This has been a busy month. We promised we would only send this newsletter out when there is news and there is a clump of news that has built up, so lets get straight to it.
The first weekend of October we will be open at Buitenverwachting on the Saturday morning as a once off, just to see how that goes. We may do this once a month, or during school hoildays only.
Regards,
The Quaffee Team
Coffee: Better Quality and small decreases in prices
The South African specialty coffee market is dominated by two major importers of green “unroasted” coffee. From these importers almost all the South African roasters source their coffee especially Yirgacheffe, Limu, Sidama and Mandheling. They bring their coffees in from the large sorting houses in Hanover, and so selecting a quality product can be a challenge, and traceability almost impossible.
Last year we brought in our second shipment of coffee directly from Colombia. We had establish a relationship with Virmax who work directly with the growers, and even though they use the C Market (the public coffee futures market run in New York) as a guide their pricing is determined by the coffee quality, so they are typically $2 to $3 higher per pound higher than other brokers.
Los Idolos and Los Naranjos, two of the coffees we have brought through them, have sold very well. We purchased almost 50% of the crop last year (only 50 bags), and are negotiating for this years crop at the moment (the crop will only be ready end of October). This has given us confidence to look at forming other relationships, resulting in better coffees. Our first shipment from one of these arrives in 2 weeks.
Also this year the CMarket prices are now off about 20% from last year so this has allowed us to put much higher quality coffees in our blends, and also start looking at reducing the pricing on some of the coffees. So anticipate that there will be a small reduction in prices in the next few months (we do however need to consider other items that are costing more, like vehicle maintenace and petrol pricing).
Look at the website for prices (coffee.quaffee.co.za) and you will see that 5 of the coffees have already come down in price, and we hope another 4 will follow.
In the next 6 months we will be getting coffees from more of the green bean partners we have been able to form trusting and traceable relationships with. So expect both an increase in quality and and small decrease in price.
We will be doing an occasional cupping at the roastery at Buitenverwachting. If you are keen to attend, they are normally on Friday and Wednesday midday, depending on whether we have a new coffee or a new roast profile we are trying. We have added an option to this mail list where you can select if you want to be invited to these cupping sessions, so modify your settings (see link at the bottom) or email us and we will add you.
New Juras
There are two new Juras now available from us and Jura South Africa. They both feature Jura’s new modified brewing unit and their new grinder and the coffee does taste better from them, even if it is only slightly.
The first new one, is their baby machine. Called the Ena Micro 1. It is thin (only 23cm) and is simple to use. It only does coffee, and has no frother attachment. There are three programmable buttons so you can set them for say espresso, coffee cup and coffee mug. And each of those can do a double cup of that too. It is neat and a competent upgrade to the Ena 3, which we really liked.
The next one is, rather than being new, a different take at something they have already done. Jura are pegging this as a F50 replacement, so it is a more refined version of the F50 now called the Jura Impressa F7. It has almost exactly the same features is the F50 except it has the new look flat face, which means that two cup preparation is a reality now. Also the frother is right next to the cup spouts so milk based coffees are easier to prepare. All this for another R700.00 which is the only real problem we have with the machine since I am not sure you get much for the Extra R700.00.
New Rent-to-own options
With the FISA and FICA and the CPA, we withdrew our options of rent-to-own but now we are offering this again. A business can rent a coffee machine to own it after three years, with this option. We have partnered with Custom Capital on this and they are very efficient getting back to us and the client within 5 working days, to tell us that the deal is approved or not. If you are keen to see the options go to our Rent-to-own page, under the service menu. Rentals start at R370.00 per month E&OE T&Cs etc.
E-Commerce nomination
We have been nominated for the South African E-commerce awards. If you are keen to give us a vote, perhaps we will even make the final cut.
Visit the coffee roastery at Buitenverwachting during the week to see us roast
