“The past is passed, the present is paused and the future will be well played.” — Srinivas Mishra
mycuppa August 2020 Newsletter
Firstly, we wanted to keep our customers updated with the developing situation in Melbourne.
Our business has no changes or impacts from the recently announced Stage 4 restrictions in Melbourne, and our mycuppa facility will continue to operate throughout the lockdown period.
We are securely isolated, with most products freshly created daily.
There is a physical barrier and special loading zones for the handover of our freight cargo each afternoon to the providers. It removes the need for our staff to be in close contact, proving that our COVID-19 safe plan continues to perform well.
We also have good supplies and resources to keep running at total capacity for the entire duration of the Stage 4 period and beyond.
Some shipments from origin are experiencing delays, but we have contingencies available.
Two weeks ago was the highest ever parcel volumes on record for AusPost in Victoria. Freight has continued to arrive within reasonable timeframes recently, and we think that's a real positive considering the safety precautions.
Of course, that may slow down in the coming weeks with the new announcements of closures to many retail stores, as you can expect increased parcel volumes as merchants pivot to online-only offerings.
We continue to process many orders each day - almost all the coffee we roast in the morning will be gone by the afternoon - it's truly astonishing to see the speed of our supply chain. In the fog of battle, when pushing hard, we sometimes forget this speed is unmatched mainly elsewhere.
I've ordered stuff from some of Australia's most prominent online specialists recently, and they have sat on the orders for over 12 days before they even started shipping the item from their warehouses, even though it was supposedly in stock.
Yes, I'm looking at you, Dell and Officeworks - utterly shocking customer experiences.
Not only are we dealing with a lot more orders each day, but we are also seeing order sizes increase, in many cases almost doubling, so the pre-COVID average for a household was around 2.5kg per order, now sitting closer to 5kg.
Do that 200+ times a day, and it's quite a lot of coffee, packing, grinding, cartons, labels, tape and human effort, especially as it's all a-la-carte and assembled individually from scratch each day.
The last few weeks, in particular, have been a step up closer to the crazy late March/early April panic-buying period - it's undoubtedly stretching us, primarily due to the abnormally high rate of freshly ground orders that continue slow us down (grinding pushes us to the wall).
Still, otherwise, we are rightfully proud of the incredible speed at which freshly roasted coffee is being sent out the door for you to enjoy at home.
To give you some insight, since the pandemic erupted in Australia during the middle of March, we have added an extra 4,700 customers to our mycuppa subscriber list - that's not just new customers, but new customers that wish to hear from us by intentionally subscribing - the total new customer count is quite a bit higher as not everyone wants to be a subscriber.
Whilst that number might sound small in comparison to Australia's population, it's kind of large for a single, niche product segment like specialty coffee, and it's on top of the existing list that has grown over the last decade - so thank you for continuing to support our business.
Of course, it's always pleasing to hear positive feedback from new customers expressing their joy at discovering unique coffee experiences during the COVID restrictions.
Many have commented that if it had not been for the lockdown, they might never have found us, as their coffee rituals were more centred around the workplace than at home.
This month, we see a return of our popular Secret Label program, and we have a beautiful blend with a fascinating complexity of caramel, toffee, milk chocolate, almond nougat, berries with a silky smooth body and stewed fruit sweetness (Geez, that's a mouthful in itself).
Roaster's Rant is back, but he's not going on any rampage - as there's been far too much of that everywhere since COVID, so it's a little story about something pleasant and why this time of year is particular for coffee roasters all over the world - just like Xmas.
Finally, we have our 4th generation Nespresso-compatible capsule ready and available - replete with a compostable base. Read our story on why this change is essential and how the bio-packaging brigade continues pulling the wool over some consumers' eyes.
This month's big news is a long-awaited release of our 4th generation Nespresso capsule using a compostable base.
It has been a journey as we wanted to ensure the many issues with bio-packaging materials were sufficiently stable and mature to avoid risks for us and our customers.
The facts are that bio resins used to create environmentally friendly capsule carriers still need much improvement.
Mostly, they leach the critical and essential volatiles - incapable of protecting 100% against oxygen ingress, albeit at relatively low rates, but the evidence is indisputable - when you have any leaching that will result in degrading levels of preserved qualities.
Unfortunately, the full story on "environmentally friendly packaging" is rarely communicated by retailers as they hide or obscure the facts.
The narrative needs to include details about how the quality inside of the capsule has already deteriorated and will continue to deteriorate as long as the capsule is unprotected.
Why would they provide full disclosure when it might discourage some customers?
I have been somewhat surprised and disappointed to read customer reviews on the websites of some fast "capsule marketers" when their customers are commenting on the excitement of actually smelling the aroma from the capsules in the carton they were shipped and mistakenly believing it "must be fresh" - well, it sort of half is and half isn't.
For coffee beans or ground with the special 1-way valve packaging, that's a normal reaction to detect aromatics from outside the packaging via the standard de-gas of freshly roasted coffees - it's a reliable way of testing freshness for coffee beans and ground.
However, detecting intense aromatics in capsules is not normal. The entire point of a portion control product is to trap or suspend the volatiles inside the packaging as it has already been ground and is at risk of rapid oxidization.
When aromatics leach outside the capsule, some of the active, volatile compounds essential for great coffee have already escaped or are escaping right under your nose - to borrow the pun. This leaching is via the bio-resins.
In addition to the leaching, some of these environmentally beneficial coffee capsule packaging suffer from alarmingly low melt points, way down to a scary 85 C, which means consumers can easily risk having the capsule damage their equipment if they leave it in the machine for too long - which can and does happen by accident.
When we say too long, it's not what you think.
A few minutes can distort certain bio capsules, causing the capsule to jam inside the machine.
There's a good reason Nespresso originally designed and engineered the aluminium capsule. Critically, the aluminium preserves volatile compounds in roasted coffee by helping retain those compounds for an unknown lifecycle. It could run for months to years until the user consumes that capsule. But we all know the negative carbon footprint of aluminium, and the promoted recycling campaign needs to have higher adoption rates.
Our new capsule base has the highest melt point available from the bio-resins, and this carrier is fully compostable, just like the ground coffee inside it, so we are happy with the outcome.
It also has the best oxygen barrier.
However, the lid materials continue to prove challenging and many retailers are just ignoring the issues and selling products that are not adequately preserving qualities - which comes as no surprise - keep it secret and don't let the consumers know.
The specially designed compostable lid materials (our tests involved products engineered in Italy) need to satisfy the composting requirement but also provide a barrier to protect against oxygen ingress and, at the same time, allow proper penetration during the brew cycle from the myriad of different machine types with varying capabilities.
The testing did not go well this time, and we have reverted to a well-known and trusted performance of the traditional foil lid for security and to reduce risks of failures. Surprisingly, the top is the most critical area of the entire capsule.
Removing the thin foil lid is straightforward and significantly lowers the volume of waste. The small foil lid is placed into the recycling refuse.
We have also chosen to provide a sound, proven, re-sealable outer barrier as secondary protection so that your capsules arrive in the best possible quality, compared to many other capsule sellers that ignore this critical function by shipping in cheap paper or cardboard that offers zero protection - look at those supermarket offerings, not only is the coffee inside the capsules terrible, so is the protection !.
And finally, it's all about the coffee.
Almost all of the capsules on the market are produced with alarming high doses of robusta coffee to add a so-called mythical level of "strength".
However, a point often lost on most consumers is that Robusta is grown at far lower altitudes, so it's drowned in pesticides and chemicals to keep up the yields and fight off pests that attack common altitude crops.
Robusta is optional in a coffee capsule. Using Robusta is a lazy, unskilled and cheap-focused solution for providing an imaginary "bite" in the coffee.
We don't like or need Robusta. Robusta only drags down the cup flavours. Nobody enjoys the tastes of woody, tar, or rubber flavours. That's solely Robusta's claim to fame.
A skilled roaster can work magic with quality arabicas - fine acidity, sweet flavours and greater cup clarity.
In a few months, we hope to have our 5th generation capsule released - setting a new benchmark for quality in the cup, super-freshness, variety and value - all the same principles we pioneered with premium single-origin coffees over 12 years ago.
Nature's Gift
The period from July through to September is typically the busiest time of the year for coffee roasters, with many of our new season harvests arriving from origin.
I won't lie; we are just like excited children on Xmas Eve, impatiently waiting to tear open the wrappings on our presents.
Yes, playing with fresh, vibrant coffee lots is genuinely exhilarating as we discover what's different and then try to understand what's changed from last season.
We also enjoy working out which of these new lots are our standout favourites to cut into Grand-cru or secret label categories.
This year, we are more excited and anxious than at any time I can recall in the past decade. It could be a symptom of our monotonous and somewhat lockdown restrictions removing the joys of our freedom or the epic volumes of the last four months that wiped out so many extra tons of our holdings, whatever it is.
We are excited to unleash these new lots like a sprinter hunched over starting blocks waiting to explode on the gun.
New coffees are like a new lover - everything blurs into a dizzying array of perfection as you sip on a brew with rose-coloured glasses.
Because it's new, it must be good or better. Isn't that the foolish logic?
Raw or green coffee deteriorates as it ages but does so at dramatically different rates from roasted coffees.
For example, fresh roasted coffee has an arbitrary peak of around 2 - 3 weeks, or a bit longer during winter or cool climates. In contrast, green coffee is allegedly capable of lasting three years, but we have yet to learn about that because we can't get ours to last even 12 months as it flies out the door so fast.
Besides, who wants to hold onto something for three years when fresh coffee lands in Australia every month?
We implement some of the most advanced storage practices for raw green coffee in Australia, and it's no secret that we have been doing these extra measures for more than 12 years long before the rest of the coffee industry even knew about this critical practice of preserving quality.
Almost every coffee company bangs on about sourcing excellent quality, but it's also about how you look after the coffee that makes an actual difference in the result. Beyond the " best " claims, many often fail to back it up across the entire life cycle.
By now, you will notice that some of our coffees will be different or changing. Those changes flow through to about 85% of our portfolio, including all our blends.
Our blends use the same single-origin coffee we sell daily in our store. Some coffees may undergo more than one change as we transition into new lots over a few months.
Some of the new lots have been exceptionally well received and producing everything we had hoped for - as an example, the new Costa Rica Jaguar is just divine and has pleasingly returned to top form.
Ironically, we expect more each year from our coffees - more prominent flavours, better sweetness, and increased body, so we must improve the overall experience.
Of course, this is our philosophy when sourcing coffees, but let me say it's not easy - we are indeed dealing with an agricultural product that, in some seasons, may not be the best available due to less-than-optimal growing conditions.
For example, Ethiopia is notorious for having higher volatility ranges regarding differences between seasonal goods versus extraordinary.
We are enjoying many new lots and can't wait to release these beautiful coffees.
