So the final part in the 12 month review, and the year finished as well as it started. It was all about espresso blends it seemed, a new focus for us.

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.