The Good Stuff
This arrived in the post today:
Brazil Sitio Boa Sorte coffee, freshly ground yesterday. It won Cup Of Excellence last year and Has Bean bought the entire supply. It's good. At £4.99 a packet it's not really expensive, but it's not cheap. I must avoid buying the other Cup Of Excellence winners, for example El Salvador San Roberto which is fourteen pounds a bag.
I'm probably going to buy most of my coffee from Has Bean in the future: the coffee is good and the delivery is fast. They freshly grind on demand so it's always fresh, and it comes in airtight re-sealable bags (none of that fold it over and sticky bit of plastic nonsense) that sit nicely in the fridge. All in all: heavily recommended.
NP: Buena Vista Social Club
step 1) buy yourself a decent burr grinder. The Capresso Infinity and the Bodum Antigua are both excellent value for the money. I recently purchased the Capresso Infinity (with black ABS housing). I am quite happy with it.
step 2) Stop putting your coffee in the fridge. This is a big no-no. Every time you open the packet of coffee you get condensation in the bag which is far worst then storeing you coffee at room temperature.
Getting a grinder will allow you to keep your coffee fresher for longer. The coffee snobs say that ground coffee goes stale after 3 hours. That is a little extreme. The truth is probably closer to 1 to 2 days. Freshly roasted whole bean coffee should last at least a week if not two or three. I grind my coffee as I need it. I have found that one measure of whole beans is equal to one measure of freshly ground coffee.
A coffee grinder (burr not blade) is one of those items that you don't know you are missing until you have one.
And the first commenter is definitly right about having a grinder. Even an old wooden one with a crank will do (for french press, although the grind wouldn't be that consistent), and in the german forums people are raving about the Demoka M-203.
A definit plus for hasbean coffee: They write the roasting date on the bags, and generally sell just freshly roasted coffee. They are pure (and good an passionate!) coffee geeks just as we're computer geeks. :)
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Lukas
Just stumbled across your blog on Google.
I don't believe in knocking the competition, but equally I am proud of our product & invite you to take a look at our website. I think we can live up to your expectations.
Do email me with any coffee related questions you might have & we will do our best to find the answer.
Kind regards
Reiss.
