Stale coffee - the tell tale signs

I was called out by a customer of ours last week complaining that our coffee was tasting bitter and strong compared to what we usually supply. Of course all sorts of alarm bells ring. Are we roasting too dark, have we ground the coffee incorrectly?

In some ways I say thankfully it was none of the above! It turned out that the volume of coffee sales was relatively low and a kilo of pre-ground cafetiere coffee was hanging around for a couple of weeks prior to being used. The moment I opened the container I could tell that bad things were afoot.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of tasting or smelling stale coffee I can only describe it as the sensation of a coffee having died. Simply the reaction with the air has eliminated all the aromatics; as a result the taste is flat monotone and unpleasant.

The solution in this instance is for us to supply the coffee in smaller packs and smaller quantities. I had brought along a freshly ground pack of coffee of the same blend to compare and contrast. One coffee was alive, the other dead - beware the air!

The indifference of a Global mono-cuture

There's a famous coffee shop found in the souqs of Khan al-Khalili in the Islamic quarter of Cairo called Fishawi's - It's open 24 hours a day and all they appear to sell is tea, coffee and Sheesha (a water pipe used for smoking). The only question the waiter asks after he has identified that you want a coffee is "do you want sugar in it?"
All Cairo seems to pass through their doors - I say doors only in a metaphorical sense as it has no doors; in fact the only way you know where the coffee shop starts and ends is when the chairs run out! Like so many shops in the Souqs they exist in one of the many alley ways populated by hawkers and panhandlers.
The waiters will proudly show you an ancient photograph of the old King Farouk in his dark glasses, who used to frequent the place. What can you say about Fishawi's? It's so .........Egyptian!
It's the distilled essence of Cairo; King's have been deposed, Presidents have come and gone, but Fishawi's like the Pyramids of Giza has always been, please God don't let it disappear.

Then there's the Coptic quarter, the part of Cairo that came before Cairo even existed. When Byzantine Rome became a Christian empire and before the armies of the east brought Islam. Here stand the great Christian Coptic churches, side by side with the Islamic mosques - each respecting the others tradition yet each determined to maintain their own identity.

Finally there are the kilometers of bland anonymous-looking high rise flats, typical in its own way of suburbia that surrounds any of the great cities of the world. Yet even here in this apparent anonymity, people crave recognition. Many of the porches from which hangs so much washing are painted in vivid colours; some in single colours, others using quite complex designs. So everywhere you look over the eons of time humankind has always wanted to leave a mark - a plaintive cry, "remember me!"

All of which makes Cairo airport like so many airports around the globe such a depressing place - a synthesis of global mono-culture. Where Coke, Cappuccino, Pizza, Pasta and French fries dominate the menus. A sanitized, stainless steel and plastic society. One that subjugates individuality. Where now is the confidence in our own cultures; our own traditions; our creative addition to our world?

Is it no wonder therefore that despite being better educated, having more opportunity than any previous generation, so many in our society reject what is on offer and seek to disfigure and disrupt.

In Jersey where I live we don't appear to be able to trust our own people to even deliver such key projects as a design for our waterfront. We like so many cultures today are frightened of being different - taking a chance; in turn our own society becomes indifferent.

Rather than being indifferent to our own cultures we must get back to celebrating them. Celebrating the creativity of each and every individual from whichever culture that goes to make the human race such an extraordinary force.

Long live Fishawi's and those who strive to be different.

Decaffeinated coffee pod problems

Whilst coffee pods are great in low volume sites and in particular for fresh ground decaffeinated coffee, they can be challenging to use when trying to make great coffee. Because the coffee is held in by paper a significant barrier is created for the water.

In fact the barrier is so significant that if you haven't got the right insert in your group handle the water will go around the pod rather than through it. We've had a couple of experiences of this lately and the immediate reaction is either the machine isn't functioning properly or the pods are no good. Both of these reactions proved to be incorrect.

Pods need to be held up tight to the group head to ensure that all the water is forced to go through the pod. This is achieved by having the correctly shaped insert in your group handle. The problem in the commercial market is that what works in one machine will not necessarily work in another. On the whole a flattened insert works in most machines, however it will be a case of trial and error. If you're using double pods, the depth of the double insert will be critical and once again there are different depths available.

If you're having to compromise, one little trick I've found helps is to slightly dampen the insert prior to inserting the pod. This causes the paper to stick slightly to the insert and thus makes it more difficult for the pressurised water to push the pod out of the way.

Don't despair pods are a good idea in the right environment and for the right reasons; it's well worth spending some time and effort selecting the correct inserts to deliver great coffee.

Pairing coffee with food

Just had a really interesting tasting at Longueville Manor for an article we're doing with Eat magazine. Usually tastings are all about the coffee which is not unreasonable, however also in attendance on this occasion was Martin Flageul of Victor Hugo wines. The interviewer wanted to hear his comments on the taste and then make suggestions as to which desert to pair it with. The following observations were made:

Monsooned Malabar from southern India - This coffee is lightly roasted and thus has a very delicate flavour. It is notably smooth which is the result of the process that takes place at origin where the beans are slightly dessicated prior to bagging into 50 kilo sacks. Martin concluded that this would go well with Madeira cake or light biscuit something that won't overwhelm the taste buds.

Old Brown Java from Indonesia - This coffee is darker roasted creating a darker aroma, yet still achieving real smoothness in the cup. The taste is much more lingering than the Malabar coffee. Martin suggested dried fruits to go with this coffee - Dried Apricots was his suggestion, personally I think fresh fig would also be quite interesting.

Costa Rica Tarrazu - A medium roasted classic central American washed Arabica coffee. Right now this coffee is superbly aromatic and is a favourite with us at Cooper's. The caramel notes really come through in the coffee. For Martin this coffee was the classic coffee to have with a croissant or light puff pastry. Truly glugable!

Ethiopian Harrar - This again is medium roasted however is noted for its fruitiness. Martin immediately picked up on this coffee's complexity, it plays havoc with your taste buds due to the sun dried process that takes place at origin which locks in the fruit of the outer skin. After some deliberation this turned out to be Martin's favourite coffee which probably reflects a sophisticated palate which has tasted more than its fair share of blandness over the years. Martin's pairing suggestion was dark chocolate. The fruit and chocolate flavours complimenting each other.

This was a really interesting session and once again we end up with coffee being spoken about in the same terms as wine. Coffee has a lot of catching up to do in educational terms though.

Barista Coffee training course at Highlands

At last it's about to happen the first Barista training course at Highlands college will take place on the last Monday in June.
If Starbucks, Costa, Coffe Republic etc all have their own internal training progammes isn't it time that you made sure that you were up to date with the latest coffee making techniques.
The market is moving on so fast right now that a fundamental understanding of making great espresso based drinks is vital.
Can you afford to miss this course?

Paranoid about great coffee!

Ever since I've been back from the Atlanta SCAA coffee show where I made coffee alongside the finest Baristas in the world I've concluded that this whole coffee business can drive you totally nuts!
There are so many variables in delivering the ultimate cup of coffee, no wonder so many places sell truly average drinks; yet if they're buying from us we're talking about some of the finest coffee on the market.
Water quality, machinery set up, cleanliness, the right equipment, even the weather! the list seems endless - the answer I guess is to simply educate as best you can which is why I'm putting a lot of effort into the design of the latest and first Barista coffee course at Highlands college.
I figure that if you can frighten enough people into the knowledge of what can go wrong you might actually end up raising everyone's standard. A bit of reverse psychology!
One day we'll deliver the coffee that all those people who sweat blood put into this product truly deserve.

Are you doing Good Deeds in your community?

Global warming, pandemics, third world poverty – issues of such magnitude that it’s no wonder an immediate reaction might be to pull the duvet up over our collective heads and let some much larger body such as Government grapple with the apparently untenable.

The coffee industry in which I work is a bit like that. The 2nd biggest traded commodity in the world after oil employs millions of people yet the distribution of wealth within the industry is hugely disproportionate to the physical effort expended. How then is it possible for a small business like mine to ever hope to materially change anything? The Fairtrade foundation alongside charities like Oxfam have both endeavoured to educate we the consumer whilst at the same time redistributing some of the wealth; big organisations dealing with big issues.

As a consumer though I’ve always felt that it’s a bit like being at Church and putting money in the collection plate; my conscience has been assuaged, and now I leave it to a large organisation to do good on my behalf whilst I get on with my life. Good deed by proxy.

I hadn’t really thought about the subject too hard until earlier this year when I visited Colombia with some fellow coffee professionals. Colombia is an amazing country and grows some of the finest coffee in the world. Most of the farms are small holdings and due to the steepness of the slopes on which the coffee is grown every kilo of beans is picked by hand. It’s a huge logistical effort for which the pay in western terms is paltry.

As we toured the country I found myself increasingly questioning how we value things. “How much Gold for a Rain Forest? How many Diamonds for the gnarled hands gained in a lifetime spent in coffee? and so on. Everything seems inevitably to be reduced to its monetary unit whilst our own humanity is neglected like so much loose change. One coffee farmer made us all reflect on this point. Living in a very humble farmhouse in a picture postcard setting he came out with the line, “I’m not just selling coffee, I’m selling life!”. It may sound a little corny as you read this article, but this simple line stopped us all in our tracks. Here was someone living a very uncomplicated life with all that he needed to survive around him telling us from our cosseted western perspective that it doesn’t actually get much better than this. At that moment I had to agree with him, surrounded as he was by his family.
I now move the clock forward to Atlanta, Georgia this April and the largest gathering of coffee professionals in the world – they called it “the event” – Americans never underestimating the power of hyperbole! For anyone in the coffee business though this annual event is truly inspiring.

The keynote speech is always highly anticipated and for the first time in at least a decade a true coffee insider took the stage; a man by the name of Ted Lingle, a legend in the speciality coffee industry and said by many to have been the reason behind why people talk about coffee like wine today.

His speech was a very personal one as he talked about what drove him on in the early days when faced with the huge hurdles put in place by much larger organisations not willing to change; not willing to be inclusive, but wanting to be exclusive ensuring that their slice of the economic cake continued to grow at the expense of others; blind to the fact that what they were doing was totally unsustainable.

What he found was that he started asking himself some very fundamental questions such as “why am I here?”, “what is my purpose?”, and that ultimately we can’t live our life by proxy. As he said “talk is cheap, but deeds are precious”

He took a long hard look at his own core values – what standards he found acceptable; the importance of educating people and finally what he believed was acceptable ethically. By looking deep inside himself he found the strength to combat what on the face of it were insurmountable odds.

He concluded his speech with a story about “good deeds”. How when being called to meet his maker this individual was asked if he would like to bring anyone with them to say goodbye; he asked Fame, but fame declined; he asked Fortune, but fortune too declined; he asked his friends, but they too declined; finally he asked Good deeds, and good deeds said yes. The moral of the story, that the only thing any of us will ever be remembered for is our “good deeds” all else is superfluous.

In conclusion what my journeys have shown me is that it is so easy to pull up that duvet and let someone else act on our behalf; to value that which doesn’t matter. Jersey I believe finds herself at that point right now. How do we hold on to our heritage in the face of unprecedented change? How do we hold on to community when the experiences of young and old are so different? More importantly how do we hold on to our humanity?

What is vital though is that we one and all engage with each other – it’s those “good deeds” for which we’ll all be remembered both in our community and in our world. That’s worth getting out of bed for!

Milk handling and wastage

A combination of the SCAA exposition training sessions in Atlanta and a training session yesterday with a customer has really highlighted the importance of proper milk handling procedures.

Careful use of appropriately sized pitchers will make a huge difference to the quality of your cappuccinos and lattes as well as cutting down levels of milk wastage.

From my experience most food service outlets tend to encourage larger than necessary pitchers and here I'm talking about pitchers of 1 litre or larger. I reckon that the largest pitcher necessary is 1 litre and in fact there should be an increasing focus on using 0.6 litre pitchers or smaller with a real sensitivity as to exactly how much milk is needed to make just one cup of coffee.

Reheating milk or re-charging milk does not deliver consistent quality as the milk flavour will change dramatically from coffee to coffee. Best every time to start with fresh milk.

The message review the pitcher sizes you use.

Espresso machine cleaning

An issue that has arisen over the last couple of months has been the clogging up of the valves found behind the group head of espresso machines. When engineers have attempted to establish why the water flow is being restricted they have found undisolved crystals of cleaning powder. The immediate reaction is that the crytals are not disolving as they should during the cleaing process. This it turns out is not the case. The actual problem is overdosing the cleaning powder.
Other products such as liquid cleaners are available as an alternative to powder, but are not as effective as the slower release of powder cleaners. Liquid cleaners tend to be flushed away after the very first cleaning cycle and thus there isn't a prolonged cleaning action taking place.
The message therefore is to closely follow the manufacturers instructions and not overdose the cleaning powder when cleaning; not only will you save money on cleaning product, but you'll also have a clean operational machine which shouldn't require the attention of an engineer for some time.

Top down for great milk foaming

Making great foam for cappuccinos isn't rocket science, although you might think that when you see the varying quality dispensed at various food service outlets. A little understanding of what makes milk foam helps at this point.
Cows milk is full of fat and protein and it is this combination that allows the Barista to foam the milk. The problem is that if you don't make any attempt to foam the milk prior to simply heating it, the fats and protein will all melt away and it is impossible to foam anything.
Knowing the above now leads to an understanding as to why milk should always first be "stretched" to create foam prior to heating the milk. Then then leads me on to the top down theory. That is, when wanting to foam milk, the steam wand should be placed at the surface of the milk to ensure that steam and air are driven into the milk. Tilting the milk pitcher and angling the steam wand should ensure that you get a vortex effect in you milk.
Once you've created sufficient foam, you can if necessary heat the milk further by lowering the wand into the liquid. Take care not to overdo it.
So top down it is

Another grinder sick note

April seems to have got off to a challenging coffee grinder month. This morning I got a call to check out the setting on a coffee grinder which had been installed as a temporary measure.
Everything looked ok, however the coffee was taking an age to grind any volume. The problem - blunt grinder blades. The impact on the coffee taste profound!

The problem with blunt grinder blades is that rather than cut the coffee bean they tend to crush them. This results in the average particle size of the coffee to be all over the place. Anything from powder fine to quite gritty. It makes it impossible to set the grinder accurately for the espresso coffee machine. It also has the effect of putting a lot of excessive heat into the bean which in turn can result in the coffee tasting burnt.

Moral of the story - make sure you have a programme in place that ensures that the grinder blades are changed every so many kilos. A number I have seen used is 300 kilos of coffee per set of blades, but it will vary.

One of the easiest ways to remember to change the grinding blades is to change them when you have a major service on the coffee machine. There again, if you are in a high volume site the discs may need to be changed more often.

Grinders are always in my experience the last piece of kit that coffee shops consider when they experience problems with their coffee, it should in fact be one of the first places to look.

Tell tale signs of blunt blades - coffee appears quite powdery, the coffee appears to be taking an excessive amount of time to grind and finally the noise level of the grinder appears excessively loud.

Re-grinding coffee - just don't!

Had an experience today which if you are a coffee roaster tends to send shivers down your spine. We had a call from a customer who was experiencing problems with their coffee grinder. For some reason the coffee was coming out extremely coarse.
When I got on site I found to my horror a coffee hopper full of a mixture of bits of coffee beans and coarsely ground coffee. When I asked what had happened the member of staff said that to try and reduce the size of the grounds they had decided to re-grind the coffee. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Re-grinding coffee that has not been correctly ground in the first place is an absolute no no. To get a bit technical, the spread of the particle sizes will be so great as to make it impossible to get any consistency of flow of liquid through the coffee. On top of that all that re-grinding will result in so much heat getting into the coffee that it will materially affect the taste of the coffee in a very unpleasant and burnt way. Finally you'll end up jamming the blades, the hopper entry point and restricting the flow of beans. Not bad!

If you find yourself in this unfortunate position there is nothing to do but throw away the incorrectly ground coffee and then gradually reset the grinding blades. As a rule of thumb the coffee needs to have the consistency of fine sand to produce anything like a decent espresso.

If you do find yourself trying to unravel the above scenario, ensure that the hopper gets a good wash and is thoroughly dry and that the entry point into the grinding discs is also clear.

Bodum cafetieres - where spare parts come as standard

In the last couple of weeks we've had customers come into our store and purchase brand new Bodum cafetieres in the belief that if they had broken the glass insert that it couldn't be replaced. Wrong! In fact it's one of the main reasons we stock this product. Unlike so many cheaper reproductions virtually every part on a Bodum cafetiere can be replaced saving you a fortune.
We currently carry glass liners and metal filters as standard. That means that after your first Cafetiere purchase you probably won't ever need to buy a complete new Bodum cafetiere again unless you want to downsize or upsize.
That's why we stock Bodum

Old Brown Java - challenging but outstanding espresso

Yesterday I was on-site at a new restuarant in Alderney trying out various combinations of espresso coffee. From experience I find that you never know what is going to work until you run the coffee through the clients espresso machine on-site. What tastes great in Jersey can taste awful elsewhere.

I experimented with Old Brown Java and what a coffee it is; however the challenge is setting the grinder up correctly. If you're thinking of using this great coffee place close attention to the speed at which the coffee is flowing through the ground coffee. The grinder settings are completely different to any other coffee I know.

Once right the extraction is almost syrupy in appearance and delivers a really smooth espresso. I was actually most impressed with the Macchiato that I made.

Why is OBJ such a challenge? - good question. It's an "aged coffee" that is it's left in a warehouse to "mature" for a couple of years before being shipped. As a result we roast this quite dark without making it oily to kill off the "sacky" smell which I believe to be undesirable. Something though of this process clearly impacts on the ability of the water to get through the coffee. Anybody have any suggestions?

you've got to read what it says on the screen!

On site today with a customer who had a Jura Z5 - Gen2 recently installed by us. The complaint was that there was no milk coming through the frothing unit.
When I arrived I tested the steam production - working fine. Then I took apart the auto-milk frothing unit and gave it a wash. Put it all back together and Hey presto! it all worked again.
(I didn't like to tell them that the cleaning button light was flashing on the top of the machine and a message saying "clean autofroth" was flashing on the screen)

Not sure if Jura could do anymore - well maybe a loud alarm and a voice shouting clean the auto-frothing device before you all die of a congealed milk bug might work!

What's happened to Gaggia?

As a stockist of Gaggia coffee machines because I believe them to be one of the better makes I'm completely baffled by our lack of ability to get any of their coffee machines. There appears to be a great wall of silence emanating from Italy since January this year.
We had the same situation around Christmas 2007 and suddenly stocks reappeared. Are Gaggia having financial difficulties or is the problem much simpler than that?
Please don't keep us in the dark Gaggia!

Descaling Jura coffee machines

A bit like London buses, nothing for ages, then 2 come along at once. This has been our recent experience with a couple of Jura bean to cup coffee machines brought into us recently. An F90 and an S70 (think that's right). The point is that in both instances there were no messages saying "descale me" but instead the machines had become blocked in such a way that no liquid was appearing out of the front nozzles.
Following a conversation with Jura Products in the UK we were advised to place 3 (yes 3!) descaling tablets in the water tank and then start the descale procedure.
The challenge though is working out how to start the descale procedure. The one thing I find Jura are particularly good at is making it obvious to users what the next step should be. This however is not the case with the descale option. Now I know it's not something you want to do accidentally as the whole process takes around 30 minutes, but at least give us a visual hint!
The great thing though was that the Jura engineer was right, in both instances blockages had been caused by a scaling up of the delivery pipes. Both machines are now back with their happy owners.

The problem with milk auto-frothing devices on espresso machines

I was copied in on a email today about a complaint made by a customer over the quality of a cappuccino that he had been served at a particular food-service outlet. His complaint was that the drink that he had requested had just a small covering of foamed milk, and was not thick and creamy as he had expected.
The particular outlet uses an "auto-frothing" device that is attached to the steam wand of the espresso machine. The reason they and now many domestic machines use such devices is to make the production of foamed milk quicker and easier to deliver. Dare I use the word "de-skilling" the job.
Now auto-frothing devices are fine if they are kept immaculately clean. The reason I put this caveat in is because Jersey Milk with its higher than average fat content has a habit of clogging up the minute holes that enable the steam to combine with air to create the foam. Once one of these holes has become blocked rather than creating foam you end up with hot steamed milk.
The discussion went on about how different types of milk foam better than others. That may be the case, but the difference is not as significant as some people might think. I've always found that full fat and half fat milk both produce equally good quality foam if heated correctly.
No the real problem lies in the on-going maintenance of the auto-frothing device. In a commercial environment this means setting in place procedures to ensure that the device is either replaced with a clean unit or stripped down regularly depending upon volume. More often than not problems occur just after a busy period when there is an opportunity for the milk to slightly congeal.
As far as domestic devices are concerned these should be stripped down and cleaned after usage. This will not only ensure that the frothing device continues to work properly, but also eliminates any hygiene problems.

Cappuccino at home - the key to success!

Had a customer come into our store on Friday buying Coffee for a dinner party over the week-end. As the conversation developed it became apparent that despite having a fancy built in espresso machine in his kitchen he'd never really been that happy with quality of drink he was achieving - this had been going on for 2 years! I then proceeded to give him the following advice which hopefully will mean that his guests got something special (waiting on a report!)

1. Ensure machine has heated up properly - once temperature reached run at least a cup full of water through the group head with the group handle in place, but no coffee. This will hopefully get everything up to temperature and correct extraction will occur.

2. His machine had its own built in grinder. Assuming coffee is fresh (absolutely in this case) monitor the speed at which the water is passing through the coffee. Should be looking at 20 seconds minimum for an espresso quantity - 1 fl.oz. Much faster and the flavour won't be picked up which in turn means that the grinder will need adjusting. Manufacturers hand book comes into play.

3. Keep the "shots" of coffee short. Try not to run an excessive amount of water through the coffee. After around 1 fl.oz. all the best flavours have been extracted. In my view if you want a longer drink, just add water. You'll retain the sweetness of the coffee this way. So ask yourself how big the cup is, how strong do I like my coffee and finally do I therefore put in 1 shot or 2?

Now assuming you want to make a cappuccino, just as much care needs to be taken over the foaming of the milk.

4. Start with fresh cold milk and a good quality pitcher appropriate to the amount of milk you wish to foam. Fill to about 1/3rd; you'll need the additional space for the foam.

5. Get rid of any excess moisture in the steam wand by venting it prior to placing in the milk.

6. Position steam wand in milk and open up steam vent. Immediately raise steam wand to just 1mm above the surface of the milk. Tilt the pitcher so that you create a "whirlpool" effect in the milk. The milk should start to "stretch" and the foam you create should have "micro" bubbles - appears very creamy.

7. To help you monitor the temperature of the milk place your hand on the base of the pitcher. Once you can only just touch the metal surface the milk is ready. You may need to drop the steam wand into the foamed milk for a bit to raise its temperature.

8. Try "free pouring" the milk onto the espresso coffee moving from a high pour to a low pour as you fill the cup. This will help lift the "crema" of the coffee and allow you to achieve the classic cappuccino appearance.

The key to great cappuccino - keep everything short!

The re-engagement of community is the only option

I wrote this article for the Jersey Evening Post in June 2008. I've put it on my blog because a customer of ours Ad-Lib Restaurant were quoted in the JEP yesterday stating that they would like to grow the food for their restaurant but were struggling to do so because of the lack of allotments in St. Helier. You'll see from this article it was one of my suggestions for the Town Park.


In his book “The audacity of hope”, Barack Obama possibly the next US president acknowledges how sceptical people have become of the modern political process; “nourished by a generation of broken promises”, but he points out historically politics was “based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another, and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart. That if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done”

From the debates that have taken place in our own States Chambers over the last couple of weeks it is clear that there is a major problem with the level of political engagement the Council of Ministers have even with States members. A recent Chamber survey came back with the extraordinary statistic that 72% of the respondents felt that Government saw no value in small business, yet Economic Development would argue they’ve never tried harder to help.

The problem is that Government has become to be seen as the proverbial Super- tanker in a sea of small boats; the challenge for us all is to find a way of connecting that flotilla of small boats so that the Super-tanker can be better directed or better still down-sized. For me the Incinerator typifies how disconnected we have become as a society when it comes to real debate and discussion.

I don’t have a particular axe to grind with T&TS per se, however there seems to be an obsession with spending £100 million plus of public money, a massive sum but where is the public debate? Even when there is a suggestion that the project will be paid for with cash from a reserve fund, that’s the equivalent of over 2 years worth of GST! There’s still no debate!

It’s that Super-tanker problem again – “what can I do that will change anything?” Well in the case of the Incinerator debate I would suggest that a copy of the Juniper report was sent to every household and school and made compulsory reading in the same way TTS sent a flyer via the JEP backing their view. It takes two sides to debate, yet only one side is entering the discussion.

As a result I’ve decided to come up with a “wish list” – a list whose sole intent is to re-engage the community, to get people to feel that they can be a force for change to the benefit of all:





1. The Town park; why not instead of making it into a park consider the idea of turning it into a series of allotments? A place where people who have no garden of their own can re-engage with the land, understand once again where their food comes from.

2. The burnt out shell of the Wesley Street Methodist Church be turned into a unit for small manufacturing businesses, operated in such a way that the types of businesses installed would also have to have a tourism content whereby visitors could come and see the operations in progress and be exposed to the talent that resides in Jersey

3. Liberty Wharf is given over to local retail businesses so that we end up with a unique offering for both visitors and locals alike, rather than as I’ve just experienced on Wimbledon high street “clone town” Britain, with all the usual national suspects, but absolutely no soul.

4. A Green agenda that encourages local entrepreneurs to take over and make money out of re-cycling opportunities, with Government input being in a more advisory / watchdog capacity thereby saving tax payers money.

5. I would like to see the Chamber of commerce develop the equivalent of a business “face book”. For the price of their annual membership fee, a business would have a profile, could openly blog about issues that are directly impacting them, and which in turn could be used as a tool by Government to inform future strategies, from Regulations of Undertakings to Planning.

6. All Parish Hall meetings should have an Internet connection so that if you are unable to attend the meeting physically you could follow the debate from home and in turn take part in the voting process. Too often major decisions are voted on by just a handful of people

My plea is for people to re-engage, and my suggestion list will I hope spark some debate. Never before has there been so much change and yet so little discussion by the vast majority of people. We all lead hectic lives and there’s always a reason why we can’t participate. If we want to protect our community, and have a community to protect in the long term it requires us all to take part in what I call the big conversation. After all ………

If not now when? – If not you who?

Orange Coffee from Peru

My thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Payn for bringing back some roasted coffee beans from their trip to Peru.Interestingly and a first for me the coffee had been roasted with Orange peel.

Having experienced some home roasted coffee in Colombia recently it came as no surprise when I saw that the beans were very black and oily. Rather than the even roast we get on commercial roasters, domestic roasting tends to roast dark on the outside, whilst the core of the coffee remains relatively light.

From a taste perspective I was surprised at how strongly the citrus orange flavour came through and how highly aromatic it was. The coffee itself was quite drinkable, we made it in a "French press" or Cafetiere.

For those of you interested in some more facts about the coffee it came from a small farm in the Sacred Valley county of Cuzco, Peru.

Speciality coffee stores giving the industry a bad name

Marta, who looks after our store has just returned from a holiday in Italy and as a gift brought me back some coffee. Now I'm always fascinated about how other speciality businesses present their coffee.
Here we had the "natural" kraft bag, with a simple label stapled to the outside with the words "Momenti Romantici" - Caffe aromaatizzato al gusto di: MALT WISKY. I think the wording is fairly easy to translate.
I opened the bag intrigued, however what I found inside was truly disappointing. A small plastic bag containing 20g of ground coffee. No attempt had been made to keep the coffee fresh through any barrier packaging. I revisited the label to check the "sell by" date to find that this product should be "consomarsi" by 10/01/10 - 10th January 2010! As it was, this coffee wasn't going to survive longer than 24 hours after grinding.
No wonder the world is dominated by global players when some of those who claim to be "specialists" let the small guys down. If you're going to charge a premium and want your reputation to remain intact, spend some money on the internal packaging. Reminds me of the old adage "you can't judge a book by its cover"!

Monetising excellence

It's be bugging me the last few days, well ever since I saw the work of the boys from Victoria College in the Design and Technology department the other evening.
All this brilliance, all these resources but what opportunity? It got me thinking about how Apple get new applications for their Ipod touch / Iphone. Apparently anyone can submit an idea and then it is evaluated by Apple and if considered good enough will be available for anyone to put on their Ipod for a fee. This is amazing use of what is known as the long tail; using the tallent of everyone to develop some of the cleverest apps.
So lets translate this to Victoria College DT department. Why not connect them with the leading furniture manufacturers of the world and should there be something created by one of the boys that is a brilliant design, that design could then be evaluated by a furniture manufacturer and if appropriate turned into production.
Everyone wins; Furniture company doesn't have overhead of full time designers; they have access to a massive pool of creativity. Great design gets rewarded - school gets recoginition; boy gets recognition; the economy gets a boost.
Can it really be that easy?

Tesco can't do this!

A customer came into our shop a couple of days ago and asked us to blend Lapsang Souchong with Earl Grey - Smoky with Oranges! - Interesting and apparently a favourite combination of theirs. Now you couldn't go to Tesco and get that could you!

Small Business - why do the same questions keep coming up?

David

I was talking to a motor repair shop owner yesterday (potential member) who is having real trouble employing mechanics, apparently there are some 10 vacancies in the Island and the only applicants coming forward have less than 5 years residency. How does he go about getting a licence to employ them? It seems that there are quite a number of qualified European mechanics going back due to exchange rates etc.

Also does Chamber organise any workshops for small business employers on employment law issues? If not who is a good person for advice on that?

Response

This person needs to talk to Regulations of Undertakings to get either a non-qualified licence or a 3 year joint licence. If neither are granted I guess he gets shut down - is that right in a market economy?

The new Skills Executive need to get onto cases like these. If we could train up the local population for local jobs in some co-ordinated way then maybe all those who rant on about unacceptable population growth might be placated.

Finally Jersey Arbitration and Conciliation Service offer courses on employment law in Jersey - check out their timetable

What will we do with 1,000 students leaving education this year?

A couple of nights back I and my wife went to an open evening at my older son's school. This particular event involved the Art department and Design and Technology. I found the whole event quite extraordinary. The resources available to our children are simply staggering - Laser cutter, plastic former, radio, sound and recording studio. The list seems endless. The work being turned out by these young men is also quite extraordinary. My question is what will happen to all this tallent? We're spending millions educating our young people but what are we giving them in return?

P.S. I want to go back to school!

French media interview

Crazy things happen to me - just when I thought I had a straightforward day planned a reporter from a French news agency came into my store along with Nick Le Cornu.
The reporter was interested to hear my thoughts about "the Jersy tax haven". Well I'm really tired of this line constantly being peddled by outside media.
Jersey has some of the best regulatory systems in place to ensure that illegal activity is flushed out and sent packing. It would appear to be very convenient for certain political leaders to harp on about tax havens as if they are to blame for the demise of the economy - absolute rubbish!
As I pointed out this lady journalist, small businesses like mine benefit hugely from the finance industry and I doubt that a speciality business like mine could floursh in many jurisdictions with a population of just 90,000 people if there wasn't the disposeable income and full employment provided by finance.
Sometimes we do make uneasy bedfellows. There is always the pressure of getting good members of staff given the wages paid in the finance industry. Thankfully not everyone wants to work in front of a computer screen.
There is also the pressure on land. An Island 9 miles x 5 miles which wants to remain green but still house people is always going to see upward pressure on real estate prices, which in turn causes its own social problems.
The removal of the finance industry from Jersey would be an economic catastropy which makes one appreciate that we urgently need a plan b. With the amazing educational system we have here (more about which I'll blog on later)Jersey has a huge opportunity to offer highly skilled niche solutions to the rest of the world.
As I've said before it's a team effort and the more ideas people can put forward the more likely we are going to get a plan b. Maybe a twitter forum will deliver what so far has been undeliverable.

Talk to the Jersey Methodist Womens Luncheon Club

I was ask by the club to give a talk - I gave this one, a variation on the concept of Fair Trade. Enjoy!

I’ve been running Cooper’s for the past 20 years – our core business has always been to supply tea, coffee and associated products to the catering industry. It seems that there has never been a period without some form of dramatic change to which we have had to adapt.
When I took over at the end of the 1980’s tourism on Jersey was at its peak – we didn’t know it at the time, but the introduction of low cost airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair combined with the launch of the Internet were all going to change the face of European air travel and tourism as we had known it on Jersey forever and as with all cataclysmic changes our tourism industry found it very hard to adapt to this brave new world; where one minute you’ve had a very successful business and the next you’re out of business. Obsolete; deleted by the march of technology and a world waking up to globalisation. However in business where one door shuts another opens and for Coopers that door was opened by Starbucks, originally a small coffee business that started life with around 5 stores in Seattle some 6,000 miles away from this Island. Before we knew it the word speciality coffee came into our lexicon. A whole new language was born and at the same time a huge new interest in coffee was ignited. Coopers in the mid 1990’s found themselves in a hugely fashionable business; a business that allowed us to really differentiate ourselves by becoming a one-stop shop for all things coffee. In the mean time Starbucks has developed into a global behemoth of around 13,000 stores worldwide.
And so the brave new world of the global village had been born. Food that once upon a time was only available seasonally is now available all year round. Clothing once made in the British Isles is now made in places like India or the Philippines for a tenth of the price it once was. Technology improvements have also meant that today we have more choice than ever before. As a comparison the average household just after the 2nd world war spent 30% of their income on food, today that average has dropped to just 10%. So why then today do we have organisation such as the Fair Trade foundation? Why do we talk about sustainability and how unsustainable our current way of life is? Why does extreme wealth seem to fall into fewer and fewer hands? Surely the result of global trade is that everyone gets a piece of the economic action? The answer is yes they do, but the proverbial global playing field isn’t quite as flat as we’d like to think and globalisation has made some organisations extraordinarily powerful whilst at the same time millions of individuals powerless as they lose control of the very resources upon which they rely for their day to day existence. In my industry coffee, the world is dominated by 4 major roasters. Nestle, Kraft, Proctor & Gamble and ........ As documented in their 2003 publication Mugged; poverty in your coffee cup Oxfam for the first time highlighted how these organisations are able to play countries off against each other in the global equivalent of a Dutch auction – that is buying from the lowest bidder.
When millions of pounds are at stake many countries have little choice but to take part in a race to the bottom and all the economic consequences that come with that non-choice. At last we in the west through the media have begun to understand the consequences of continually wanting more and cheaper stuff. As Fair Trade fortnight comes to an end I believe it’s thrown yet another dilemma at our own society, particularly in light of recent events, namely the global meltdown of the financial markets.
After all what is the concept behind Fair Trade? Well it’s about rebuilding communities – the premium you or I pay for say Fair trade certified bananas is intended to go towards a project that is of benefit to the whole community where that product is grown. I’ve seen with my own eyes a computer room that has been kitted out with the proceeds of the “social premium” in Brazil. The intention is to give that community a long term future; something we thought only we in the west ever considered. The point I make is that we are doing something tangible. What a contrast then with the huge wealth that is supposedly created by our own financial institutions. To use a term coined by David Korten an American academic; the Phantom wealth of the finance markets. Without doing anything stock markets seemed to rise inexorably. Without doing anything the price of houses on Jersey continually increase. Without seemingly doing anything those who have, have more whilst the rest increasingly struggle. But as we have just seen so much of what we once thought was true now appears to be like so much smoke and mirrors. It hasn’t been real wealth that has resulted in the average family house in Jersey now costing around £500,000, it’s debt. In order to lend more Banks have simply created debt; debt that we now know was based upon what is now described as “toxic assets”, the now infamous NINJA loans sliced and diced until our leading institutions thought they were worth something.
This is why shares in such great institutions as the Royal Bank of Scotland once valued at £6.00 in 2007 today languish at 20p? That’s how an organisation can lose £24 billion, £24 billion! in one year; the biggest corporate loss in history thus wiping out all the profits that organisation has made in over 3 years and destroy the value of hard saved for pension schemes? A money for nothing economy generates only phantom wealth and envy, what we need is an agenda for a new economy. An economy built on community interest, collective interest, the wealth of our own relationships, not monetary relationships. I believe as Peggy Noonan, a columnist for the New York Times does that we are approaching a time where “everything will be local”. I don’t mean that we’ll start building cars locally; what I do mean though is that we’ll start to look at our own resources and naturally question how we can incorporate them in our community for the benefit of our community.
This summer 1,000 youngsters will leave education in search of employment. We’ve given them a great education yet they will struggle to get employment; many will leave the Island, many more will remain at home playing computer games; some will simply go out looking for trouble; the most undervalued, bored, Police time wasters in the world. What could they be doing for our community whilst waiting for that first job opportunity? How much more valued would they feel if they knew that they were adding to the wealth of our community and that their effort was valued. So how you may well ask does all of this relate to you? How can you make a difference? It reminds me of a quote by John F Kennedy which I paraphrase here “ask not what your Island can do for you — ask what you can do for your Island”.
The other day I was with a very frustrated senior civil servant talking about the latest States strategic report and he said to me – “why is it the first thing people turn to when there is a problem is the State?” That’s a very good question, we don’t want a nanny state, yet we expect Government to solve our economy – supply the magic pill; yet in reality the economy, society, community is a problem for all of us to solve not just a handful of elected officials.
As I look around this room today, how much collective knowledge and wisdom is there stored in your heads? Real wealth not phantom wealth; ask yourself what am I doing with that resource my personal wealth of knowledge and wisdom to help my community? The problem is that so many people simply don’t appreciate the wealth of knowledge and experience that they possess – As an example a couple of weeks ago I stood next to a retired farmer as we watched half a dozen tractors from temps passé plough a small field. As I stood there chatting I realised just how much knowledge this man had to do with local food production; surely this knowledge can’t simply go with him to the grave? What if we were no longer able to cost effectively import food? Oil after all isn’t going to be around forever; where will we look for the knowledge that has been passed down to previous generations and stopped at ours because we now rely on someone else to grow our food?
Your generation still retains this knowledge – you owe it to the next generation to ensure that that knowledge is not lost whatever it is. Isn’t it time that Jersey had its own Wikipedia – an equivalent to that world famous on-line encyclopaedia?
We’re living in a fast changing society; a society whose changing demographics will mean that in the not too dim and distant future those in work will be significantly outnumbered by those who have retired. We have already reached the point where the number of people over the age of 60 outnumbers those under the age of 16. That has huge economic implications if we measure things in purely monetary terms, but it is also a huge opportunity to create the real wealth of which I have spoken. The wealth of community; thinking up better ways to harness the energy of our society for the benefit of all. What opportunities do you think that you could suggest; how could this be brought together in a new community manifesto? We urgently need diversity in our economy – diversity will create opportunity for our young people; but the ideas for what exactly that diversity is, or looks like comes from all of us. We all have a part to play. But the reality right now is summed up by the building of a new incinerator. Nothing highlights for me more the total bankruptcy of ideas that currently pervades society than the building of this monstrous new £106 million incinerator. How any sustainable society can think that burning more waste than ever before is the way to make that paradigm shift is completely beyond me. But how many people realistically took part in the debate; a tiny percentage, the rest just shrugged their shoulders; lost in the concerns of a me first society rather than the interests of our wider community. Ultimately we get what we deserve. We all need to re-engage; re-organise and realise that real wealth comes from inside and that we each have a part to play in the agenda for a new economy.

Jura's new helping hand website

Jura I'm pleased to say have started to recognise that when you're selling a premium product like theirs it's not just about selling a box. As a result those of us with "bricks and mortar" outlets are asked to provide trained staff and the possibility of demonstrating their machines prior to purchase. At last someone has realised that it's the after sales service that matters as much as the sale of a machine.

Jura have therefore recently set up a new website that I believe is helpful in a) locating your nearest dealership, and b) gives some tips as to how to get more out of your cup of coffee. The link is www.juradealers.co.uk
Have fun!

La Pavoni - Eurobar series - group head issue

A customer came into our shop today who had a problem with their machine when he used a pod. Despite the flow of water appearing to be fine out of the group head, he was finding that when he used a pod, water pours out from around the top of the group handle despite it being properly located.

Now for those of you who know this machine, the group handle on this machine is in my opinion overly complicated. It's virtually impossible to pull apart and for most people who have tried, it has usually resulted in a new group handle being required. When they work (which is most of the time) they do a great job, but I digress!

In my opinion the issue here is one of a warn group head seal. Water will always try to find the easiest way out of the group head particularly when it is under 8 - 10 bar pressure. Any hint of weakness in the seal and you'll have water everywhere.

Again as is the the wont of La Pavoni changing the seal is anything but easy and will require the use of a qualified engineer, however it's perfectly possible, will put you back at most Sterling 50 pounds (labour and parts), and you should end up with a perfectly functional machine.

I will just qualify the above commentary with one caveat - I have assumed that the grind of the coffee being used is correct. To test this point, have your local coffee merchant change the grind setting the next time you purchase your espresso coffee to a coarser grind. If everything functions properly, your coffee merchant owes you a free pack of coffee!

Colombia coffee safari January 2009

I have just returned from Colombia where I and a group of independent roasters visited a variety of coffee farms from independent farms to co-ops both Fair Trade and Rain Forest Alliance certified. What an amazing country in terms of variety of landscapes, the climate and of course the people.

Like many people I went with a little trepidation as so much has been reported in the world press on the activities of those who grow illegal crops and FARC guerillas. Whilst everything isn't perfect, the country is a far safer and more stable place even than it was just 5 years ago.

This stability has led to a thriving economy based around coal, palm oil, flowers and coffee. Quite a range of diverse products.

Colombia is the third largest coffee growing country in the world after Brazil and Vietnam. This year though the crop has struggled due to unpresidented amounts of rain. Usually there is a dry and wet season, however the dry season has failed to materialise in recent times and as a result the crop will be down around 1 million bags this year. This is putting huge pressure on the price, with the interenal differential currently around 25c per pound ahead of the New York c market.

This is in turn causing issues for certified organic farmers and Fair Trade certified co-ops. The premiums required by these growers is such that it is making them uncompetitive in world markets. As recently as November 2008 one organic farmer has abandoned their organic certification as the costs are proving to be overwhelming in current market conditions.

We also heard from one Fair Trade certified group who are unable to sell all of their coffee as Fair Trade certified as there is insufficient demand. The result is that they are having to sell a significant proportion of their crop on the open market whilst still paying the Fair trade certifiers, but are unable to gain the social premium. Clearly questions need to be asked of the the Fair Trade programme as it is currently structured.

The Colombian coffee federation (FNC) also came in for some stick as despite the fact that they take 6c on ever pound of coffee produced, their distribution of these funds to help all coffee farmers is to say the least uneven. The FNC also appear to be competing against other private organisations when it comes to buying coffee from the farmers which seems quite extrardinary. Another organisation that is in need of major reform.

All in all it was an incredibly enlightening trip. They always say that when you travel you come back a changed person. I certainly feel that to be the case as I reflect on this trip.

As I unpack my pictures and video footage I hope to share more of what I have learned on this trip with you. In the mean time a big thank-you to those who made this such an amazing trip.