Friday, April 5, 2013

NEW Coffee Roaster arrives soon!!


I am very excited to share with you that I have just bought a small commercial coffee roaster! It is a DiP Roaster,  designed and hand crafted in Bologna, Italy.

This roaster has technology that will allow me to control the airflow in the drum. This will enable me to produce a greater distinctiveness of flavour and sweetness in the roasted bean. The DiP roaster also provides me a digital temperature reading of the current temperature in the drum during the roasting process. Its design also allows me to continuously roast and cool coffee at the same time (rare for this size of roaster).

Once I've got up to speed with all its great features, I plan to share the roaster with my customers at a launch party - check my Facebook page for more details coming soon. I will be performing a live demonstration of the coffee roasting process. I will also be making coffees for you to enjoy, of course using beans that I have roasted on the new DiP Roaster!

The Features of the DiP Roaster

The main large silver chamber is the coffee roasting drum. The lower yellow panel enables me to monitor the temperature during the roasting process.









The Front of the DiP Roaster

The timber handle is the sample tube. Taking samples allows me to assess the colour development during the roasting process. The black lever on the right is used to open the chamber door when the roast is finished. 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Sustainable, Traceable and Ethical Coffees


Traceability - every coffee has a story

How often do we think about the people who are involved in growing, harvesting, processing and packing the products (including coffee) that we consume? With the technology that is available to us, we should be able to find out at least some details of where the goods we consume come from.

Coffee farms (estates) are often family businesses, which are handed down from parents to their children. Every coffee estate has a story of how they first began to grow coffee on that farm, hillside, mountain, or even in a jungle! I place a high value on knowing some details about every estate from which I am sourcing a new coffee. In many cases, I am able to learn the grower’s name and see their photo. The photo accompanying this article is of Luiz Zanetti who manages the Serra e Leite estate in Brazil (my current Brazilian single origin offering)Wherever possible, you will see details of farm locations and owners listed on my website.


As consumers of coffee we should ask our coffee roasters and cafes where the coffee comes from. If they simply say something like Brazil, ask them where in Brazil. Brazil is a large country and a large producer of coffee! A traceable coffee means that the supplier should be able to provide the name of the coffee estate where that coffee was grown, or at least the company that works with the coffee estate in the production and quality control of their coffee. One of the markers of a good specialty coffee roaster or café is that they can provide specific information about the origins of the coffees they serve you.


Micro-climate - every coffee is unique

Every lot of coffee is unique and its properties will be affected by very specific elements of the environment in which it was grown (this concept, referred to as terroir, is most well known in the winemaking industry). Large farms that produce top quality specialty grade coffee will have multiple coffee lots. When the farmers pick the coffee beans, they will keep each lot separate so that its unique qualities will not be lost. For example, one lot may be grown in a more shaded area while another might grown in full sun and drier soil. A specialty coffee estate will also separate their coffees by sub-species, known as varietal.

In many parts of the world, coffee plants are grown interwoven with other crops – such as chilli plants, bananas and other natural crops. In other cases, the coffee plantation has retained some of the natural environment. For example, my Guatemalan San Antonio coffee is grown on a farm of 80 hectares, of which 5 hectares is natural forest. My newest coffee is the El Salvador La Esperanza Tablon El Moises. At the top of this estate is almost 10 hectares of wild and untouched forest. The coffee trees on this farm are grown in harmony with Ingas trees, eucalyptus trees, cedar trees and others. This is referred to as a shade grown coffee, as the coffee trees grow lower to the ground under the canopy of the other trees. The excellent qualities of this coffee are therefore shaped by this terroir – shade grown, surrounded by wild forest and at high altitude (1000m up to 1600m).

By leaving some untouched forest on their coffee estate, or growing the coffee intermingled with other crops, these growers are also implementing sustainable farming practices. A bio-diverse farm protects native flora and fauna and prevents the land from being stripped of all its nutrients. I choose coffees from farms that show consideration for the environment and seek to grow their coffees with care and respect for both the land and the particular coffee varietals that they grow.


Fair wages – every grower deserves more than our spare change

Growing, picking and processing coffee is a physically demanding job. There are many hardworking people involved before you and I are able to enjoy our daily cup of coffee! We need to think about, respect, and provide a good wage for all the people involved. I am proud to source my coffees from importers who work directly with coffee farmers and ensure that good wages are paid. One example is Latorre & Dutch Coffee Traders (who provide two of my current bean offerings). “Latorre & Dutch pay at least 40 to 50 cents a pound above market price. This is more than double the Fair Trade Premium, the price paid by Fairtrade International organisations to certified coffee farmers. When the lots are substantially higher in quality, Latorre & Dutch pay anywhere from 80 to 300 cents above market prices” (BeanScene Magazine August 2012, page 44). To put it frankly, if you are drinking dirt cheap coffee, at least one person in the producing country has been screwed over! I’m excited to provide coffee beans that are premium quality and that see their producers being able to flourish and hopefully hand on a successful and sustainable coffee estate to their future generations.


Tell me what you think! Either here on the blog or my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TenthDayRoasters


Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Christmas Packs 2012

Here is what your Christmas Packs will look like. There are three options:

Standard Tea Pack - 200gm of my Organic English Breakfast tea, a tea infuser and a handmade mini Christmas cake. $20
The tea infuser (see photo below) is a really handy way to use loose leaf tea to make a single cup. Great for work or home!

Coffee Pack - 2 x 250gm of Coffee (i.e. two different types of coffee), and a generous pack of handmade almond shortbread biscuits. $25

Deluxe Tea Pack -  200gm of my Organic English Breakfast tea, one teapot, and a handmade mini Christmas cake. $30

The mini Christmas cakes are especially handmade to order by my friend Mel. She regularly makes wedding and birthday cakes, like the photo below from my daughter Sophie's first birthday! These mini Christmas cakes are absolutely delicious and packed with the high quality ingredients you'd expect in a gourmet Christmas cake - including plenty of 'Christmas cheer!

For the first 6 people who order any of the above packs, they will receive a free 200gm pack of my Organic English Breakfast tea - an extra gift, or a little something for you.

I can also customize the coffee packs with other items, so let me know if there is something else you'd like to add for that coffee enthusiast in your family or amongst your friends. I can source for you a range of items, including milk jugs, knock tubes and other coffee accessories.





Friday, September 14, 2012

Christmas Packs - Return

This year I will be doing my Christmas packs again. I am still working through the details, but here is an outline of what I’ll be offering:

  • Coffee packs standard & deluxe – coffee & handmade artisan biscuits.
  • Tea packs standard & deluxe – tea, tea infuser or teapot, either handmade artisan biscuits or mini Christmas cakes.
The packs will be packaged and put in boxes, like last time. More details to come, once the contents of each pack are confirmed.

I’m also happy to customise the packs further, especially the coffee packs that I could add other things too. Such as a knock tube, coffee cloths, milk jugs, café style coffee cups etc.

Here’s a reminder of what the packs looked like the first time. But they won’t include cups unless you want them. Original Christmas Packs

Cheers
Chris Fordyce

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Guatemala SHB Huehuetenango Finca San Antonio

Guatemala SHB Huehuetenango Finca San Antonio

Don Leonardo made a great investment in improving the quality of this plantation and its wet processing mill. This farm has grown so much in the last ten years, that they now produce over 2 containers of coffee.

Currently, William Perez is running this farm. William has continued the quality standards including: a new plan of fertilizing, research and wet processing mill improvements – including water recirculation and other related equipment. This farm also uses organic fertilizer for the coffee nursery.

This farm is about 120km from the town of Huehuetenanago and approximately 370km from the city of Guatemalan.

This coffee subspecies of 80% Catuai and 20% Borbon, and is a wet processed coffee. Flavours in the cup caramel/butterscotch, plum, apricot/peach, great sweetness, medium to full body and some spice on the finish.

This coffee will be available soon.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Mothers Day Gift Packs





Looking for a unique gift for Mother's Day on Sunday 13th May? Or a lovely present for a tea-drinking friend?

I have just created some gift packs which include a packet of my loose leaf Organic English Breakfast tea, plus a mini teapot. The teapot features a mesh infuser which is easy to lift out and rinse after use - a very convenient way to enjoy top quality loose leaf tea. The volume is 500ml so perfect for serving two people - or one person who likes a refill! Yet still small enough for your mum or friend to stash at work or in the pantry along with the tea.

The pictures show the gift pack as well as the three colour choices for the teapot - teal, cobalt blue or purple/maroon.

The price of the gift pack is $20.

For those who prefer coffee I can also do custom gift packs for you, so please feel free to inquire. See here for some inspiration.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Convex Econic 100% Compostable Packaging - Part II


Here is a picture of what happens to the Econic packaging. I am now using this for my 250gm bags, and shortly for my 500gm bags.