Hi,
I recently knew that I was running out of my own roasted beans and would not be able to find the time to do a couple of batches, so I did what we all do from time to time and bought some online. A couple of people had recommended this certain place to me, so I gace it a go.
Visited their website. Had a look though and bought a kilo of one house blend and 3 x 500 gms of other beans. Now, their weebsite, as you would expect pushed the fact tat their beans always are 'fresh'.
I ordered on the saturday and they turned up on the wednesday. The packaging was plain with no one way valves. The labelling had only two things on it. The name of the coffee and a date, in this case the monday after my order and 2 days before it arrived.
Once I received it, presuming rhe date on the bag referred to the date of roasting, I packed the coffee up as I do (not all agree with vaccuum sealing) and thought I would let the beans vent for a couple of days before trying them. After 3 days, no gas had been released at all so I dived in and tried the most popular house blend. After playing around with grinder settings, tamp etc I can only describe the shots as being bloody horrible. thin and watery with no crema and on tasting, as stale as stale can be.
Over the next few dyas I worked my way through the rest and found them all to be lifeless and stale.
I contacted the vendor by email, and made a few comments and even did suggest politely that I thought the beans were older than the date stamp on the packet.
I got a very critical email back telling me I obviously did not have a machine capable of making espresso (I have an Expobar Leva!) and doubtless my tamping was wrong as well. The did tell me that the date stamp was not the date of roasting but the day the beans were actually packaged! They then told me that all their beans were very fresh due to the tur over of their coffee shop and that the beans were never more than 12 days old! They store them once roasted, in open, stainless steel silos!
Ok, this rumbled on and on and is ongoing. Back to my question. What constituted thre word fresh?
Trading Standards do not know!
Point being, the beans they set to me could be in their own words up to 12 days old, and stored exposed to the elements. They do not know because they have no batch stock control system. They seem uncomncerned as to breaking Weights & measures rules as well by incorrect labelling. They seem not in the slightest bit concerned that someone with a reasonable knowledge of coffee should not be bowled over by the rubbish they have charged for and sent out with their name on. So much or them growing their business by recommendation then!
Ok, am I being too sensitive here in expecting 2.5 kg of roasted coffee at a cost of under £30 to turn up and be drinkable.
Up muntil the time 2 weeks ago that TS lifted the unused (most of!) beans, they were still stored under vaccuum and still had not vented anything at all.
Does anyone have any thoughts?