making […]
“Dogma is a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true. It serves as part of the primary basis of an ideology or belief system, and it cannot be changed or discarded without affecting the very system’s paradigm, or the ideology itself.” I am often asked what recipes to use […]
Collaboration with FRAYED Magazine and Thieving Harry’s A couple of months ago, Jack from Thieving Harry’s mentioned that FRAYED Magazine were interested in working together to produce a written and video piece on coffee in Hull. I was more than happy to take part in what was a fun interview by Luke Chambers and great […]
Background to the Costa Rica coffee origin Costa Rica is a stable democracy and is a land that is as diverse as it beautiful. This little country has it all; from mountains and volcanoes to rainforests that buzz with life and coastlines with great beaches and surf. The nation is comparatively wealthy in Central America […]
Background to the Honduras coffee origin It is not exactly known when coffee first reached Honduras, but it is believed that seeds may have arrived from Costa Rica between 1799 and 1804 amongst the goods brought by traveling merchants. Today, coffee plays an important role within the national economy – in 2011, Honduras produced more […]
Espresso Fundamentals Espresso and espresso based drinks are notoriously difficult to get right. I see very often in commercial environments, baristas pulling shots that will never be reproducible. There is no weighing of the starting mass, end mass or timing of shot length. This is quite probably true of most home scenarios too. Therefore, I […]
From time to time, roasters get invited to other roasteries for open cuppings, machine reviews or brand launches. Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the launch of Casa Espresso’s roasting facility that will complement their already strong Sanremo machine sales, service and roasted coffee. The owner, Nino and the roaster Jonnie visited Hull […]