Its a yearly event, me and Roland sit down and go through our favourite coffees of 2017. This years its no different, we ramble we talk, we decide. Hope you enjoy
All Posts by Just Steve Leighton
I'm just Steve Leighton
Merry Christmas 2017
Every year we do a Christmas Card to you all. You can see the older ones here
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/pages/christmas-card
But last year we didn’t, and it made me a bit sad. so we asked our good friends at Tenticle media to come up with the craziest thing that they possibly can.
And it looks like they have achieved their brief
From Everyone at Has Bean Coffee we wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year, sit back and enjoy.
Merry COFFEE !!
Tis the season to be jolly (and way over worked if you have a coffee website). With Christmas coming we wanted to make sure you had the widest range of coffees available. Were still adding now, but its been a real feast of new coffees, so I thought I’d share them with you. You can also keep an eye on new coffees at the link below
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new
Its not christmas if its not the cleverly names Christmas Filter and Christmas Espresso Blend. The Christmas filter is for ……. filter coffees and the Christmas espresso is for …..espresso. The confusing part is they both taste amazing in other brew methods so it makes a real mockery of it all.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/christmas-filter
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/christmas-espresso
There once was a time I wouldn’t buy Pacamara beans. I thought they all tasted savoury and meh ! I’d tasted other roasters ones, and I’d sample roasted a heap, and overtime mushroom soup. But I didn’t realise that if you roast them differently to other coffees you really can bring out something amazing. Now we have so many pacamaras we are spoiled.
We have 8 different types (process and colour) from just one farm. We added the latest ones in the Yellow pacamaras this month
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/nicaragua-finca-limoncillo-washed-yellow-pacamara
With this one causing us such a problem we couldn’t do our normal cupping notes, as we couldn’t decide if it was amazing or so different we couldn’t stock it.
First time I’ve had to issue a warning on a coffee.
You can try them all here at a special price
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/nicaragua-finca-limoncillo-yellow-pacamara-pack
While we are on packs, this time of year we always release the Potero Pack
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/costa-rica-finca-el-potrero-pack
5 coffees all different honeys and a super special geisha to boot, sounds like perfect christmas drinking to me.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/costa-rica-finca-el-potrero-yellow-honey-bourbon
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/costa-rica-finca-el-potrero-red-honey-bourbon
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/costa-rica-finca-el-potrero-black-honey-bourbon
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/costa-rica-finca-el-potrero-natural-bourbon
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/costa-rica-finca-el-potrero-white-honey-geisha
While I have your Geisha attention how about another. A brand new farm this year for us Costa Rica Dona Daisy finca Don Pepe
Ever heard of a farm called Finca De Licho ? Then why have you not been listening to me as I rave about them every year. We got offered just one bag of another pacamara from them and we jumped at it, not something you see every day
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/costa-rica-finca-licho-honey-pacamara
If you came to The Manchester coffee festival in November, you will have witnessed the bromance of Alejandro Martinez of Finca Argentina in El Salvador and Brian from Kiriga in Kenya. It got us thinking what if we took both their coffees and made a blend, and here it is.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/when-brian-met-ale
You think I can’t top all these right ? Well lets have a go. One of my all time favourite coffees and producers is Neto from fame such as La Ilusion, Los Brumas, Alaska, Los Andes, and I’m always happy when this coffee arrives. Last year we had little to no natural, this year Neto did a little more for us, because for me, this natural makes the best cappuccino I’ve ever drunk. If you have never tried this coffee, you 100% have to !! Its amazing.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/el-salvador-finca-la-ilusion-washed-bourbon
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/new/products/el-salvador-finca-la-ilusion-natural-bourbon
How crazy is this, all in a week we have added these coffees. But I’m still not done.
Every year we like to do something a little special for the very special Has Bean Fans. The die hards who trust us and like to have fun at the same time.
This year we have decided to do something really different. You have to trust me. I’m going to send you 2 x 125g bags of coffee. One marked 1 (for Christmas day) and 2 (for boxing day). You won’t know what they are, how they are from until I social media it on both days.
What I can tell you about them is one of them is a very special coffee you wiped out in just a couple of days because it won something, and one is a coffee we have had washed from Africa and we luckily fell upon 1 bag of natural from there that blew our mind. Both of them are not for sale now and one of them we never have sold it. And trust me this is what I will be drinking on both days, special coffees I want to share with special friends.
The fun part is they come in a lovely presentation box, and inside two christmas crackers.
So you can see we have been busy. Trust me theres more too in the coming weeks, always exciting times around the corner, but I’m enjoying this corner very much.
You could always just buy my book
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/collections/books/products/coffeeography
Coffeeography, at last !
Have I told you I’ve written a book ? If I’ve met you I know I have because I can talk about little else.
To say I was not very academic at school is a little bit of an under exaggeration. I sucked at school, and was often told that I wouldn’t amount to much. Well they were right, but at least I have a book to go with my amounting to little.
The book is called “Coffeeography the producers” and is launched on the 5th of November at cup north event in Manchester, followed by an extensive book tour with events across five countries. Inspired by the relationships built over the past 18 years through Hasbean Coffee,
“Coffeeography: The Coffee Producers” shares hidden stories and breaks down common misconceptions about those who farm the cherries of the world’s most popular beverage.
40 coffee producers across 11 countries were interviewed by using an approach that brings their own words and experiences to the fore.
Each profile began with a list of 20 questions, anything from ‘do you prefer espresso or filter?’ or ‘if you could farm anywhere else, where would you?’
From there, it was using their answers to those questions, the stories they chose to share, and my own understanding of our relationship to put together a multifaceted glimpse into the complex people behind the future of specialty coffee
In addition to these profiles, the book also features a number of my favourite travel photographs from the last 12 years.
Alejandro Martinez (Finca Argentina, El Salvador) and Dr. Brian Gakunga (Kiriga Estate, Kenya), two of the producers profiled in “Coffeeography”, will join Team Hasbean as a part of the inaugural book launch activities, taking place on the second day of the Manchester Coffee Festival, to share their stories in person. Attendees will also have the unique opportunity to cup both Finca Argentina and the Kiriga Estate’s coffees during special afternoon cuppings led by Martinez and Dr. Gakunga, respectively.
After the book’s official launch in Manchester, I will go on whirlwind tour as I launch the book featuring stops in:
Click the links for Ticket information
Seoul, KOR (11-12 Nov, hosted by Marco at Seoul Café & Bakery Show)
Manchester Coffee Feastival !!
You can sign up for tickets for the event here, not only will you get to see all of this, but the rest of the UK speciality industry on show.
Me, Ale, Brian and team Hasbean all look forward to seeing you there.
I left my heart in San Francisco but found it again in Bolivia
To say its been a busy few weeks is a massive understatement. You may have noticed I’ve been on the quite side, so thought it might be a good time to bring you all up to date.
My mammoth trip began with a trip to San Francisco, and my first experience of trans Atlantic flight with a budget airline Norweigan air. I remember seeing that Ryanair were in the running for this franchise, and I have to say that I was pleased it was not them. Apart from having to buy the worst headphones in the world, I have to say I like cheap flights to America.
I was in San Francisco for the latest instalment of Tamper Tantrum. This was our 15th Tamper Tantrum event over the past few years, and our second time into the United States.
But before that I was lucky enough to meet up with my hero Tom Owen for a couple of hours and a recording of a podcast to come out soon for Tamper Tantrum. It was officially #tomowenday. A tour of the warehouse was enlightening, and getting to meet all the team (and its a big team at sweetmarias) just sending out green coffee.
Tom was a real gentleman and warm and insightful, an hour of amazingness. Cant wait to share it with you all.
A tour of some of the most famous coffee shops ion San Fran ensued with the highlight being Wreacking Ball and the famous and obligatory pineapple wallpaper selfie
The main event was at the Headquarters of Github, who is is a web-based Git or version control repository and Internet hosting service. It is mostly used for code. Without the jargon people store things a little like dropbox who are programmers and they are huge. There headquarters are a tech haven of table tennis tables and it equipment, and the guys and girls there were so welcoming and sharing. I got a tour of the building and made me very jealous of all their facilities.
Photo courtesy of Cris Mendoza
The event itself went super well with speakers from Hanna Neuschwander, Professor Bill Ristenpart, Trish Rothgeb, Kin Khao and a super debate with Katie Carguilo and Colleen Anunu and Myself and Mayra Orellana-Powell. Videos will be coming out in the next few months at www.tampertantrum.com
One of the speakers was my “mate” Alejandro Martinez, I always like to take pictures of him eating, just because it amuses me. Tartine bakery was amazing !!
As soon as I put down the microphone I hot footed to the apartment to pack to start a mega journey. The first flight was to El Salvador where I had a 6 hour layover. Although not meant to leave the airport, what do you do whilst in El Salvador ? Well you meet up with your friend Ernesto Menendez of La Ilusion and Alaska fame. A few hours and a good breakfast with a friend was amazing, and we chatted about so many different things, last harvest, next harvest and everything in between.
Back to the airport for a stop off at Peru and then on to La Paz at 2am in the morning. La Paz is the most unique city in the world with its space like lots and its mega thin air, breathing becomes a major chore.
4 hours after arriving the alarm clock goes off to hot foot again into a taxi to begin the annual tradition of cycling down the death road to Corico. Now a tourist attraction, with a bypass built, 15 years ago it was known as the worlds most dangerous road with many many deaths. Now you start at nearly 5000 meters above sea level and cycle your way down to around 1200 masl. I’ve done it so many times now I have lost count.
Still dangerous there have been many injuries and more than 22 cyclists have lost their lives on Bolivia’s “Death Road” since 1998. We started with snow and rain reducing visibility to nothing. Certainly the worst conditions I have ever done the ride in. The further down we got the dryer and warmer we got, with the weather clearing around half way.
Then the drive to Caranarvi. My annual trip, somewhere I look forward to every year. We arrived to rain, again a first, something I’ve not seen on this scale in Cararvi before.
A couple of days in the cupping room tasting the new crops, I think we can all be excited about the upcoming harvest. But the main event was yet to happen. In between I got to visit a few people we are buying from in Vincente and Carmelita and was all the fun.
Pedro Rodriguez our exporter started a project called “Sol de Mañana.” He has been sourcing coffee from small producers in the region for three decades. However, this steady decline of coffee production has not only put the sustainability of his export business at risk, but the future of coffee production in Bolivia is at risk of disappearing forever.
In return for joining the program “Sol de Mañana” producers take on agronomic advice, replanting old plant stock, working the land and tackling farming head on – not “just letting it happen.” And they are supported by the team at the mill in Caranrvi. The mill will try and partner them up with a roastery, Our biggest success from this has been Vincent Paye who is part of the first ten producers to have crop from the program. Hew has turned around his yields and his quality to one of our favourite coffees. But the mill decided it was time to get the other 9 involved so we held the first ever Sol de Mañana cupping competition.
All 10 coffees were put on the table and scored by and international jury of me and Joanna Alm of Drop Coffee Roasters Sweeden and a winner was decided. With the wining coffee guaranteed to be sold to one of us. All but one of the families came to the mill to watch us cup and see who would win.
From the competition we decided that next year we will work with 4 of the 10 buying all the coffee from all of their farms, and much fun was had meeting them and explaining why some did better than others. The scores were high, and I can say very easily I would have bought any of the lots, and it came down to personal cupping preferences. We also encouraged them to try the coffees and see why we preferred some to others it was a fun discussion.
But that was not enough so as soon as we cupped us, and the producers made our way to an indoor football pitch and has a game of Has Bean Vs Drop Coffee. A highly fought battle and some lucky goals from Drop meant it was a 3-3 draw. But highlights were that I had not only Tedacio Mamani on my team (who’s coffee we have bought for years and you may remember sent him a Sunderland shit back in the day) but Bebeto and his two other sons. Such a kick to play football with them.
But after the game the ladies inspired by joanna also asked if they could have a game so it was boys vs girls, and I managed to talk Vincente’s (Paye)son to come on my team and have a kick around (he’s a good footballer). This was far dirtier than I expected with feet flying everywhere, but another tightly fought battle needed up 1-1.
The following day was spent visiting some farms we have been working with for a couple of years in La Linda, Don Carlos and Alisitias. Great to see the development of these farms and how they have come along from the very first seedlings planted. I also brought a drone with me so I could get some amazing arial shots. These will be edited in due course 🙂
A fantastic trip, mixed with old friends a new in the north and south of America (and a little bit in the middle)
Red Giant sets off into the Sunset
The new blends launched a few months ago and you seem to be enjoying them. I know I have been.
I did a blogpost back in April explaining about our new blends and how going forwards we would be rotating and reinventing some of them. Its time for Red Giant to take a bow as we welcome in Sunset
Sunset will be the new name for RED giant, which was a replacement for Jailbreak. We changed Jailbreak a lot while it was called that, now we are just being a little more transparent that its changed its components.Its exactly the blend jailbreak mark 450 would have been (or something like that).
Blends in the ‘Red’ profile will be focused on balance, sweetness and cleanliness. It’ll is consistent, easy-to-work-with, tasty, sweet, smooth and balanced espresso.
Its made up of
50% El Salvador Argentina Washed Bourbon
25% El Salvador La Fany Washed Bourbon
25% Kenya Kiriga AB Washed
Please don’t be sad Red Giant has gone (or that Jailbreak has too). Its the same thing, just changing with the times. Just think of it as a child growing up and changing with the seasons. I hope you love it as much as we are loving it here.