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New coffees and an Exeter exclusive
New Coffees A few new coffees have arrived in the last few weeks and some are already up on the web store so and I thought I'd give you a little breakdown on their specifics. First up is one of the coffees I first tasted back in March on the sourcing trip to Costa Rica from the Las Lajas mill, owned and operated by Francisca and Oscar Chacon. They're known for the quality of their honey and natural processed coffees and are attributed with being the first producer of naturals in Central Ameri...
Read moreCoffee Roasters Guild Camp 2018 aka "Kiki Bouba"
I've just returned from three intensive and fun days at the Speciality Coffee Associations Roasters Guild Camp in Evora Portugal covering topics such as: Beyond Direct Trade, Roasting for brew method, Roasting for Sweetness, Coffee Fermentation, Can you taste the roasting system ? Multisensory Perception Flavour in Specialty Coffee and a pool party. Read moreDelays and the final countdown for the roasting competition
Next week Crankhouse will be on vacation. Not a coffee farm trip or a short weekend break but a proper holiday, on my bike for a week in the Picos De Europa with my wife.
Before I go I need to roast the final batch to submit to a roasting competition. The coffee is a macerated natural Catuai from Honduras and I'm up against 21 of some of Europe's best roasters. We all have the same coffee and the judges will blind cup all 22 samples against each other on the 14th September. Here's a breakdown of the 9 trial batches I roasted and the incredible help I've had identifying the 'best' from some top coffee professionals.
Read moreRoasting competition update - the geeky stuff
It's now 4 days since my delivery of this Honduran competition coffee was delivered and I roasted the first three ba...
Read moreRisky business
Recently I've taken a few risks. Not in a safety 'if you do this the building might burn down' or 'if you do that all...
Read moreWe're in the Muddy finals
A huge thanks to all of you that voted for Crankhouse recently in the Devon Muddy Stilettos 'Best Local Food/Drink Producer' category.
Due to your efforts we’re in the finals along with 4 other Devon businesses in this category.
Read moreLondon Coffee Festival 2018 highlights
London Coffee Festival 2018 is done and dusted and what an amazing 4 days of caffeine fuelled fun and conversations. Plenty of highlights over the festival and this year the top moments included some fabulous feedback on the coffees we were serving by some of the speciality coffee industry big-guns. The biggest highlight for me was having seven skilled and passionate baristas come and stand behind the Crankhouse counter and then thank me for the opportunity to represent the Crankhouse brand. Read moreCosta Rica field trip - part 2
Costa Rica field trip part 2. Cupping at the Cafe Imports San Jose office, a beautiful unplanned visit to Oscar Medez's Finca Genesis and finally to La Perla De Cafe micro-mill owned by Carlos Barrantes. Two more quotable quotes. Oscar Mendez: "I have a lot of respect for cuppers and roasters, as they know that what they are tasting is a beautiful symphony - a culmination of the world's natural beauty, and the hard work of many different hands", and Carlos Barrantes: If you work hard, you can achieve anything. Read moreCosta Rica field report - Part 1
Part 1 of our trip report to Costa Rica covers visits to the La Pira De Dota, El Pilon and La Chumeca in the Tarrazu region, then onto Cerro San Luis and Las Lajas in the West Valley region. Stunning farms and micro-mills.
QOTD: "If it smells good, it's going to taste good" Francisca Cachon
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