You might be wondering what has happened to nearly half of the coffees on our online shop! Don’t worry, this isn’t a site malfunction – but it does mean unfortunately that some of your favourites might be currently unavailable.
Coffee is a seasonal product which means that different harvests take place throughout the year making some coffees fresher than others. Our aim is to promote this seasonality through our single origin range and to do this, we must regularly assess the cup quality of each of our coffees to ensure they are still singing in the cup.
In our experience, green coffee on average tends to have a shelf life of between 9 and 12 months. After this time (and sometimes during depending on the origin) the coffee can develop aged characteristics in the cup which manifests as a slightly ‘woody’ flavour with a paper like mouthfeel. You may also notice that the coffee you have been enjoying for a few months no longer displays the same character it used to, even when brewed with the same recipe/method. It is for this reason that we purchase smaller lots of coffee which we aim to run through before new crop lands. This means that we are able to showcase what makes each individual coffee special – otherwise there comes a point when that coffee begins to taste somewhat normal with little to no distinguishable character. As we cup nearly all of our coffees on a daily basis, we have a fascinating insight into the ageing process of our beans and know exactly what to look out for to make sure your daily brew has not been impacted by age. I should stress at this point that these undesirable aged characteristics will not have any harmful effects on your health, but who wants to be drinking old coffee…?!
If by now you are mourning the loss of one of your favourite ever coffees…FEAR NOT! It will most likely return within the next few weeks. After a dry period, we have reached that exciting time of year when we start to make our selections for the year ahead. Within the next month, we will hopefully see the arrival of an exclusive Peaberry lot from Kenya and May should mark the return of Colombia with some tasty lots from Huila and Antioquia in the North of the country. Throughout the summer months you should look out for some exciting experimental lots from Ethiopia and Central America before winding the year up with some more outstanding coffees from Rwanda.
The seasonality of coffee is something that should be embraced in the same way we look forward to British strawberries and the few weeks we have to enjoy the blood orange. In the meantime, if you are worried about what to drink, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line and we will happily advise you on a suitable replacement that will work for your brew method and preferred flavour profile. And watch this space for our delicious new crop arrivals….