They are here, and are making their presence felt immediately with an exciting and delicious start to the Kenyan season! First up we have the Kiawamaruru Peaberry, which as it was last year is tasting amazing. Very crisp and refreshing the light and elegantly textured peaberry reminds us of orange sherbert with some floral overtones, a whole lot of caramel sweetness and a super juicy mouthfeel. Get yourself a bag here. Following up is the newcomer Ndimaini AA which has made quite the entrance. It has an amazing syrupy texture balanced out with a vibrant acidity. We found lots of blackcurrants, blackberries and cocoa notes leaving a lovely sweet aftertaste for some time. Grab some here.

Like many people, I was intrigued by the results of the Sprudge barista pay survey . Mostly people are talking about how high the wages are in Australia, and there was some comment about the low wages in London/UK. A few concerns about the survey – I’m generally not blindly trusting of self reporting of wages (in any industry). I saw numerous tweets from Australian coffee people stating that the numbers looked somewhat inflated, and that fits with the discussions I’ve had with various people over the years. I’m glad Sprudge are investigating this further too. There may well be high outliers, but I don’t believe it is representative of the industry there. I do hope Sprudge keep these sorts of polls coming and I’d love to see a future poll talking to cafe owners about this, and having them submit anonymous data would be super informative. The incentive for the cafe is they get to see how they do compared to their competitors, something almost all would find valuable. Secondly – these numbers are both gross wages (before taxes are taken out) and converted to US dollars. (Currency exchange therefore playing a role). In the case of places like Norway the tax rates are very high, while a barista’s paycheck in London will have a little less tax taken out than one in NYC (though the undeclared and substantial portion of tips may make up for this). Finally, there is no factoring for cost of living. Numerous articles recently have highlighted the increasingly high cost of living in Australia, fuelled by a mining driven economy that didn’t suffer particularly in the global financial crisis. These criticisms are not particularly relevant to the point that I want to make: there is no magic Australian bullet. I would wager (and please shoot me down if I am miles away) that the financial model of an Australian cafe looks very similar to a London one or San Francisco one. This seems like a confusing statement at first, considering the apparent vast differences in wages, but I really think it is true. If we consider wage cost as a percentage of turnover (which we should) then I would be astonished to find that cafes in Australia are outside of the 25-35% range, which I believe most healthy cafes operate within. Higher than this and the cafe will likely lack sustainable profitability, lower than this and you’ve likely got an owner (or owners) working way too many hours on the floor. If we put wage costs of 25-35% another way – if a staff member earns $12.50/hr, then you need to bank approx $35-50 for every single hour they are paid. ($280-$400 per 8 hour day, per employee.) If you have 4 full time people on each day then you need to be pretty busy – and this is counting every staff member, not just those making coffee. For an Australian barista to earn double this then they simply need to bank double the cash per hour/day. This may be possible in places where drinks are expensive – $5 to $7 flat whites seem to be popping up in the Australian media more and more. The other option when trying to find more cash to pay staff is that you could sell higher margin products, allowing the staff cost to come up to the mid thirties, without damaging the bottom line. However, I don’t think margins in most cafes are enough to allow a staff cost of even 40% to be viable long term. I think of things like $1 refills on drinks, and get depressed about how this affects a cafe’s ability to pay its staff more. The challenge and frustration of coffee is that espresso isn’t hugely scalable. To do more drinks quickly requires more people, more labour, more wage cost. Baristas could earn more if they were (in traditional terms) more productive. When designing a bar it is worth bearing in mind how it will scale from a labour perspective. How many staff to do 200, 350, 700 or over 1000 drinks? Cafe owners ought to be interested in technology that allows a barista to make more drinks per hour, as this could have a huge impact on their profitability. I think what is likely is that Australian cafes are typically a combination of productivity and better margins overall. Many people comment on the amount of food sold in Australian cafes, and with a good head chef you can have low wastage, and good cash and percentage margins on the food. Coffee, on paper, looks like it has great margins. In reality this doesn’t turn out to be true, and even when a super tight ship is being run – it is still a low cash margin product. You often need to make hundreds of drinks to pay the rent, overheads and staff before you start making any money. Lots of cafes in London don’t do a lot of food, and what they do sell is often relatively low margin food. (Items bought in each day for example). New York cafes also typically do minimal food. This isn’t a plea that we all return to food heavy cafe models, but I did want to highlight the fact that pay is typically constricted by the financial model of the cafe. The higher the costs of goods – typically through uncontrolled or unmeasured wastage (something baristas are typically directly responsible for) – the less money left over to pay them with. Increasing drinks prices to create better margins is another option – though the pressure does ultimately fall back on baristas to deliver more value due to the higher price point. I’m not really trying to offer a solution. I just thought that the Sprudge post merited some discussion and, I hope, a little explanation. I think the instances where owners are paying staff a pittance and then going home to roll around on a bed of money are incredibly rare. I want baristas/coffee people to earn more. I want owners to have successful businesses. We face a challenge as an industry, to work towards models (because there are more than one) that pays sustainably for both the payer and the payee. I hope more people throw in some thoughts on this, and I hope my explanations above make sense to people. Either way – feel free to let me know on twitter . Related posts: Cafe Review: Flat White Flat White 17 Berwick Street, Soho, London, W1F 0PT Map I’ve been visiting these guys since they opened, and make no secret of the fact that I get on well... The apathy of the barista Its something that has been on my mind quite a lot lately. I have no idea how many people work as baristas in the uk, but there must be thousands... Italian coffee culture in the UK This morning I spoke to a journalist on the phone who is writing about coffee in London, as well as the antipodean influence on our coffee scene. One of the...

Day one Day one was calibration day, We started with a introduction to Cup of Excellence from Jon Thompson our head judge, which was quickly followed by a solutions calibration- there were 9 solutions on the table and we had to pick which was which from: Ordinary Acids Ordinary acids with sweetness Body Rough Mouthfeel Smooth Mouthfeel Astrigent Complex acids with sweetness Complex acid Sweetness This was fun, until I hit the bowl that was body- it was like drinking a bowl of spit- it looked like water but was thick and had ‘body’ it was all kinds of gross (I got most of them right except I got the acids mixed up) After this we cupped two tables, The first was 3 bowls, they were designed to fall within 3 main scoring categories – high 70’s- low 80s, mid 80’s and high 80’s -early 90‘s, this was so we could get a idea of what to expect of a coffee within a score range, I think this was incredibly helpful to get a idea of what to expect within those ranges. The final table was a table of 6 bowls for the final calibration cupping, it was apparent that we where going to find more than one type of processing on the tables in the next couple of days, which made for interesting discussions, during our post cupping discussions one of the national cuppers told us more about honey process - in Costa Rica they have what they refer to as the honey process which is basically just a variation on pulped natural (or semi washed) but with varying degrees of mucilage left on- The percentage of mucilage is set by calibrating the pulpers to allow the correct amount of mucilage to be removed. White = 25% mucilage Yellow = 50% Mucilage Red = 100% no ferment Black = 100% and is allowed to ferment a ‘touch’ Both Red and Black is dried on african beds at about 24-28º at lower altitude Gold = 100% no ferment, on african beds but at higher altitude at 17º so the drying time is longer. (disclaimer- over the next couple of days I noticed a little bit of disagreement about the honey process, some people think its rubbish, some think that it depends completely on the ripeness of the coffee and you could never set out to do a particular process without knowing the coffee first and some love it!) After calibration we went to Micros plantas, they are a tissue culture lab for ornamental plants that they sell mainly to the US and Holland market- they export 10 million plants a year. They are working with Exclusive coffees at reproducing rust resistant varietals using tissue culture – they do this by ‘cloning’ approved plants, they start by cutting a section of the leaf and placing in a firm media (which is the nutrition source) Leaf in firm media Once cells start growing they place it into a liquid media to encourage growth of the embryos, When they start growing they are placed it into a firm media where the embryos start to multiply and grow further before they sprout and are placed in the nursery. Cells in liquid media The whole process takes a 1year and after this is it can be planted straight into the farm as its root structure is much stronger than standard plants, the success rate of these is 95% as opposed to seeds which have a 20% fail rate. The pro’s to this process is consistency, low price, resistance and success rate, plants cultivated in this way can reproduce in the traditional but way it is recommended that they don’t as you don’t know where the pollen is coming from and thus weakening the genetics- Micro Plantas hope that in 3-4 years they will build a program called ‘relationship coffee’ which will be the micro lots with specific cultivars for specific buyers that will remain consistent across years. Micro Plantas also certify plants so if they die the will be replaced free of charge assuming that specific procedures have been followed once planted on the farm, they are also continuing to research rust resistance so that more work can be done for future cultivars. I think that this idea certainly has some pros and cons but is very interesting and it will be interesting to see where it goes. Next we took a quick trip to Exclusive coffees dry mill, Exclusive coffees started with 15 micro mills and now have up to 80, their dedicated team of cuppers cups up to 4500 Costa Rican samples a year- if any one knows Costa rica coffees its got to be theses guys, one of the cuppers there Wayner (who is also on the CoE jury) has done a really interesting study with 5105 samples about altitude vs Varietal, I think with a couple years more data this will be fascinating and I hope he can publish it some where for us all to read when he has reached a conclusion. Ladies hand sorting at Exclusive Milled coffee being weighed into bags ready for dispatch. Samples library Cupping table Day Two Day two is the first day of competition, there are only 31 coffees passed by the national jury so its a easy couple of days- round one is spread over 4 tables and 2 days – the first day throws up some surprises, especially are far as processing goes, I’ve come to expect only washed coffees to be on the tables but there are certainly a couple of honey process in there, as a jury we seem to be MOSTLY in agreement- of course there are a couple of outliners as you come to expect. The taste descriptors (my favorite part) where fairly subdued for this competition- I love hearing what people from all over the world come up with for these! In the afternoon we went to to Sonora estate, which is where Finca Cacao came from that we used in last years Red Brick and was also used by Jordi in the Spanish barista champ last year in Vienna. The farm is 100 years old although the family have not owned it for this long, they produce approx 700 bags a year and during peak season have 70-80 farmers who live in the houses provided, the coffee trees where pulled down and sugar was grown – hence why they have a sugar mill on site, They found some bourbon trees that managed to escape being ripped out and they cultivated some more plants from- they still have these original 100 year out bourbons growing on the estate (although not producing coffee) You can read more about Sonora Estate can be read in Anettes blog Nursery at Sonora Estate Diego Guardia showing us a baby Geisha. Coffee waiting to be milled at Sonora Estate Drying patios at Sonora Estate- coffee is pumped to the patios by the blue pipe at the far end. Old unused sugar mill at Sonora Estate On day 3 after cupping we went to Cafe de Altura, which is a mill situated in San Ramon, Cafe Altura is HUGE, they predominately do more commodity quality coffee but in the last couple of years have started trying to improve their systems so they are able to do more Micro lots. They produce 60,000 bags a year and work with 800 producers, they are one of the largest mills in the country. Although the mill has been there for 100 years a couple of years ago it went bankrupt, this is when Don Luis rallied some producers together and they went to the bank got a mortage and brought the mill so they would have somewhere to keep processing their coffee, there are 534 share holders of the mill and they managed to pay off the whole mortage in 8 crops- the terms of being a share holder is that you have to deliver 1800 fanega’s (a fanega is approx. 55 liters of cherry) During peak season Cafe de Altura can produce 3000 bags a day, coming from any of their 38 receiving stations that are spread out around the area, 35% of their production comes from the Tarrazu region. Cafe de Altura is also where the Cup of Excellence coffees have been stored during competiton and after competition they will be dry milled (if needed) and packed ready to go out to the highest bidders at auction. Francisco explaining how the cherry gets delivered. one of a couple of huge depulpers. Depulper for Microlots. Destoner. Mechanical driers Density sorters Bagging machine. Coffee dried and in parchment ready to be milled. Cup of Excellence coffees under lock and key waiting to be milled (if needed) and then they will be vacuum packed and sent out to the winning bidders in the auction. Cup of Excellence coffee with security tags to ensure the coffee is the correct one. Top ten coffees being cupped. Without these people the competition would not run! WINNER! The auction will happen on 19th of June, I can’t wait to see were the coffees go!

One of the most emotive and responded to blog posts I have ever done was this one here, on the plight of the amazing farm Machacamrca. http://www.hasblog.co.uk/no-machacamarca-this-year It was a truly sad event, the farm taken from the family by the local community, in an unlawful land grabbing episode, that shocked the family and me. [...]

I just returned to London after having the pleasure of judging at the El Salvador Cup of Excellence in San Salvador. Across a week of cupping, the international jury chose 25 coffees of the 51 presented with, to go forward to this year’s auction. It was great to see old and new friends, producers we’ve worked with in the past as well as produvers we will be working with this year for the first time. Congratulations to all the winners!

One of the best bits of my Symposium this year was working with some of the speakers in the run up to this. My role on stage was to introduce and to host a couple of panel debates, and also try to offer some insight into the Symposium to those talking there for the first time. I had to try to understand the topics sufficiently to ask pertinent questions on stage. Conveniently, Professor Aaron Davis is in London and I was fortunate enough to host him for an afternoon of coffee drinking and talking about various coffea species. He’s the Head of Rubiaceae Team at Kew Gardens , and an incredibly approachable expert in his field. I learned a staggering amount that afternoon, and I was excited to hear him give this talk at Symposium. I cannot recommend enough that you put 20 minutes aside to watch this video, it is a really, really great presentation – and if you pay attention I guarantee you’ll learn some fascinating things: Keep an eye on the SCAA’s Symposium Youtube Channel for new videos that they’ll be releasing over the next few months… Related posts: The evangelical nature of training talking rubbish Originally uploaded by King Seven. I was doing a demo seminar at the Bar Show in Earl’s Court last week and as I stood before the little theatre... How to make coffee a viable career I have just returned from this year’s Nordic Barista Cup in Copenhagen, and I have to say it was a great event. I was honoured to be invited back to... UK Cupping Competition Just a quick post really about entering the Cupping competition today. I initially was told I couldn’t enter because they had 8 entrants and couldn’t possibly accomodate a 9th. Thankfully...

Its time for blend number 5 of our guest blend range, and this month its called “Don’t Panic” I love Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, not the new rubbish film, but the book and the bbc tv series and radio program that was spawned from the book. I don’t do a good job but I always [...]

So the results are in, if you don’t want to know the winner, don’t look down just play this video and see (or just look down). To claim your prize if you have the winning jockey is a picture of your bag (with you too wee like to see who our customers are) and we will sort [...]

This past weekend was the London Coffee Festival, during which there were a number of competitions held in which members of the team were competing. Friday – UK Brewers Cup This is a relatively new competition and one of our favourites. John, Marty and Sang Ho all competed and all did a great job. Marty and John placed placed 6th and 4th respectively and we were delighted when they announced Sang Ho as the winner. Sang Ho competed using our Cup of Excellence coffee from Rwanda – the Vunga . Not only a talented roaster here at Square Mile, but also a very talented man when it comes to making coffee. He went on to prove this by placing 2nd in the UK Latte Art championship later the same day. Amazing! Sang Ho will compete in Melbourne in the World Brewers Cup in May. We’re excited! A stunned Sang Ho announced as winner (Photo courtesy of Kate Beard ) Saturday – UK Aeropress Championship This is a semi-official competition, run at the Coffee Hit booth during the show. Gary , who works in our production department, did a great job. Despite only having made his first aeropress a few weeks ago (and only working in coffee a few months now) – Gary placed third! Congratulations go to Isa Verschraegen of Talkhouse Coffee on winning, and to Christian Baker from Association for placing second. It turns out all of the top three had chosen the same coffee to brew – our La Buitrera . Thank you! Gary with his trophy, alongside a happy Jess Sunday – UK Barista Championship John Gordon was once again competing, having won the title in 2010 and 2011. The finals this year were of an astonishingly high standard, and we were all absolutely delighted when they announced John as the winner! John will travel to Melbourne to represent the UK again in May, and we think he’ll do (as he always does) amazing things. John, Jess and Sang Ho all worked incredibly hard on the routine and turning John’s vision for competition into a reality. What he presented was fresh, interesting, engaging and of course very, very tasty! John competed with a component coffee from Red Brick – La Serrania – which is a peachy delight of a coffee! The one constant behind all three events, and these successes, is Jess. She roasted all the coffees for everyone, and does an amazing job week in and week out at the roaster. She’ll be travelling with John and Sang Ho to Melbourne too, and all at Square Mile are incredibly proud of these combined achievements. This weekend was a great effort, full of camaraderie and support. Plus (in between the nerve wracking bits) it was tonnes of fun! Three time UKBC Champion John Gordon! (Photo courtesy of Kate Beard ) UK Competition Coffee Pack We decided it would be fun to release a little boxset of the three coffees: the Vunga, La Buitrera and a limited run of John’s competition La Serrania roast. They come with a little information about each coffee and the competitions, and we’ve made them a little more accessible at £30 for all three. We hope you enjoy! It will be available for about a week from today so be quick! UK Competition Coffees – £30 (3 x 350g)

I know lots of you have enjoyed our brew guides, this makes me very happy. We have used Blip for a few years now as our video provider. We like them as they did a great job, and didn’t bombard you with ad’s. Well that was until last week where they gave in and insisted [...]