Close

Exciting New Coffees!

It’s a Friday! It’s the afternoon! IMM 500 is coming out super soon! I’ve got new coffees to shout about! (I like shouting) KABINGOOOOO! (I miss Kibingo 😰)

Excited Steve 😁

A bunch of new coffees have recently gone onto the website and I reeeeally want to let you know they’re there as good golly gosh you should be drinking them!

Finca Las Alasitas Washed Caturra
Colonia Bolinda, Caranavi, Bolivia
Treacle, gloopy, dark chocolate cookie
In the cup this reminds me of a melted dark chocolate cookie. It’s got great texture – thick and gloopy – with a mix of dark chocolate and treacle sweetness, before a shoulder of biscuit on the finish.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/bolivia-finca-las-alasitas-washed-caturra
£8.00 for 250g, £30.40 for 1kg

Finca Las Alasitas Natural Geisha
Colonia Bolinda, Caranavi, Bolivia
Tropical fruit juice, champagne, floral
In the cup you have to ask yourself a question, have you ever had the 5 Alive? It’s a mixture of tropical fruit juices. Well – think that but add champagne and a bouquet of flowers, and you have this coffee.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/bolivia-finca-las-alasitas-natural-geisha
£15.00 for 250g, £57.00 for 1kg.

Finca Las Alasitas Washed Geisha
Colonia Bolinda, Caranavi, Bolivia
Bergamot, elderflower, lemon
In the cup this exotic varietal brings exotic flavours – think bergamot and elderflower with a sprinkle of sweet parma violet. A super complex finish with sweet lemons and limes. 
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/bolivia-finca-las-alasitas-washed-geisha
£15.00 for 250g, £57.00 for 1kg.

Don Carlos Coco Natural Bourbon
Colonia Bolinda, Caranavi, Bolivia
Passionfruit, cherry, rum & raisin ice cream
In the cup expect passionfruit and fresh cherry meeting rum and raisin ice cream. Big flavours in a big bodied cup.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/boli … al-bourbon
£9.00 for 250g, £34.20 for 1kg

Teodocio Mamani
Canton Uyunense, Caranavi, Bolivia
Milk chocolate, malted milk, redcurrant
In the cup this is a chocolate malted milk (moo cow!) biscuit with a subtle hit of redcurrant that’s smooth, rounded and super balanced.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/boli … cio-mamani
£6.50 for 250g, £24.70 for 1kg

Wildcard Blend: Worth The Wait
50% Costa Rica Don Mayo Finca La Loma Yellow Honey
50% Guatemala Finca La Soledad Cold Fermentation Washed Catuai
Peach squash, white sugar, brown sugar, chocolate, sweet
This blend is all about the sweetness! It starts with peach squash, then veers into white sugar before the brown sugar takes over on the finish. There’s a subtle chocolate on the aftertaste that will bring you back for another glug too.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/wild … h-the-wait
£7.50 for 250g, £28.50 for 1kg

From London to Dubai

Both my self and Sonali are going on tour. Sonali is our Field operative for wholesale, and is hugely talented and uber coffee professional, will be kicking of the tour in London at The Gentleman Baristas this week in the first of the series Marco meets

Marco Meets is a series of events that aims to connect local baristas and tea/coffee professionals with well-known figures from the specialty tea and coffee industries.

A different speaker at each event will share their advice, insights and predictions. Designed as a meeting of minds, each event will be an interactive exchange of knowledge and skills for those working in the tea and coffee industries.

After complimentary food and drinks attendees can engage with the speakers, take part in brewing demonstrations and of course – taste some delicious coffees.

Sonali will be sharing her learnings and advice on how to make a career in coffee. She will be sharing how to develop your careers and coffee business whilst always focusing on quality and creativity.

You can get tickets here

 

Following this I will be in Dubai, talking about the the start to finish to what goes into choosing a champions’ coffee. From my experience of working with two f world barista champions and multiple semi and finalist competitors, we will be drilling down what it takes to find the coffee of champions.
I will be leading this event and will deliver his talks, engage in a discussion with our host and then open up questions to the floor. After the talk there will be a chance to sample some delicious Has Bean coffee paired with local food, I may even sneak some books across to sign if you want (did I mention I’m a published author)

You can get tickets here

We both hope to see you there

4 New Bolivians + 1 New Burundi!

Whooppeeeeee new coffeeeeeees! I like new coffee days!

So much so they make me do strange things, LIKE BE NICE!

Tell ya what, try these new coffees? Maybe just 1? Or a few? OR STOCK UP ON THEM ALL?! If you do, and you order before 13:00 hrs tomorrow (that’ll be Wednesday the 25th of April) you can have 17% off them ALL with the discount code ITSNICETOBENICE. Add the coffees you like the look of to your basket and make sure to enter that code into the discount code box in the top right hand corner + click apply to knock 17% off the prices you see below.

Why 17? I just made it up. Pulled it out of my – pocket 😉 and it is nice to be nice, remember that folks. It’s also nice to see Gary’s eyes bulge when he sees his morning roast list and is confused by how much of the new coffees you’ve all ordered and he has to scoop and roast mwhaha >:) SO – please help me surprise Gary early tomorrow morning? He is from t’north and will say something like eeeeeeeey? Feel free to write him some messages in the comments box on your orders, I’ll make sure the office show him them all 😀

Bebeto Mamani
Caranavi, Bolivia
Papaya, pomegranate, milk chocolate
In the cup this makes me think of soft, sweet fruits. It begins with a subtle, sticky papaya before you get a burst of pomegranate with a floral edge. As it finishes, it takes a left turn, leaving a milk chocolate aftertaste which lingers delightfully.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/bolivia-bebeto-mamani
£7.00 for 250g, £26.60 for 1kg

La Linda Washed Longberry
Bolinda, Caranavi, Bolivia
Fruit juice, jasmine, lemon zest
In the cup expect plenty of sweetness right off the bat, maybe you meant to put some sugar in your morning cuppa but were tired and accidentally put it in your fruit juice! Following this there’s a delicate and floral turn towards jasmine with hints of lemon zest, and a long yet sweet finish.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/bolivia-la-linda-washed-longberry
£9.00 for 250g, £34.20 for 1kg​

La Linda Washed Caturra
Bolinda, Caranavi, Bolivia
Horlicks, chocolate orange
In the cup this reminds me of Horlicks mixed with a Terry’s Chocolate Orange – little bit of malt, plenty of chocolate and a shoulder of orange, yum! There’s also a thick and almost buttery mouthfeel that really makes this coffee super chuggable.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/bolivia-la-linda-washed-caturra
£7.50 for 250g, £28.50 for 1kg

Finca El Fuerte Washed Caturra
Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Nougat, milk chocolate, dried red apple
In the cup I get really sweet squishy nougat mixed with melted milk chocolate meeting a bag of dried red apple slices. It’s a sweet, rounded and super balanced cup.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/bolivia-finca-el-fuerte-washed-caturra
£7.50 for 250g, £28.50 for 1kg

Kirundo Natural Bourbon
Kirundo County, Burundi
Cacao nibs, bruised plums, treacle toffee
In the cup this complex coffee is a mix of cacao nibs, bruised plums and treacle toffee with a big viscous body. Amazingly balanced for the complexity too.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/burundi-kirundo-natural-bourbon
£8.00 for 250g, £30.40 for 1kg

nodnoL Roundup

The dust is settling after one of our busiest ever weeks at Hasbean…

The London Coffee Festival has finished and we are at the end of London Coffee Week, and to celebrate the latter we decided to open a four day pop-up market in East London. A converted underground toilet was the scene for our pop-up home (please insert your own joke about has bean going down the toilet).

We saw this as a chance to meet old friends and make some new ones who were in London for the festivities, but also treated it as a chance to play. Petsie Williams was brought onboard as our donkey, to plan and make sure we knew exactly what we were trying to do, under the guidance of Dale Harris our resident donkey (two asses are better than one). Sonali our resident Field Operative, Will our new boy (what a way to start your first full week) and head Hasbara Katie did the rest.

Me, well – I flew from Stockholm to London and turned up at the pop-up on Wednesday night at about 10 pm when everything was done, bosses prerogative, right?

The space was a little rough around the edges before we got our hands on it and lots of work was done by the team to turn it into what you saw. I think in London they would have called it bohemian. The set up was simple we had four stations covering four different aspects…

TASTE: [H]AND

Just like [H]AND’s former iteration at Uniqlo’s 311 Oxford Street shop, this area was all about showcasing the awesomeness of collaboration through hand-brewed coffee. We had three different coffees on every day that showcased a selection of coffees from a different one of our long-term relationships, looking at processing and varietals and groups of coffees from one producer with different farms.

EAT: HasCream

Here we just had fun. No full food menu but soft serve ice cream with toppings to highlight Dale Harris’s signature drinks from his winning UKBC and WBC routines this year. This was fun, I got to play ice cream man, and the toppings were amazing. The brainchild of Petsie I’m fairly sure he had the most fun from this part. Click on the pictures below to see what we were offering…

WATCH: In My Mug

My video blog, looking at coffee, we had a mini Linea from La Mazocco that you could have a play with this week’s In My Mug coffee (also I recorded this week’s IMM at the pop-up). This was a chance to buy a subscription (thanks to those who did) but also for me to explain what it is and why I do it.

DRINK: Espresso Bar

It was the return of the Modbar where the team (i.e. not me – I make coffee go brown not wet) were brewing amazing espresso and milk based drinks for people to just enjoy. The Modbar gave us the perfect opportunity to have conversations without a big huge machine on bar, and for people to have drinks to enjoy and not think too much about. We also had a treat on the Saturday where Dale used the very last of this year’s competition coffee from his WBC routine that was all the fun.

But we also had another section on Thursday night…

PLAY: MINOR LEAGUES: LONDON
(presented by The Barista League x Hasbean)

Stephen Moloney (former Swedish Barista Champion and all round superstar) brought his fun competition to London with the help of the Has Bean Team.

The 1st round baristas in their teams (two) had 15 minutes to hand brew the best cup of coffee possible. The teams had access to the mystery coffee from 9 am the day of the competition. Teams were judged by 2 VIP sensory judges (BIG thanks to Martha Dalton of Coffee Bird and Tim Wendelboe of ….. well Tim Wendelboe). Teams had serve at least 300g of BREWED coffee to the judges in either Kalita or Chemex.

Round 2 – Smell (n)o vision the teams were blindfolded and placed in front of 5 glasses of ingredients. They had 5 minutes to guess what ingredient is in each of the glasses. Each team will have a different assortment of aromas to evaluate.

Round 3 – Competitors were given three cupping bowls and a funky map that they had to decide what Central American country they were from. This proved the toughest of the rounds with no one getting it 100% right.

The winners were Stephen and Sarah from Bailies and much fun was had by all.

Friday saw Jordan and Zachary from the infamous Sprudge pay us a visit, and they wrote the kindest article you can read here about the pop-up from a non biased perspective.

Much great food was eaten at Hawksmoor and the famous St John right by where we were. Great spending time with the team.

Thank you to everyone who swung by, hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

But it’s never ever happening again, we are all exhausted!!

Popping up to (in!) London

O hello there, friends! You may have noticed many not-so-subtle hints floating around the instagramosphere that I have some big news for you, so here I am to share the very exciting secrets I have kept safely beneath my big red bowler hat for the past few months!!

As you may or may not already know, this past year has brought all kinds of excitement to the team here at HasBean Towers, from our first-ever retail space with [H]AND to Dale’s WBC win and everything in between, so we wanted to share some of this excitement with you – now we’re not usually fans of running our own space at tradeshows (it’s much nicer for us to go out and spend time with the people one-on-one) but we found ourselves with an opportunity we simply couldn’t pass up: a whole little pop-up market area all to ourselves only steps from the London Coffee Festival !!

A market, you say? How could HasBean kit out a whole market?? As you might have noticed, we’re fans (or at least I’m a fan) of having lots of little projects on the go and this space gives us the perfect opportunity to showcase all of the things we do – so without further ado, here are all the things you can do at our pop-up market this Thursday through Sunday :

 

TASTE: [H]AND

Just like [H]AND’s former iteration at Uniqlo’s 311 Oxford St shop, this area will be all about showcasing the awesomeness of collaboration through hand-brewed goodness . Not only will we have different coffees on every day , but we’ve gone a step further – each day will showcase a selection of coffees from a different one of our long-term relationships

[H]AND is a place where you can sit back and relax whilst you taste, whether it’s a single cup of something lovely or a tasting flight of all three of the day’s coffees – for daily menu details, check [H]AND’s instagram @madebyhandcoffee

 

EAT: HasCream

If [H]AND is where you can drink HasBean, HasCream is where you can eat HasBean – how exciting is that !!!

I could tell you more of the details but honestly you’re just going to have to keep up with social media, all I’ll say about this is that the incredible Petesy Williams (yes, that Petesy Williams, the sig bev king) has been working away in the kitchen all weekend to put together some really fun things and, I kid you not, has been humming THIS whilst doing it, so you know it’s going to be amazing – we’ll be sharing some things on the HasBean instagram very, very sooooooon so make sure you keep those peepers peeled !!!

 

WATCH: IN MY MUG

For those of you who are new to IMM, this will be where you learn about the coffee subscription delivered directly to your door that comes with a weekly video cast – IMM is all about tastings, facts both daft and serious, and occasional interviews with special guests, but most importantly, we think it’s the only coffee subscription around that offers a different coffee EVERY WEEK

If you’re already a subscriber – or even if you’re not – you’ll be able to pop into In My Mug’s space to have a go at brewing your own espresso on a linea mini , what fun!!

 photo by Al Higgins for HasBean 

DRINK: HasBean

It’s the return of the modbar bar !! Across the market from [H]AND, we’re setting up an espresso and batch bar to serve you some cosy comfort / tasty goodness for anyone who just wants a coffee. Don’t get me wrong – we’ve got some really tasty stuff to serve up to you folks there, it’s definitely not boring, but it will be a totally different offering to what we have at [H]AND so that there’s something for everyone ! Menu details daily on the socials 😉

 

BUY: Ooodles of STUFF 

We’ve packed the van full of coffee and gear for all of your home coffee brewing needs ! We’ll obviously have some books floating about (Mr. Harmon’s “What I know About Running Coffee Shops” and Black Water Issue’s interviews with the WBC semi-finalists, “Regraphy”, as well as – why yes – my own “Coffeeography”) but we’ll also have some shiny new coloured clever drippers and the Tsubame range of kalita onsite, too – plus some HasBean merch !

 

photo: Ane Noss Bystadhaugen for The Barista League

PLAY: MINOR LEAGUES: LONDON
(presented by The Barista League x HasBean) 

Last but certainly not least, our good friends at The Barista League will be taking over the space to host a pop-up event, the Minor Leagues, that is all of the great stuff about The Barista League – fun format, super vibes, tasty beer – but lighter, grittier, and more flexible.

Spaces are super limited so if you want to compete – either as a team or by yourself – you’ll need to sign up now !!! SIGN UP HERE

 

But STEVE , I hear you say , where I can I find this magical HasBean land away from the hustle and bustle of the festival?? Do I have to walk for ages???

No, my friend – tasty coffee and super vibez (to steal the term from my Irish friends ) are but a five minute walk from the Truman Brewery – use the map below or simply follow the red balloon, you’ll see what I mean….

March 19th New Coffees

It’s that wonderful time again! The time where I let you know about exciting new coffees that have just gone on the website! These might be the last changes for a little bit but the wait will totally be worth it because THE BOLIVIANS ARE COMING!! And they’ll be next : D but for now, deliciousness from Burundi, Yemen and Colombia + a blend of 3 Peaberries…

Kibingo Washed Bourbon
Kayanza, Burundi
Lime cordial, brown sugar, jasmine
In the cup expect lime cordial sweetened with brown sugar that gets a jasmine floral edge as it starts to cool. Add to this dark chocolate and blackcurrant on the finish and you have yourself a really delicious cup.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/burundi-kibingo-washed-bourbon
£8.00 for 250g, £30.40 for 1kg.

Haraaz Red Cherry Natural
Haraaz, Yemen
Black cherry, cacao, allspice
In the cup this is gloopy black cherry & cacao, a classic combination! It’s got a unique spiciness that makes this very special though – sweet allspice to begin with, shifting to a subtle black pepper aftertaste and a little shoulder of oolong tea too.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/yemen-haraaz-red-cherry-natural
£9.00 for 250g, £34.20 for 1kg.

Finca La Chorrera Washed Caturra
Huila, Colombia
Milk chocolate, blackberry jam
In the cup expect classic Colombian milk chocolate mixed with blackberry jam, this coffee has a wonderfully smooth body and hints of Granny Smith acidity.
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/colombia-finca-la-chorrera-washed-caturra
£7.00 for 250g, £26.60 for 1kg.

Give Peas A Chance
The newest version of our Wildcard blend where we have a bit of fun with blending
Blackcurrant, liquorice, leather
In the cup you get blackcurrant from Kieni, liquorice from Tana Toraja and a delicate leather hint on the end from Fiaz at the Bibi Plantation. All we’re saying is, please give peas a chance.
40% Indian Bibi Washed Peaberry
40% Kenya Kieni Washed Peaberry
20% Sulawesi Tana Toraja Kalosi Washed Peaberry
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/give-peas-a-chance
£6.00 for 250g, £22.80 for 1kg.

As a little something special and to help get the ball rolling on these coffees I’m going to offer a sneaky Steve discount on them all until the end of tomorrow, it’s also a nice little prize for reading all the way to the bottom of this post because you should always read all the way to the bottom or who knows what you might miss out on?! If you order any (or all!) of the 4 coffees above between now and 23:59 pm on Tuesday the 20th of March and enter ‘Hasblog‘ into the discount code box it’ll knock a rather kind, generous and sneaky 15% off.