http://www.hasblog.co.uk/the-next-twelve-months

In My Mug

So I said

I see in my mug as a really important part of what we do. I plan over the next twelve months to do much more out the roastery shoots, and continue to find the amazing coffees we have in the past. I also hope with the help of Aiden to develop the app, and get more people able to use it (as desk top and an android and windows 7 version all planned)

The desk top app went live, and in my mug has been in Colombia, Ireland, Cardiff, York, Ethiopia, Norwich, Bristol, Google Offices Dublin, Nantwich all off the top of my head.

I think the way its moved and kept changing has been good and I think the same will happen in the new year, lots more ideas to implement.

So this one changed a little but I think that In My Mug has gone from strength to strength. I think a PASS

Blog posting

So I said

I want to try and be more focused on my blog postings. I’d appreciate if you can let me know what kind of thing you would like me to focus on. My varietal posts are something I want to personally do some more with and collate in some way, but thats a personal indulgence. Do let me know but the blog will be more used.

So I’d say this one has not been so successful. The highlights have been the audioboo’s, I have enjoyed them, and ethiopia seemed to go down very well.

Direct Trade

So I said

the very end of 2010 saw us bring in our first ever container from Brazil. At the time of writing our second has landed and were awaiting the first delivery from Bolivia. This is going to be an ongoing theme of 2011 for me doing direct trade, but also finding out much more about the farms.

More on this the beginning of January 2012 but we did direct trades in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Bolivia with a deal done for Colombia and Bolivia that will arrive very early this year. Direct trade has become a foundation stone we have begun building on, and something were going to formalise a little more in 2012, but I think this has been a resounding pass and will continue to get better

Has Bean App

So I said

We have already started this one with Nigel but an ipad version is planned of the app and we will continue to develop this. Let us know what you want need and we will make sure we keep making it better

Ipad version (TICK) increased app sales (TICK) more downloads than ever(TICK) pass. If you want more from the app let me know were keen to keep improving

Blends

I said

The blends will continue to develop and change (even if the names don’t) I have some ideas for a killer filter blend for 2011 and I also want to keep looking at how we can do better with some guest type blends.

I think I am very very happy with our espresso blends, we have a range that covers many bases for many people. I think Blake has been the biggest success, whilst Jailbreak was a 2010 thing, I still think it rocks. I have some more plans for this in 2012 but thats to come another time.

Trips

I said

I have a trip planned in February to central america where I will be looking to cement some already built relationships and look to find some more exciting coffees for 2011-12 I’m also have some plans afoot to get to Africa this year if I can. Africa is somewhere I think I can do better, and will continue to try to do so.

Trips have been more than ever this year. Started with El Salvador then Costa Rica, then Colombia and most importantly Ethiopia. I said I wanted to do Afrcia better, and this was the first step.

Africa and Asia

I said

As I said in the trips section we need to do better here, and I want to make sure we do exactly that. Africa we have three coffees at the time of writing and asia we have six. I want this to be more, so the cupping table will be overflowing.

We had more Africans this year than ever. Ethiopia we got much better at, Rwandas we had two brilliant coffee,s Kenya we had four (thats right count them four) amazing coffees. Did we do Africa better ? Yes, can we continue to improve 100%. Asia needs some more work, and I vow this year, that will happen. Kind of pass.

Barista Competition

I said

I announced in April last year I wasn’t going to do any more competition blends for barista competition. I think looking back at the past year, I’d have a big hole if I did this, so I expect to continue to work with great baristas, and continue to learn from them, as and where we can.

PASS lets move on

Brew Guides

Is Said

I have loved the brew guides so far, the last one of 2010 eva solo was one that not so many people use, but the first of 2011 will be a very popular brew method, and the plan is to build up a large library of these, tackling some of the difficult ones, like espresso, milk steaming etc that will take lots of work to get right.

There are some other ideas I have for 2011 but things need to be lined up before then and thought through but I see it as a very exciting year ahead.

Brew guides have rocked. We did the cupping and the french press ones. We have more for 2012, but two is not bad I reckon. I have three booked in for this year, with a whole heap more ideas too. Not quite a pass.

A mixed year in my goals, but I’m happy with them.

But in other way’s my stuff I wasn’t expecting it was amazing. I shall look back at 2011 with a great deal of fondness, a new roastery, a great year for stunning coffees, some great additions to the Has Bean team, and some AMAZING wholesale customers who are doing great things with our lovely coffee.

If 2012 is half as good its going to be a special year.

Its my top ten coffees of 2011. There were some rules. I could only choose a country once, it wasn’t just on the taste but a collection of feelings, relationships and god dam amazing coffees.

I think I’ve changed it 5 or six times since recording, so nothing should be taken too seriously, but was fun to put together.

Enjoy.

But in an attempt to put up some deck chairs on the titanic I’m booing. Booing is an audioboo short pod cast thing that I’ve done in the past. If you don’t know check here

You can download it in itunes too by clicking here

Anyway I hope you like

I think there are three real threats to specialty coffee in the world at this time, let me go through them.

1. Commodity speculators

Coffee is something that’s traded in many different ways. The commodity market is the one place where the vast majority of coffee gets bought. Normally this has little to nothing to do with the way we buy coffee, but because of the recent financial issues (economic downturn, stocks and shares being less secure, banks in trouble / low interest rates) this has seen the “commodity price” wander into our playground. I think this issue will be resolved with a little bit of time and the whole world economy improving, we have seen the price drop from its high of $3.05per lb down to $2.60 per lb in the space of a few weeks – a price that I think is far more sustainable for the longer term.

2. World Demand, new world supply

World demand for coffee has been steadily growing for a number of years, while coffee availablity has been fairly consistent. This was because of an over supply of coffee into the market, but this has now been rebalanced. New consuming nations (places like Brazil, India and China all drinking more coffee than they ever have done in the past) means that demand has been growing, but because of the low coffee price the land owner has been less likely to invest in coffee as a product to grow because of lower margins.

This will change with the commodity price of coffee much higher (and I do believe higher prices than the awful sub $1.00 a lb prices of the late 90’s early 00’s will mean that lots more people will plant coffee than they have in the past. The optimist in me thinks that this new chance to plant new coffee may mean that the plant varietal stock they choose may mean that coffee in general improves, but the realist in me thinks it will be yield-led.

I also think that sustained higher prices will quell some of this growing demand, as the cost of a cup of coffee will rise – this is something you can be very sure of.

Either way more coffee will mean that demand can be met for these new consuming nations or higher prices will control the demand and that price will be more balanced in the long term. Another issue fixed and addressed (I reckon).

3. Climate Change

This is a problem that’s a lot harder to sort than the above. It matters not if you agree or disagree with why the world is getting warmer, we live on a planet that is changing and the climate is not the same as it was 10 -20 -30 years ago. Harvest times and yields of farms we have bought from for only a few years have gone through huge changes; we see some places getting hotter, some places having more rain. But one thing that’s consistent is inconsistent weather patterns.

Colombia has suffered more than most. The weather here has become so unpredictable, along with a lot of pest / disease in plants, it’s meant that growing great coffee has become harder.

Carmilo from Santurio is working on a new project just outside Cali that is firmly trying to address this. It’s working with irrigation systems to water and to feed nutrients to coffee plants directly through irrigation pipes. Using feed and nutrients through the spraying method means that coffee plants receive around 10% of the feed you put down. Feeding coffee plants through the tube means that 90% of it makes it into the plants. So less nutrients are needed so money is saved. Also by doing it this way it means that the coffee will be ready to produce its first harvest in 2 years rather than the traditional 4 years, so money is again saved. Of course there is an investment in the irrigation technology, but an investment now means it should be repaid fairly quickly.

Irrigation

All this is nothing new; irrigation has been used in many farms successfully, but the killer app is that all this will be done in a greenhouse type building. OK not all: they have three sections to the farm, one part un-irrigated, a test sample of doing nothing if you like, one part un greenhoused but irrigated on a program to suit, as and when needed. And the third is irrigated and in the green house. It’s going to be around 0.3 hector with approximately 1800 plants that produce 3000lb of coffee.

Green House

The reason to put it in a greenhouse is to control the environment. If it gets too hot then you water and open up the sides, if it gets too cold you drop the sides and use the solar energy to heat the greenhouse. Not enough rain – turn on the water. Need to add feed – turn on the nutrients.

I think it’s an exciting and interesting experiment to see if the environment has an impact on the final cup, having the test sample and the irrigated sample makes it twice as interesting.

Carmilo

As you can see by the photos, there are no coffee plants in yet, but this is happening in the next 20 days, so in two years’ time we will see if this works or not.

I’ve seen the future and it’s made of rubber tube.

Rubber Tube

I write this while on an aeroplane on my way to El Salvador to meet buyers of old and to meet some buyers of the future, so this is a very interesting time for me with the markets at unprecedented highs.

So before I dive into my dilemmas I’ll try and give you an idea of what the C price is, and its relationship to what is paid for coffee in the commercial markets, in the fair trade / certified coffee markets and in the specialty / direct trade markets.

So what is the C price ? The C price is the price paid for traded commodity coffees at the New York financial exchange. This is a two-fold market of current prices and also a futures market for purchase of contracts for coffee for a later date.

The prices are dictated by a few things, but in a stable market these main things are weather conditions at origin which will have an effect on yield for that year. There is a saying if Brazil sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold, and this stems from this kind of thing. Markets are heavily influenced by statements from coffee-producing countries’ organisations, regarding dropping yields or a lack of supply of coffee in the market. Like anything supply and demand are very important factors.

In recent years demand has been outstripping production, but huge stocks have been balancing that deficit. Now they are kind of depleted, forcing this price rise. China and Brazil are two big forces in growing this demand, with a new culture of enjoying coffee emerging.

There is also a country differential. This is an amount that the country’s coffee will fetch. For instance Brazil and Peru, Ecuador coffees will fetch lower than the c price than a Colombian, El Salvador or Costa Rica which will fetch more.

So a scenario today: the market is at $2.54 (which at time of writing it is). I want to buy a contract for coffee today then I will pay $2.54. But should I want to protect myself against what I think is a rising market I can buy coffee for a premium to the market, for this case we will say 7 cents. That will cover the costs of insurance and keeping it in the warehouse so paying $2.61.

If the market drops I get left with a coffee contract costing $2.61, but have protected myself against swings so can offer a stable price to customers. But should the market rise, I can either use that contract still or sell it and make a profit.

So what happens is that bankers and financial institutions can use this as a way of speculating what the markets will do. Normally commodities are not the chosen playground of these kinds of organisations, but in these volatile times of share markets and currencies it seems to have become more popular and one of the reasons for the new high price.

Added to this new speculation is a shortage of supply, and there have been some weather alerts, increased demand, and with things like leaf rust: the market is on fire with volatility everywhere.

The certified coffee carries a premium on top of the commodity price, so organic tends to be between 5 – 10 cents but can be as much as the buyer wants. That’s what the C price is – it’s the base level for anything always more can be paid (but rarely is).

Fair trade has a base price of $1.31. This is the lowest price that can be paid, but more can be paid. At times like this the market price is the norm, with small differentials against the market to reward the certification, but it becomes less attractive for a producer in these times of high market, and many contracts are not honoured.

OK enough markets.

So how will all these complicated numbers effect my trip to El Salvador and Costa Rica? Well this is the interesting part. A very rough in the dark cost of production of coffee ranges somewhere between $1.00 and $1.30 a lb depending on where it is and variable costs of living / special circumstances. So everything thereafter is for the benefit of the producer and quite rightly so. The producer can then invest this in doing extra with the harvest, so selective picking, better separation, more time with processing, and this is a sliding scale of costs depending on what the producer wants / is able. Good coffee needs effort, and attention and that costs.

So the prices we have paid in the past would have started at around the $2.80 a lb mark (a tiny 35 cent premium at the moment they could get with no work at all compared to what used to be a 100% increase on commodity coffees) up to much more in some special cases, as high as $5 – $6 a lbs.

But has the cost of production gone up ? Have other costs gone up? Have we ever looked at dropping costs when the market has dropped? You see if prices are to go up then it has to become a two way street and low markets see drops, and I don’t really want to pay less for my coffee at anytime.

But of course effort has to be rewarded, but I’m thinking does the premium have to be as high when the market is adding in some of that reward?

All rhetorical questions I guess, as when it comes to buying coffee it comes down to tasting and theprice the farmer wants, and then I decide. If I want a coffee I’ll make sure I secure it, regardless of price. But high prices mean we can take one bag two bags where as a more competitive price means we can take lots of it .

Talking to one producer since being here in El Salvador, the prices we have agreed for this year are virtually the same as they were last year, when the market was at around $1.40 a lb. What we are paying is still way up and above the high point the C Price is at today ($2.54) and way above the average for any El Salvador coffee.

Where I do see issues for is is with new partners, and where the negotiations begin for new coffees we’re looking to secure. Also with importers and when not-direct trades are done, I fully expect increases here, because of increased costs in financing and shipping and generally being in business costs more money this year than it did last.

Leading on from this I think something that is a far more real issue regarding the price you pay for coffee, is increases in raw materials such as gas for roasting (a 30% increase for us this year in cost of bottled gas), packaging, shipping and the increases in VAT, and cost of living increases, putting pressure on employees of all our suppliers and our staff, which means increased cost of employment, which will all end up being passed down the chain.

But amongst all this, coffee is the best value treat food item out there. Where else can you enjoy something that is so special, prestigious and unique for so little cost. To do the same in any specialty food will cost you many times the cost of a great cup of coffee.

The people these price rises will affect are the commodity coffee buyers, whose cost of product will get much closer to specialty. So the choice of if you want good coffee or rubbish coffee will be easier. But then that will give us all a whole new pricing problem so let’s not go in to that one just yet.

For now I am enjoying the market being high, and I think we should all revel in the fact that producers are finally getting what their coffee is worth. For too long they have not.

For those who don’t know, audioboo is a method of audio bloging. I have a whole heap of them some on the side bar of the blog, or at the link here . You can also subscribe like a podcast on itunes here where they will down load to itunes and you can listen on your ipod/ iphone / ipad or on your computer.

Any way back to tasting, I hope you enjoy these and I hope to maybe build on it in the future.

In My Mug

I see in my mug as a really important part of what we do. I plan over the next twelve months to do much more out the roastery shoots, and continue to find the amazing coffees we have in the past. I also hope with the help of Aiden to develop the app, and get more people able to use it (as desk top and an android and windows 7 version all planned)

Blog posting

I want to try and be more focused on my blog postings. I’d appreciate if you can let me know what kind of thing you would like me to focus on. My varietal posts are something I want to personally do some more with and collate in some way, but thats a personal indulgence. Do let me know but the blog will be more used.

Direct Trade

the very end of 2010 saw us bring in our first ever container from Brazil. At the time of writing our second has landed and were awaiting the first delivery from Bolivia. This is going to be an ongoing theme of 2011 for me doing direct trade, but also finding out much more about the farms.

Has Bean App

We have already started this one with Nigel but an ipad version is planned of the app and we will continue to develop this. Let us know what you want need and we will make sure we keep making it better

Blends

The blends will continue to develop and change (even if the names don’t) I have some ideas for a killer filter blend for 2011 and I also want to keep looking at how we can do better with some guest type blends.

Trips

I have a trip planned in February to central america where I will be looking to cement some already built relationships and look to find some more exciting coffees for 2011-12 I’m also have some plans afoot to get to Africa this year if I can. Africa is somewhere I think I can do better, and will continue to try to do so.

Africa and Asia

As I said in the trips section we need to do better here, and I want to make sure we do exactly that. Africa we have three coffees at the time of writing and asia we have six. I want this to be more, so the cupping table will be overflowing.

Barista Competition

I announced in April last year I wasn’t going to do any more competition blends for barista competition. I think looking back at the past year, I’d have a big hole if I did this, so I expect to continue to work with great baristas, and continue to learn from them, as and where we can.

Brew Guides

I have loved the brew guides so far, the last one of 2010 eva solo was one that not so many people use, but the first of 2011 will be a very popular brew method, and the plan is to build up a large library of these, tackling some of the difficult ones, like espresso, milk steaming etc that will take lots of work to get right.

There are some other ideas I have for 2011 but things need to be lined up before then and thought through but I see it as a very exciting year ahead.

September 2010

This month brought us JailBreak and the first for the “stable” of blends we have introduced. As a direct replacement for the Premium Espresso Blend, the branding and the launch were a bit new, and seemed to be well received.

This started a crazy program of four new coffees over a couple of months.

It also started the brew guides (that we have lots more to do this year). The first being the aeropress. It started with me unlearning everything I had learned and just playing for a whole head of time to come up with these. Again very well received.

September I also went to the Nordic Roasters and Nordic Barista up in Oslo norway, much learnt, and the company of many friends old and new was thoroughly enjoyed.

October 2010

The second of the blends released in October was kicker. Kicker is inspired from my love for kicker shoes (I weak kicker boots all the time) but also as this is a fruity kick in the mouth wake up espresso.

The third blend in Blake was released, an old school blend named after my old school.

This month we also hit the land mark of 100 in my mug’s, I can not believe we made it to 100 from the first recording to what has now taken over my life. It seems only right to post it below

We also proudly launched the new has bean app (with the help of Lawrence and of Nigel who built it from the ground up, an in my mugger), complete rebuild from the first we launched, giving you the chance to buy in app, watch the brew guides, watch the blend ad’s and use the build in tools.

If you have an iphone / Ipad then you should download it here

November 2010

Following on from the Has Bean app in came another “in my mugger” in the shape of Aiden who built us a from the ground up app for in my mug. With the ability to leave cupping notes and share with others and leave the important comments for the next episode, I think the app was a great addition to watching in my mug, I hope it will become a really useful tool.

If you have an iphone / Ipad then you should download it here

We also had one more blends up our sleeves for this year in the style of Jabberwocky. Named after the beast in Alice in Wonderland that had jaws that would bite and claws that will catch, and ths blend also had some claws and a jaws that would bite. But also it is my favourite poem of all time, and written by Lewis Carol at his parents house who lived in Sunderland, and I’m a big fan of the mighty Sunderland Football Club. Of course there was a video

December 2010

Of course the most recent in memory, but december gave us the Christmas card that I think was a triumph and much nicer than sticking card in envelopes

It was also very exciting that we received our first ever full container from Brazil. I am very proud of how we have begun to develop the longer term direct relationships and see great things for the future.

I hope you enjoyed the review as much as I enjoyed being part of it. Lots of highlights and lots of fun I can not wait for the next 12 months. I plan to write a look into the next twelve months too in the near future, so if it doesn’t appear you must all shout at me to do so.

And finally thank you very much for letting me do what I do, without you guys I am sure I’d not have experienced half the things I have done.

Happy new year.

May 2010

May was a quite month, from what I can remember anyway, but it did involve one of my favourite in my mugs, cup of excellence against a cup of mediocrity, a bad mistake Timor with an amazing cup of excellence from Costa Rica

June 2010

June was all about London and of of the most memorable Summers I have ever had. The world barista championships were in my back yard for the first (and probably the last time for a very long time) , and I was sure I was going to enjoy it. Collaborating on the UK Barista champions blend and of course helping Colin Harmon from Ireland with his coffee.

Way too much to talk about, but just go read this

One of the best blog posts I think I have written, a real blast, but by the end I was glad it was over.

I was also honoured to be asked to guest blog post on Dirty Cup at the link here. It was a real month of blogging.

July 2010

After an amazing June, July was about to get a whole heap better. Without a doubt my favourite ever in my mug below, I didn’t think that Mario and Lupe would be up for it, but they were desperate to.

The Bolivia trip was life changing, I picked for the week, I processed the coffee, I lived with the family, and I loved every single moment of it. It was a journey from hell to get there, but worth it once I arrived.

From this I also had my favourite video that wasn’t an in my mug, I had been sitting on this music for a while for the right time and this was that time.

This just shows how long it takes to get here (coffee that is) that it was towards the end of the picking season while I was there, and it is still as I write this to arrive (around 10 days away), but I think its fair to say this coffee is embedded in everything we do at Has Bean, being number one in my top ten video post.

Another post I did was about the Brazil Terramater and the forest blend they had done for us. That arrived just before Christmas and is yet to get on the site, again showing how hard it can be to get coffees to these shores.

August 2010

Another Month another trip. I spent one week from each of these months away, and this is because of the great team we have at Has Bean, I’m very lucky. I’m very lucky because I get to visit these places too. For the second year on the trot I returned to Bahia. The first time was very much a fact finding mission, feel my way with the guys I was meetings, see what came with a small export from them. As lots of you enjoyed it worked very well, so this year was about cementing that and moving a much larger amount (a whole container which is a big deal for a small company like Has Bean). Nearly the whole harvest was in by this time so I spent the week traveling around and cupping like a demon.

This month you will really see the fruits of this trip on the website, we have brought back some amazing coffees.

The trip also brought home how difficult it can be buying these coffees, and how some diffuclt decisions need to be made. See the in my mug below

The last 12 months has been (see what I did there) amazing, so many highs and highs, very lucky to be involved in this wonderful industry that continues to give me so much. I’m lucky that most of my life is in a video somewhere so expect a few of them.

So lets get into it

January 2010

January was all about the official opening of Third Floor Espresso In dublin (or better known as 3FE). Colin had opened the shop in January but this was the official lets have a party opening. At this time I wasn’t fully involved in 3FE but I still feel like we were breaking new ground with this unique method, of taking space that at a certain time of the day is dead, and making it into a destination cafe.

Because he was so busy doing shop keeper the search for a replacment for Colin on Tamper Tantrum began

Tamper Tantrum Auditions from Stephen Leighton on Vimeo.

February 2010

This time of year is always taken up with Barista Competition, the UKBC season of January, February and March is a crazy time. We had lots of customers getting involved last year, which is great and also very draining. But I think the thing I remember the most was this audioboo on the way home from the semi finals

March 2010

The theme of Barista Competition carried on with John Gordon of Gorilla Tamper fame winning the UKBC, using coffee from us. Johns a great friend, and it was wonderful to see him win with a coffee that was 100% him, funky and crazy

One thing I loved was an in my mug we did at the Window in Norwich still one of my favourites. Hayley is a legend and much fun (and coffee)was had, on my flying visit.

April 2010

Like I have already said, so much of the first half of the year is always made up with these Barista competitions, the Irish championships the previous year were all well over by this time, but with a summer competition to be held in London, it was an April event.

Colin harmon knocked it out the park in this tough competition, one I enjoyed very very much. I did the streaming for the event, and got to see every single competitor, I had a blast and was really impressed at the high standards, and the amazing competition the Irish SCAE chapter put on.

It was here I rather prematurely decided I wouldn’t be working on comps again, and I felt at the time I was done with it all. In a way I am, I don’t think I’ll ever get as involved as I did with the Irish and the following WBC (if I ever get a chance to work in those arenas again of course) but its become such a big part of my life and I’ve learnt so much that it seems wrong to stop that just yet.