Close

Costa Rica La Pira

Don Carlos is an eccentric, and an innovator and an experimenter. He doesn’t follow the rules he makes them–listen to our chat as we walked around the farm earlier this year.

From this January’s trip, one of the highlights for me was to meet up with Don Carlos from Finca la Pira in Tarrazu, Costa Rica.

You see Don Carlos is an eccentric, and an innovator and an experimenter. He doesn’t follow the rules he makes them.

The walk around was lots of fun, and I recorded our conversations, so you can share a little of the trip here.


You can also see the Flickr pictures here 

Brew Guides

Not sure how to brew? Luckily for you, there are GUIDES!

Following on from the coffee 101 blog post, I’m still looking at the newbies with the new equipment for Christmas, who might be struggling to get the best out of their new kit.

Fear not, I’m here to help! Of course coffee101 is a good place to start, but doesn’t get into the nitty gritty of brewing the stuff called coffee…

sidebar-brewguides

So, I’m here to remind you about our lovely brew guides. Take a look at them all here at this link, from Vac pot to aeropress, all your needs covered!

Coffee 101

Happy new year to old friends, I hope that you got all the coffee gifts you wished over the festive period. Welcome also to new people finding us here, I know that at this time of year we see an influx of new coffee converts, people who were lucky enough to get equipment, subscriptions and coffee as gifts and are researching their new hobby.

It also means this time of year we get hit with lots of emails from new people with lots of new people questions. We are of course always happy to field these (well Chris and Katie are) but we also know theres lots of question people don’t ask, as they “should know”.

photo-05-12-2016-14-20-50-1024x683

We disagree, theres no silly questions, but to get around this years ago I created a thing called coffee 101. Coffee 101 is a basic introduction to the fundamentals of coffee. A daily email over 10 days covering everything from the history of coffee, to how to get the best out of your brewing. Its a foundation introduction to getting the best out of your new found interest.

Its free to sign up and there really is no catch, its my gift back to the world (and to temp you we even put some special offers in there too) and to inspire you to find out more about your favourite beverage.

Would love to hear your feedback on the updated site and emails and anything you think we may have missed.

http://www.coffee101.co.uk

Steve and Roland’s Top Ten of 2016

It’s that time of the year where we look back on what was good and what was bad and what was just ROLAND.

I find this time of year a good time for reflection. Looking back over the past 12 months at what was good, and what was bad.

The one part I don’t enjoy is I have to sit down with Roland (our Roast and @hasbeannewboy on twitter) and go through our top ten coffees of the year. But I’ve been told it entertaining, so I take that bullet for you.

screen-shot-2016-12-31-at-13-55-06

So there are some rules. The most important rule is you can not choose the same country twice in the listing, this is to stop me putting 10 El Salvadorians and Roland putting all Costa Rica.

It’s 45 mins long so make sure you pull up a brew and make sure your sitting comfortably. If you want to down load it you can from the RRS feed below the player

Happy new year !!!

Download this episode (right click and save)

Refractometers – Best Price Ever!

Sorry folks – this deal is done. 🙁

For the next few weeks, VST Lab III Refractometers will be available at their lowest ever price £600 inc VAT.

This is not a Black Friday sale, but is a refraction (see what I did) of both our and VST’s seasonal goodwill! We have a limited amount of units we can offer at this price, and once they’re gone they’re gone but for a little while control over your coffee quality is one step closer at the best price we’ve ever offered

The VST Lab III refractometer is the only refractometer designed to deliver readings relevant to brewed and espresso coffee preparation with the required tolerances for effective application. The Lab III automatically averages multiple measurements and displays the resulting % TDS with +/- 0.01% precision , and unrivalled accuracy (+/- 0.03% in coffee range, +/- 0.05% in espresso range). The unit ships with pipettes, 50 syringe filters, 5 syringes and a soft case. Final Quality Assurance Certificate with NIST Traceable Reference Standards Measurements Included.

Awesome hard cases are also available if you’re buying this as a gift, brew coffee on the road or just  prefer to indulge in extensive pre-measurement unboxing rituals.

Business purchase requiring a VAT invoice – mail us at orders@hasbean.co.uk and we’ll sort this for you.image2

Chemex Brew Guide (Mk2)

I am, after all, the King of Chemex. But even brew guides need updating sometimes!

We started our brew guide videos back in 2012 and we now have 13 videos that help you get the best out of your brew methods. Most of them haven’t changed, and are as useful today as on day one. But being the king of Chemex, I’m always tinkering with my brew style. (You can see all our brew guides here)

So I decided that it was time to make a version 2 and update it. Small changes, but I believe small changes that will improve your cup. You can take a look at it below or the link here