Tea Thing!

This ladies and gentlemen is “Tea Thing”! It is a sample that was given to Scott at Happy Donkey (www.happydonkey.co.uk) and passed to us to have a look at. There are no instruction and Scott was told that there are only three or so in the country at the moment. It has been played around with and thus far we cannot decide for sure whether it is meant to produce a cup/mug or a tea pot full at a time. We will shortly post the test results, but in the mean time, if anyone has any thoughts, please be forthcoming.

The Costa Rican arrives, more Intelligentsia delights & Hooooorah – er, I mean Harrar!

Good news, the rather lovely Costa Rican that Scott from Happy Donkey (www.happydonkey.co.uk) kindly allowed us to sample in February has now been added to his intentory. We have tried a bag or two of this medium roast coffee from the new stock and it remains every bit as lovely as the original sample. From our tasting log, “Lovely smooth sweet coffee with a good thick body. Nice honeycomb, frutiness with honey tones. Another very nice Costa Rican indeed”. And that says it all really, well worth trying. Good on Scott too, he is one of very few commercial bean suppliers that cares more about quality than bottom line. He selects his coffees very carefully and turns most around within a month – a week is not unusual for his top end blends. It would be nice to see other commercial suppliers emulating the gourmet market by keeping things high quality and as fresh as possible.

Talking of the gourmet market, roasting demi-god Steve over at Has Bean (www.hasbean.co.uk) has just put this year’s Ethiopian Harrar crop up on his site. I’ve heard from a couple of people that this year some of the beans are particulary good, though beware not all Harrars are equal, so make sure you buy from a source you know and trust. Steve describes this one as “Intense, with a complex taste of fruit, wine and chocolate”. We Harrar fans all know that if the crop is good and the preparation is right it can be the biggest blueberry bomb you can imagine. If you haven’t tried it, now is the time!