A customer in Finland tells us we're a bit boring; he's probably right so we're taking action.  It'll take more than the introduction of some new and interesting coffee beans to resolve that I hear you mutter! Anyway, we've got some Ethiopian coffee from the Zege monastery estate which we've not tried before, arriving at 6am before the snow sinks its teeth in again.  We hope it will be more like the Sidamo we have (which we like rather a lot), rather than the Yirgacheffe we have as we're really not keen on Yirg in espresso despite the good and the great of gourmet coffee suggesting otherwise.  It's not a right or wrong thing, it's simply a matter of taste and we dont like it much in espresso.  As a filter coffee we value its complexity and interest but its like an overly flamboyant personality in the room, we tire of it rather quickly.

Anyway, we digress.  We've replenished our strategic reserves of the Brazilian yellow bourbon from the Rainha estate which is a wonderful coffee that we thought we might run out of before more arrived, but good fortune meant fresh supplies have arrived in time.  We also have coffee that we would like to spend more time on to refine the roast further, the Dominican Republic coffee being a good example.

Then new for us in 2011 will be a raft of coffees that we envisage deploying as dedicated espresso roasts, but lets see if they live up to their billing first.  The gap between expectation and reality as a result of slight exaggeration by coffee brokers is rife, so we find ourselves 'sucking and seeing' before we proclaim any of the coffee we buy as fit for sale.  The coffee world certainly isnt short on superlatives, indeed it gives real estate agents a good run for their money.

So what does early 2011 hold in the way of new coffee at Londinium?  Well, a couple of single estate coffees from Brazil, an espresso blend from Brazil (we have doubts but lets see), 3 coffees from Guatemala (you really hope some of the proceeds flow back as a force for good with the dire situation that is currently being reported there).  Then of more interest we have taken a generic arabica from India which will be interesting to expand our palate and understanding as we have only sold 2 coffees from India previously, one of which continues, the Monsooned Malabar.  We've taken some fairly standard Sumatran too.   The highlight for us will be getting stuck into two new coffees from Costa Rica as we have a reasonable amount of experience in Costa Rican coffees generally, so the bar is set fairly high for the first jump.

Anyway, with the Christmas season upon us and a pile of issues to clear before donning the Santa suit again it might be January before we get one of these new coffees developed to the stage where it is ready for release.

Have an enjoyable Christmas & thank you for your custom in 2010.

We will be roasting and posting through the Christmas period, excluding the statutory and bank holidays.  If you've coffee questions we'll be contactable as usual in the multitude of ways that our modern world permits.